Innuos Music Servers allow you to easily and quickly integrate on your new or current Roon system. They provide the option for the user to install Roon’s software in order to browse, manage and play music. Roon server integration when enabled will replace the native Sense Music Library and Music Player functions so these will be automatically disabled. The following 3 options are provided in terms of integration:
- Roon Core – Your Innuos Server will function as a dedicated Roon Core, efficiently managing your music library and handling all aspects of audio playback. It streams music to both connected DACs and other Roon endpoints on your network. This setup is available for users with Innuos ZEN (MkII, Mk3, Next-Gen) series or Statement systems; it does not apply to Pulse series users. Please note that while music library management, playback, and audio settings through the Sense app are disabled, features such as disc ripping, imports, and backups remain accessible.
- Roon Bridge – This mode is designed for users who already have an existing Roon Core. It allows you to use your Innuos system as an endpoint, seamlessly integrating within your Roon setup.
- Roon with Innuos Player (Experimental) – This mode operates similarly to the standard Roon Core system mode, where your Innuos Server operates as a Roon Core; however, it utilises Squeezelite as the music player instead of Roon’s music player. Please note that this is an experimental mode provided as-is, and its performance is not guaranteed to be reliable.
This Experimental Mode may have occasional dropouts. It uses Roon’s own Squeezebox integration which supports audio only up to 24bit/192kHz PCM and DSD64 therefore it is limited by it and we cannot predict any future developments or further improvements.
Innuos Servers hardware specifications do not meet recommendations provided by Roon – you can check them here – especially with regards to CPU. Our experience of integrating Roon since 2016 has shown us that the main constraint is if you want to upsample music files to DSD (converting PCM files to DSD on the fly requires a lot of CPU power) or if you want to provide DSP to more than 4-5 endpoints. Innuos philosophy has been the use of Low-Power CPUs that pollute as little as possible and allow for higher quality linear power supplies. These have brought, in our view, better results than upsampling to DSD or running a separate Roon Core Server. However, if you do plan to use those features then we recommend not to use the Innuos Music Server as a Roon Core and to use a different Roon Core instead.