Can you run any player on Roon Rock or do you have to subscribe to Roon to use this OS?
Roon ROCK is, as the name implies, Roon only. Roon ROCK is entirely free and can be installed on almost any system.
see also https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/articles/roon-optimized-core-kit
Thank you @Sailor .
I knew it was free, but was not sure if it was restricted only to Roon.
And thank you for the feedback about this trial.
You’re welcome!
Roon ROCK is indeed an interesting system. It seems to be an OS unrelated to any other. The main advantage is that you run it headlessly. What I hear from the Roon community, it is rock solid (as the name implies 
). One is spared from those bewildering Mac OS updates that might have an influence on your player software. But ROCK has full Roon functionality and on my i5 it is lightning fast!
So far, I am undecided between AS and Roon. Both have their sonic merits. Time will tell!
It’s just a stripped down Linux with the Roon software running on it.
Roon Rock is basically a cut-down Linux designed to run as a dedicated Roon server on defined versions of Intel NUC hardware. In this configuration it is indeed pretty much rock solid.
It is possible to run it on some other X86 hardware configurations - known as a Mock - but with no guarantee of success and no support.
I understand that Rock has its merits. But the fact that it is restricted to Roon is an inconvenient, because you can not play with it additional players that you may have or get in the future.
If you’re looking for a headless server, have a look at Daphile (it’s free, as in beer):
https://www.daphile.com/#features
Of course it can’t match Roon in functionality and UI polish, but it’s a good alternative for somebody looking for a dedicated headless solution.
I did try Daphile, but sonically it’s not on par with AS/Roon, at least that was my impression. But it is indeed a cute player!
For local USB playback it’s close enough and it’s free.
I’ll get information for you from friends who are very demanding on sound quality, and who use
other solutions.
Even if you subscribe to Roon, I think that it’s a pity to lock yourself on a solution that is restricted to Roon.
Sorry its been said above …
Roon ROCK is a Linux distro stripped specifically for use with Roon . Its close to what Roon use internally for their Nucleus server.
It is pointless using it for anything else but Roon’s Core as its been stripped to do just that task.
So the answer is yes to use ROCK you need a Roon subscription
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ROCK is really designed to use with a NUC , if you don’t use Roon later you can install a Windows OS or I assume Linux and re-use the NUC
I very well see the argument of being flexible. For my part, at one time I got annoyed by switching from player to player just to squeeze out the last tiny bit of (presumed) sonic improvement.
A long time ago, I started out with a really closed system: I had an Aurender N100H player. It sounded quite good but and its UI was quite refined. It was the time when those computer players took over: the first raving reports of a ‘magic’ new player called Roon started to appear. Naturally, I was attracted to trying Roon, but as Aurender was/is a very much closed system, it wasn’t possible within my set up.
So I went ahead and bought a license for Roon, and you guess, also for Audirvana, that both ran on my Mac. It was interesting to realise that a software costing, I don’t know, hundred bucks, was on par with what I had with this 3000 Euro Aurender player! That was a real surprise.
Of course, the Aurender is long gone, but I went ahead and tried so many other players, always on the search for THE best sound quality. Which, of course, doesn’t exist. Each player has its own advantages/disadvantages. But in the end it became really tiring to compare all these players and look for the deciding sonic trait. I didn’t listen anymore, I only compared certain tracks between the various players. Till I really decided, that’s enough, I will never find the player that locks me in for the rest of my life! I don’t say it’s impossible to find the all deciding player, as I know you prefer your Russian player that seems to be doing the job for you, and that’s good!
Now, it is between AS and Roon. So far, I tend to turn down Roon due to its sonic traits. But now, having a silent computer (at least I think so) running a minimalistic system, Roon sounds really, really good. And if I find out that I like its sound just as much as AS’s, then I’ll stick to Roon. It’s UI is just superb! But till then, it takes some listening …
I understood that you can install another OS instead of Rock. But if you use Rock, and are restricted to Roon as a result, you are unable to run on the NUC other players. You can’t use it, for instance, to try AS again, or to run JRiver or whatever other player that you have…
I understand very well your argument.
Just don’t think that I pass my life in trying players. I did it quite intensively in the last two months, because we were trying AS. Now I’m also a bit tired of it, and I just listen to music.
I use Neutron as the main player on my PC and my phone.
But on Mac, which is my main playback system, I use HQPlayer.
If (and when) I go to a NUC I will install Windows rather than ROCK specifically for that reason, I use JRiver for video and some audio.
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That’s not s limitation. If you’re installing the Roon Rock it’s because you’re committing to Roon.
If you want to experiment with different players run a general purpose OS.
That’s exactly what I was arguing. I told him that even if he subscribes to Roon instead of AS, which is a commitment, it’s good to have the possibility to run other players.
It’s a built from the ground up linux; not based on any other distro.