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Do you need a Roon Ready device to stream Roon?

I've been considering a Hegel integrated, but I want Roon before the unknown day comes they'll be Roon Ready. Can I feed USB from a Roon Nucleus to stream Roon in a Hegel, or any USB dac for that matter? Yes, I've seen the threads in Roon Labs sort of hinting at this and a rep from Roon said that you can stream Roon via USB into Hegel integrated amps.............but the language they use doesn't make me 100% confident this is true. Also, due to the condescending nature of the Hegel dealer in my area, I'd prefer to not to inquire or have them demo in their store. Thanks in advance for your help. 
ggecas2
mspot
115 posts
 
As others have said, it is no problem to connect Nucleus to any DAC on USB. The requirement of Roon Ready is for DACs that connect on a network such as WiFi or Ethernet. You can connect to the Hegel with USB, but not over WiFi until it is certified as Roon Ready.
You can stream a streaming service (Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, etc.) using Roon as your interface with the service
Only Tidal and Qobuz are supported (not Spotify, Apple, Amazon or others).
yyzsantabarbara
4,895 posts
 
My Matrix Audio Mini-i 3 Pro DAC was not ROON READY on the day I bought it (Black Friday). So the only way to stream was either through AirPlay2 or my Sonore microRendu. 

Maybe 2 weeks ago they got ROON READY certification and I was able to enable the Ethernet streaming on the DAC. Prior to that I got a message saying the device could not be enabled because it had not passed ROON READY certification.

So now I can stream from ROON 3 ways (this DAC offers even more options). This DAC also has album art on the display and only AirPlay2 and the new Ethernet streaming support that.
ggecas2 OP
14 posts
 
Situation: Connecting Ethernet to Nucleus Ethernet input and connecting ethernet to Roon Ready endpoint. For Roon Ready devices that do not have WiFi, regarding this situation outlined, I'm having trouble comprehending how they receive the data if feed ethernet from your router, yet the Nucleus is not sending information via a hardlined output. How does a hard-lined Roon Ready device such as a Lumin D2 (No Wifi, unless you through on your own adapter, which I would prefer not to do) receive information from a Core device that isn't directly feeding the hard-lined ethernet endpoint? 
hudsonhawk
137 posts
 
I’m not sure I fully understand your question, but both the Roon Ready device and the Nucleus would need to be connected to ethernet on the same router (or at least the same network) to see each other.
ggecas2 OP
14 posts
 
I've done this with former end points, I'm just not sure how the hardwired device is receiving data from the Nucleus that isn't feed from the Nucleus directly nor am I understanding how a Roon Ready device digests RAAT from the Nucleus. Or how RAAT works in general. My silly brain thinks that RAAT would need some hardware to receive RAAT, but that doesn't make sense since many endpoints become Roon certified via firmware updates. I'm ignorant as hell.
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