Roon + Kii 3s - subscription allowed to lapse

After the first flush of excitement about the Roon product, with its relatively nice interface, browsing capability and nicely serendipitous random feature, I realised it requires the Roon server device to be up and running for stuff to play. The RoonBridge is not a renderer like the Rune software, it's more like a passive player, in that the Roon Server sends it the bits to be played, rather than it autonomously fetching them. This is a PitA, especially if one doesn't have a handy box to run Roon Server on - it's running on my laptop which can be up, down, sideways, or 1000 miles away. RS doesn't run on my RPi3, although to be fair it would run on an Intel Linux box, were I to be arsed to get one.

So when Roon told me my free sub would expire on 16 March, I wasn't too fussed. Not at $500 lifetime, or $119/year, for something that requires more effort to get running. I quite like the smarter Rune/Volumio devices, they can source any standard format, and they work with Tidal and various uPnP Control applications. Tough luck Roon.

Roon + Kii 3s! Who knew...

When the Kiis arrived they came with a free 6 month subscription to Roon, the premium priced (like - seriously!! $500 lifetime subscription!!!) media management and player software system. I was disappointed to discover that Roon Server only runs on Intel really, and then Windows, OS X or Linux. I really wanted it to run on my RPi 3 server, because that means I don't have to spend any more money.

I did sign up for the free sub though, why not?? The Server and Client is installed on my MacBook Pro, and I really like the interface, the Tidal link, and the great support for browsing and info. It was Roon that the dealer used when I first met the Kiis, ran great on his Mac Mini and iPad. Since that initial install, I've done nothing with it, largely because there didn't seem one any way way to get it to play on my RPi and thus Kiis, other than Airplay from the MacBook (gag!).

And then... (duh!) it turns out that RoonLabs have created the Roon Bridge, which is a bit of software that supports the Roon RAAT protocol, runs on various platforms, and feeds the bits to whatever audio interface is connected. Including ARM7... like an RPi 3!

It took me a few minutes to download the self-installing shell script onto my RPi 3 in the front room, running Rune, run it, and there you are! Roon Server recognises the RPi outputs in total, so there are four:

• The standard audio output
• HDMI (interesting!!)
• IQAudio PiDAC+ (connected via the GPIO pins)
• Kii Control via the USB!!

And now I'm playing with Roon, Kiis and the LXMinis (connected via IQAudio DAC). Excellent!