 In Roon Rock, Roon Core voor de Intel Nock Part 1 en 2, ik heb je hoe je een Intel Nock computer voor de gebruik van Roon Rock Music Server software hebt gegeven. Nu zijn we klaar om te zien hoe deze kleine wonder kan worden gebruikt. Roon is de meest versetileerd en de enige single-minded music server software en weet het niet. De software is volledig transparent voor audio en dus potentieel is het om de hoogste kwaliteit audio ervaring te geven. Maar wanneer je deze optimale performance geniet van de configuratie en de hardware gebruikt. De bepaald Intel Nock computer op Roon Rock is eigenlijk een headless server, maar kan ook gebruikt zijn als een speler. Als je een headphone of amplifier meteen naar de Nock en de analoge uitvoering define van de Nock als een endpoint, kan je nu al muziek spelen, maar neem je niet te hoog voor de hoogste kwaliteit. Computers zijn geweldig voor handeling bits, maar de analoge uitvoering is niet daar 40. Je moet een externe device gebruiken om de bits te converteren op de analoge uitvoering en er zijn verschillende manieren om dit te doen. Laten we beginnen met het simpelste. Zoals zei je dat je niet wilt hebben de computer de digitale aan analoge uitvoering. Computers zijn notorisch moeilijk en dat zal de analoge hoogste informatie verbeteren, wanneer dat is waar de bepaalde details zijn gehouden. Vooral de klok die nodig is om de samples op tijd voor de convergenis te geven, kan zijn en bijna altijd wordt gestorben door de interferie van andere kloksignalen in de computer. Dat niet alleen affecteert de da-convergenis, maar ook digitale uitvoers. SPDIF-signalen hebben de kloksignal geëmbedd en een externe da-converter zal moeten slaven op deze klok. Daardoor zal de SPDIF-output op een slechte kwaliteit geven. In general de beste manier om een da-converter op een normaal computer te connecten is om een moderne versie van USB audio te gebruiken. Dit is een USB 2-connectie met een asynchronous protocol en is gebruikt door alle moderne da-converters. Abreviëte DAC. De computer over USB voor audio bits totdat het buffer is voel. Het maakt de computer te stoppen om te senden. In het meantime startt het converteren van de bits op tijd van een lokale klokoslator voor analoge audio. Als het buffer begint te ontdekken, senden de DAC een request voor meer bits en zo. De klokoslator in de DAC speelt een heel belangrijk rol. Een poeie klok zal altijd resulteren in hoge audio kwaliteit. Helaas is een goede klok niet een garantie voor goede kwaliteit sinds andere factoren aan het spelen. Zoals de DA-conversie, de power supply en de PCB-design. En zelfs de analoge output stage kan worden van geweldig influentie. Een goede DAC is een DAC dat is juist gebruikt van kwaliteit componenten. Zie mijn reviews om je pick te maken. Althans, als je de Intel NUC Roon ROG computer wilt worden dichter de stereo, een moderne DAC geconnected over USB zal de beste bezoek zijn. Alleen als je een AV receiver wilt gebruiken dat heeft HDMI inputten, kan je de NUC connecten met de receiver met HDMI. Althans, audio wordt transporteerd tussen een video signal. Goede AV receivers bevinden de signal te straat. En zo offert een goede kwaliteit kwaliteit. Dus we hebben nu twee scenario's. De Intel NUC running Roon ROG connected over A-sync USB naar een DAC. Of de Intel NUC running Roon ROG connected over HDMI tot een AV receiver. In beide cases kan er een ruimte zijn voor de probleem. Weer dat de spelen op de kwaliteit van je stereo zijn, de manier waar het op is en wanneer je een kritische luister bent. Zoals ik hier doe, heb ik de audio kwaliteit in mijn set 1 geproven. Dat betekent automatisch niet dat ze in je setup werken. Maar een indicatie waar het werkt en waar het niet werkt is wel een beetje moeilijk, als niet moeilijk. Ik kan je alleen betekenen dat je de verschil over een set van 50 euro PC-speakers niet kan horen. De probleemers moeten allemaal met de hoogte leren, zodat het niet de low-level informatie maakt. Let's start with the power supply that came with the Intel NUC computer. This is a so called switching mode power supply as MPS abbreviated. It works by switching a voltage at very high frequency, about the same class D amp or X. The advantages are clear, low component cost and very high efficiency. The disadvantage for audio is that the switching frequency might or almost always will pollute the power feed. This causes the audio signal to be masked to a certain degree. A DAC is in fact a digital controlled tap, like a beer tap, where the current is like the beer. Feed a beer tap with slim beer and you get a very poor tasting beer. Feed a DAC with a polluted voltage and it will produce a poor sound. So if you go for quality and you want to connect the DAC directly to the NUC, consider a high quality power supply. This will often be the so called linear power supply, an old fashioned transformer with electronics. It is possible to design a switching mode power supply that is just as silent, but that is often more costly than a linear design. A decent power supply will set you back around 100 euros. A very good power supply will be more in the region of 300 to 400. Please check if the power supply is able to deliver enough wattage for your configuration by finding out the so called processor TDP in watts and adding 5 watts for SSDs, 6,5 watts for a 2,5 inch hard disk, 6 for the sound card and 3 watts for a USB device. My 6th generation i3 with a m.2 SSD and a 2,5 inch pinning drive ran on the SBooster BOTW PMP Eco 18-19 volts, maar de 36 watts might not be sufficient for more powerful systems. If you google for Intel NUC linear power supply, you find more powerful options. Do bear in mind though that all power supplies are equal, but some are more equal than others. We hebben nu een meer of een minder sleer signaal over de USB naar de DAC. Dit kan worden opgemaakt in verschillende manieren. Als het opgemaakt is over de USB, de kwaliteit van de power supply die je gebruikt voor de Intel NUC is nog meer kritiek. Als het opgemaakt is door het zelfde internaal power supply, dan kan je niet veel doen. Maar als je DAC gebruikt van een wallward power supply, chances are it's a poor performing switching mode power supply too. In many cases replacing this power supply by an audio grade power supply does improve the audio quality considerable. You will not use the USB cable that came with the DAC, but use an audio grade cable. I use the audio quest Cinnamon USB. It's affordable and offers good quality. You could try devices to further clean the signal like the audio quest Jitterbug and the old DAC ADQ galvanic separator. See the links in the show notes. There are other practical considerations. If your NUC has a fan inside, you might want to place it so that the sound is dampened while at the same time letting enough cool air flow to it. Also hard disk can be noisy. Another thing to keep in mind. All those problems don't occur when you place the Intel NUC Roon Rock computer in another room and use a device Neo Stereo that receives the audio bits over the network. Roon has developed a very sophisticated protocol especially for this job called Roon Advanced Audio Transport. Rad for short. It doesn't only send audio data to the playback device but also remote control signals including volume. If the playback device supports it, you can have Roon control V of an analog volume control of the playback device. So there is no longer the need to use the DSB power to level all music. Something I dreamed of for years. Currently, most devices don't support this but that's a matter of time. Furthermore, Rad also sends some metadata like track name, album name, artist and cover art. Again, this is not yet beneficiary to most devices. And talking of devices, what are those? The simplest form of Roon Endpoint as Roon calls any device that offers playback over the Roon software is the network audio adapter. You could say it is a USB output that is driven over the network. A Raspberry Pi with a headboard that offers either SPDIF output of contains a DA converter is a network audio adapter. Using the SPDIF output to drive a DAC can offer rather good quality. Headboards, the expansion board standard for the Raspberry Pi containing a DAC offers far lower quality. If you want higher quality devices like the Sonori Micro Rando and the SOTM-SMS-200 offer rather clean USB feeds but you do need a DAC that has a USB input. See the show notes for the links to reviews. There are also quality devices that offer SPDIF and or even I2S feeds. Reviews are in the making. With the exception of the Raspberry Pi solutions, network audio adapters are relatively expensive solutions compared to DACs and DAC-AMS combinations that incorporate a Roon Ready receiver. But they might be a better solution if you already have a quality DAC of want a free choice of DAC. Do realize that when the power supply of the DAC and the network audio adapter are poor quality switching mode power supplies these will again reduce the audio quality and should be replaced for audio grade power supplies. Roon Labs developed the Roon Ready standard so that incorporating a Roon Ready function into a device is rather low cost. This means that over time there will be more and more DACs dat have a network interface and Roon Ready support. The potential audio quality when using the Intel NUC Roon Rock server is extremely high as can be concluded from the supporters of the format like Audio Alchemy, Auralic, Brinkman, DCS, Crel, Meridian, MQB, NAD, PS Audio en other high end brands. The advantage of using the network is not only that the server can be placed at great distance but also that the Ethernet protocol like Async USB is asynchronous meaning the clock in the playing device rules. At the low end the blue sound program of streamers are also Roon Ready and thus can be used as Roon Endpoints. And I already mentioned the Raspberry Pi with a headboard containing a DA converter as truly low end solution. Again do realize that when the power supply of the DAC is of poor quality it will again reduce the audio quality and should be replaced for an audio-grade power supply. Many DACs also offer volume control and thus can function as a preamp but some brands announced integrated amps. Belcanto announced the ACI 600 integrated amp that not only is Roon Ready but also MQA certified. At 25.000 dollars it might not be within reach for many maar ELAC has announced the DSA101G that will set you back a mere 599 and offers a 2 x 100 watt batch tracking amp. In between you find several NAD amplifiers that can be made Roon compatible by a blue sound module and the blue sound amp versions must be mentioned too of course. This video is produced in July 2017 and at that moment no serious Roon Ready speakers were on the market and only ELAC has announced that a number of their speakers will become available as active models that will use Wi-Fi to receive Roon Ready signals. But there are many rumors on other brands. This might be the solution that is appreciated by many. You only need to place the knock with a rock somewhere in the house connected to the network while in the living room two active speakers need to be connected to the mains outlets only. Roon Rock is also available for some NASs so why not run it on a NAS? Well, the only reason to do that is to be fashionable. To be able to tell your friends that you have a NAS running. And if that's what you want, that's fine. But do realize that Roon Rock does require at least an Intel i3 processor and that the OS should be running on an SSD drive. Otherwise, Roon will be very slow or even unusable. NASs with those specs are very expensive. Far more expensive than an Intel NUC computer. And don't forget a NAS is essentially nothing else than a computer that runs specific software for sharing volumes. The NUC running rock is in fact also a NAS or even a server but then fully optimized as Roon Music Server. I use an 8 TB USB drive connected to the NUC and have it backed up to a Joboread drive for security. But if you like you can use a normal consumer grade NAS for storage and the NUC running Roon as Music Server. Using the network to separate the server from the audio components might be a very good solution. Then a high quality power supply for the NUC might not provide quality improvements. But like network cables and linear power supplies for switches it might give improvements in high quality setups. Also consider that you can have a mix of qualities in the house. The highest quality for the living or listening room if you're lucky enough. Lower quality for the garage and study and basic quality for the children's room. Don't forget that Roon also works perfectly with Sonos and AirPlay equipment. It will automatically down sample high-rise music for both systems. You can set up an unlimited number of endpoints, combine them in groups and send one of eight separate audio streams to each group. You can also set EQ and other properties per endpoint. And that's all great but the real power of Roon to me is the unsupposed navigation and the metadata. Some say that the $500 for a lifetime subscription is too expensive. And it will be to some. But consider that we have paid lots more for quality CD players and SACD players that offered less quality and now have no longer serviceable laser optics. I know people that have spent more on accessories for this CD player. And if you don't want to spend the money that's fine too. Use whatever you want to use but don't use the NL6101HB project promo code to test Roon free for two months. For I assure you there's no way back. Roon is constantly improving their software and protocols en I will of course keep track of the development. So stay in contact by subscribing to this channel or my newsletter or follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. See the show notes for the links. If you have a question post it below this video but please don't ask me for buying advice. See my About Questions video to find out why. If you like this video please consider supporting the channel through Patreon and see super exclusive videos too. Just one dollar a month will do. The link is in the show notes. And don't forget to tell your friends on the web about this channel. I'm Hans Beekhuyzen. Thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.