I can only answer some of your questions.

I am using Airplay to stream to my loudspeakers, because you can group different airplay speakers within the Roon app. For grouping Chromecast speakers you need to use the Google Home app, additionally. And I do not like to change apps all the time.

I do not know what threat to use.
Roon labs support by B&O would be really great in my eyes.

A) On one hand I do not know, if it makes sense for B&O. Due to the possibility that license fees have to be paid to Roon Labs and how complicated (= development costs) it is to integrate RAAT (= Streaming protocol of Roon) besides Airplay and Chromecast into the B&O devices.

B) On the other hand brands like Bowers&Wilkins or BlueSound are offering Roon additionally to Airplay.

Would be interesting how B&O thinks about it ?!?

I'm a huge fan of Roon. I use it for over 3 years now and by far it's the best way to interact with your music if you have a huge flac/mp3 collection on your NAS or computer. But also the integration with Tidal and Qobuz works great.

I've always been hoping that the Beosound 1 and 2 would become 'Roon ready' with a software update, thus implementing the RAAT protocol besides airplay and chromecast. Who knows.

I guess the issue will be that only a small part of the B&O target group is interested in Roon.....especially in the costs for subscribtion and the server gear needed.

Since Roon handles Chromecast and AirPlay as an endpoint, you are able to use Roon in a B&O setup now.

What are you missing and what would be the advantages of a build-in RAAT support over the Airplay/Cast as endpoint?

MM

Multi-room timing/delay the same across multiple RAAT-supporting brands, which is something B&O-everywhere customers don't think of.  (I.e. Roon can play to multiple Airplay speakers all in sync, but those will not be in sync with other RAAT or ChromeCast rooms.)  Also RAAT playback starts up much faster than Airplay, again not something B&O customers think about, being accustomed to, for example, lengthy delays between pressing a channel number and the BeoCenter or TV actually switching.  The most significant difference that was/is true with AirPlay but fixed with AirPlay 2, was signal bandwidth limitations.  A more complete answer is at: https://kb.roonlabs.com/RAAT

(Note: the OP's lifetime subscription costs $700 nowadays, not $500.)

Exactly. The ability to use multiple systems with one another.

For example, I have Beolab speakers, but my streamer and pre amp are non B&O. I love the combo, and it uses RAAT. If I would throw a Beosound 1 in the mix (Aka use multi room), in my kitchen for example, I can’t do this through ROON at the moment. ROON plays to 1 ‘system’ at the time. For example all airplay speakers, all RAAT speakers, etc. You can’t combine systems in ROON if you want to listen to the same music (different music in different rooms/systems will work though).

Now you could argue that it’s ROON that need to change, not B&O that needs to add RAAT to their speakers. But I don’t know if ROON can, from a technical point of view I mean.

But my argument is more that, from a music lover point of view, ROON has simply the best user experience. No B&O interface, or streaming service, is as nice as ROON. So, if you can’t beat them, join them. It might also save costs in the R&D department of B&O. Something they could use right now?

I think B&O customers are willing to pay the $700 price (or yearly subscription, also possible) if they see what it does. I mean, if you spent $15.000 for a TV and another $10.000 on speakers, $700 extra is not that much.

Millemissen wrote:

What are you missing and what would be the advantages of a build-in RAAT support over the Airplay/Cast as endpoint?

In my eyes the biggest advantage for B&O would be, that RAAT can handle multi-channel streaming (see https://kb.roonlabs.com/Multichannel). For example based on RAAT protocol B&O could develop a soundbar that could stream in sync to additional WLAN loudspeakers to enable a surround set-up similar as Sonos is offering with its soundbare(s) and additional Sonos WLAN loudspeakers.

With multi-channel and able to handle up to 32 bit content (see) RAAT seems future proof. I assume that one of major reason why Bang&Olufsen ditched NetLink (NL) is, that Netlink probably could not handle these future technology demands. 

Audio wrote:

With multi-channel and able to handle up to 32 bit content (seelink) RAAT seems future proof. I assume that one of major reason why Bang&Olufsen ditched NetLink (NL) is, that Netlink probably could not handle these future technology demands. 

Seems that you are not quite up to date....B&O did not ditch NL.

And I am pretty sure that they as well as most of the costumers don’t care about a theoretical  (=non realistic in real life) 32 bit content aupport.

MM

I see the benefit for B&O much greater. 

If you study the page of roon, you see how many brands offer roon ready or roon testet devices: Shiit, Denon, Nad, Cambridge Audio, just to name a few (there are over 100). All these companies take the trouble to integrate RAAT.  And now it shouldn't be worth it for B&O, because we... are different🤔

Besides the above mentioned points from Alsfeld, Richarldlll, Sandby and trackbeo, I also see the advantage that you don't have to integrate every provider into your app because the customer xy would prefer that, Roon is interested in integrating more and more services. And yeah, it handles NAS really well.

It's exactly this possibility with the trouble-free streaming over different devices that lured me away from B&O. I don't want to be dependent just on B&O equipment anymore, and yes Beosound Balance sounds really sensational for its size, but I think its look... now, let's say it's just not my taste.

Now I have a Naim Uniti Nova in the living room which drives my Piega CL 90x, I have a Naim Muso in the bedroom, a Bluesound Node II in the "office" which drives my Beolab 4000 and in the bathroom Bluesond Pulse flex. And all work together nicely without any hassle. With Airplay and Chromcast I had my trouble with it, besides the fact that it took me far too long to start anything.

If B&O was Roon compatible, I would have kept 99% at least of my Beosound 1 in the bathroom.

But I still have my Beovision Eclipse 🙂

But it could be different, a customer sees a B&O device, he can integrate it into his setup via Roon and then he discovers for example how elegant the "Touch to join" function is and he might buy more products. And B&O must sell more products....

By the way: as far as I can see, the "Touch to Join" function is really unique (and i now testet a few). No other company has done it anywhere near as well (and if they could integrate it with Roon, that would be top notch, but of course not very realistic).

But anyway, we will see what the future brings....

I think certain B&O products like the Core/Shape an Beolab lines would be well suited to Roon. It's well implemented technically and aesthetically. It's probably the best audiophile-centric software I have tried. I am not a customer, but I did try it out and it's impressive.