I have written before about my love for Roon, the music management and streaming platform, but for those who don’t recall a little recap is probably in order. The first thing to recognise is that the problem with most streaming tools is that they have poor metadata and file-handling support. It isn’t unusual for items to be mis-tagged, have the wrong artwork and be a pain to locate. This can be even worse when some streaming server platforms don’t handle items such as the Composer tag correctly. Worse still, integrating an online streaming service such as Qobuz or Tidal into a local database of ripped material can be an exercise in utter futility.
That’s where Roon comes in. It has a server component (Roon Core), apps to control the system and endpoints. An endpoint is usually a device that runs special Roon code. The server can talk directly to semi-intelligent devices such as Apple Play devices, but far prefers Roon endpoints.
There are two good reasons for this. First, it allows a full end-to-end solution with all of the capabilities properly implemented. And second, the Roon Advanced Audio Transport (RAAT) protocol that runs over the network between the server and endpoints has an embedded clock within it. This allows you to stream the same song to multiple endpoints simultaneously, and to ensure that they stay in sync. If you’re playing your favourite Abba track in the kitchen, but also want it playing in the dining room, then it’s quite annoying if the two playing endpoints slowly drift apart in time. RAAT
