Auralic Mini and Roon incompatibilty and replacing the Mini

[Nick B]

 I've been very happy with my Mini and its dedicated power supply. I use the Mini as a streamer into my Antelope dac, but do have the option to use the Mini's dac and play with DSD or other sampling rates. The only quibble is that the Mini will never be Roon ready per Auralic's CEO.

I'm not locked into getting Roon, but I am curious about other devices that could replace the Mini and work with Roon. Must be wireless and either have onboard storage or be capable of accepting an external harddrive. Don't want to get into computer audio and Ethernet cables.
Opinions appreciated

[richidoo]

Sorry to hear about the Aries Mini.

Ruin recommends this NAS for Core:
https://www.qnap.com/en/product/model.php?II=158
The get Auralic Aries for player, and USB out to Zodiac.

The hotrod NAS is a PC in disguise, so maybe, longshot, it can run core and player and load the Zodiac driver so you can plug DAC into NAS usb port? Keep dreaming?

http://kb.roonlabs.com/Roon_Server_on_NAS
http://www.audiostream.com/content/roon-12-meet-core-and-more
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2016/06/roon-core-lands-on-synology-and-qnap-nas-devices/
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2016/06/reference-grade-roon-with-the-antipodes-dx-gen-2/
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/does-your-roon-core-system-really-need-alot-resources-while-streaming-audio-lets-compare-28687/

[richidoo]

Here's a little more info, showing how to actually do it with a powerful NAS.

http://blog.rieke.tv/roon-server-on-nas/

The recommended NAS OS's are both linux, so no driver needed for USB DAC, just plug it in.

Seems like you don't have to fiddle with Linux setup, you are just loading the Roon software file into the NAS memory using their control interface.

[Nick B]

Thanks, much Rich. I'll think about the NAS setup. Too bad there isn't a nice non-computer device like the Mini with excellent sq that I could use.
First priority now is getting my phono setup working again

[richidoo]

Roon Core is intended for a PC-level CPU. These powerful NAS have PC inside.

Powerful NAS will have a fan and be loud with disks running, so it's not good for connecting the DAC directly, even though they say it will work. Maybe with very long USB cable? That's where microRendu or Aries comes in, to be a silent Roon player for the audio room with fancy iPad GUI, etc. But it doesn't have to do the database crunching like the Core part.

[Nick B]

Hi Rich,
That kind of setup might work for me. I'd much rather operate via an iPad than a laptop. The iPeng for Squeezebox and Auralic's DS Lightning worked fine in that regard. I sent an email to Sonore and am waiting to hear back.
Nick
PS I don't miss the Squeezebox at all 😱