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Roon Labs ROCK OS (Read 7301 times)
Lonely Raven
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Roon Labs ROCK OS
06/05/17 at 17:50:45
 

Looks like Roon Labs finally released their ROCK OS - which is a linux based dedicated OS/core that turns an intel NUC into a dedicated audiophile streaming computer.

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/ca-academy/the-definitive-guide-to-roon-op...

I'm going to try and install it on my Lenovo Tiny Form Factor PC - but it sounds like they designed the ROCK OS to work specifically with current Intel NUC computers only.

I'm currently Running Roon Core on the above Mentioned TFF PC under Windows 10, and it seems to run fine. Running it on a dedicated Linux OS sounds much more streamlined though (and possibly sounds better and is more responsive)
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Lonely Raven
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Re: Roon Labs ROCK OS
Reply #1 - 06/05/17 at 18:42:36
 

Well, never mind that worry. This is so easy - I followed the guide linked above, and while on my lunch break, quickly installed Roon ROCK on a TFF PC similar to what I have at home (just no SSD or WiFi like the one I have at home). Seems to work fine!



Looks like I'll be building a dedicated Audiophile Streaming Appliance this week!

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beowulf
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Re: Roon Labs ROCK OS
Reply #2 - 06/10/17 at 08:52:26
 
Is that like a double boot setup that can boot Windows as well?  Probably a stupid question, but can you surf the internet and stream Netflix or any other movie streaming services such as Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc.?  How about movies off a NAS with that as well?
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Lonely Raven
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Re: Roon Labs ROCK OS
Reply #3 - 06/11/17 at 23:29:08
 
No, the whole point of it is to strip out everything and make the PC a dedicated audio streaming appliance. Less BS running = less jitter/noise etc.

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beowulf
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Re: Roon Labs ROCK OS
Reply #4 - 06/12/17 at 09:17:28
 
It's what I thought and my main reason for not using Roon in the first place.  I already have JRiver and it does both music and movies nice enough for me to not want to replace it with another piece of software ...  not to mention that it's fairly inexpensive in comparison to Roon.

But also important to me is that it allows me to have both my music and movie libraries within one location and one piece of software which is convenient.  I also stream a lot of stuff off Amazon Prime since my 2 channel system is also our main movie watching system and Tidal is also running about 10 hours a day around here so I need internet access.  I realize you can use Tidal within Roon and it has better implementation than JRiver does, but the Tidal app is also decent enough for me as well.

Got to be user friendly in my house as my girl has a hard enough time just turning all the equipment on and switching my audio/video and its different sources (TT, PC or Cable) Grin, let alone having to browse through a bunch of different software apps to find movies or music, etc. and more than one PC as an additional Roon only source is just out of the question.

If Roon ever jumps into movies (which is very doubtful) I'm there (though I still wouldn't use the OS portion unless it at least had a browser), but until then JRiver will hold me over. Smiley
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Lonely Raven
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Re: Roon Labs ROCK OS
Reply #5 - 06/15/17 at 05:52:18
 

OK, I finally whipped up a PC with the Roon ROCK software on it. I think it took me longer to find my Curious USB cable than it did to install the Ron ROCK OS and configure it. It instantly recognized both my PS Audio DirectStream and my Teac NT-503 via USB, and knew what resolutions the devices could take - no special drivers or anything required.

This isn't my final Roon ROCK PC as I'm waiting on another small SSD to come back from warranty replacement. Once that comes in, I'm going to tear into this little PC and put faster RAM and SSD hard drive, and see if there is anything else I can do to quiet the little PC down a bit.

So far so good!
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beowulf
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Re: Roon Labs ROCK OS
Reply #6 - 06/15/17 at 07:44:59
 
How do you feel in regards to SSD drives?  They're expensive and you would think they would be far more reliable than a standard HDD (considering there's no moving parts in them), however they've been kind of hit and miss as far as reliability goes.
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Lonely Raven
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Re: Roon Labs ROCK OS
Reply #7 - 06/15/17 at 08:07:45
 

SSD is the way to go, hands down. Assuming you don't need huge amounts of storage space that is...spinning media still is more bang for the buck. But in a few years we're going to look on spinning drives like we do our old glass tube TVs. LOL

Stick with a name brand drive like the Samsung EVO and Samsung Pro line.

Just keep in mind, these Solid State drives are basically a brick of *flash memory*, and flash memory has a finite number of reads and writes before the flash memory is worn out. It's just the nature of the technology.  

Now the better drives, like the Samsungs mentioned above, use clever data allocation to wear the flash bits out evenly, and therefore have a long and consistent life. So they have a 5 year warranty. In that time the little SSD drives of today will seem quaint and you won't care if it fails as you've probably already replaced it.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U/ref...

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