Audiogravity Guides

Roon on a Raspberry Pi: Roon Bridge, and Roon through HQPlayer

Short answer: a Raspberry Pi makes a Roon endpoint, not a Roon Core. Roon Bridge, the part that plays, runs on a 64-bit Pi; Roon Server, the Core that holds your library, does not: on Linux it runs on x64 machines only. So the Pi plays what a Core elsewhere sends it: a PC, a Mac, a NAS. And to listen through HQPlayer, the Pi needs HQPlayer's NAA rather than Roon Bridge.

Checked on 2026-10-17 against Roon's own help pages; the sources are at the end.

Roon Bridge, Roon Server and Roon Ready

  • Roon Server is the Core: library, browsing, processing. Roon: "Roon Server for Linux runs on x64 platforms", and "ARM builds only support Output functions". Its recommended hardware is an Intel Core i3 or better, 4 GB of memory and an SSD.
  • Roon Bridge is "a lightweight software package designed to do exactly one thing: add audio outputs to your Roon setup over the network". It runs on Linux x64, armv7hf and armv8 — armv8 being a 64-bit Raspberry Pi.
  • Roon Ready is not software you install: it is Roon's certification of devices that carry Roon's streaming technology, RAAT, in their own firmware. A Pi with Roon Bridge receives the same RAAT stream, without the certification.
  • Roon itself costs $14.99 a month, $149.88 a year or $829.99 for life (US dollars, Roon's pricing page).

Ways to turn a Pi into a Roon endpoint

  • Verox, formerly RoPieee. A free system image dedicated to the job, for the Pi 3, 4 and 5: a Roon Bridge endpoint, plus AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, an HQPlayer NAA and a UPnP renderer among others. RoPieee took the name Verox in September 2026; existing installations moved over with their settings.
  • Roon's own installer on Raspberry Pi OS or Debian, from Roon's Linux install page.
  • A general-purpose streamer: Volumio has a Roon Bridge plugin, moOde manages Roon Bridge once you have installed it, and Audiogravity installs it for you (below).

Roon through HQPlayer

Roon can send to HQPlayer, which then does the processing and plays to its own output: on a Raspberry Pi next to the DAC, that output is HQPlayer's NAA (see HQPlayer NAA on a Raspberry Pi).

  • The Pi needs the NAA, not Roon Bridge. On my test box (2026-09-26), Roon played through HQPlayer to the NAA with Roon Bridge stopped.
  • The two should not fight over the DAC. Roon's help: "Both Roon and HQPlayer expect to have exclusive access to the device" — if HQPlayer uses a device, disable it in Roon's audio settings. HQPlayer's developer, Jussi Laako, said the same of a Roon Bridge left running beside an NAA on one machine: Roon takes the DAC unless that output is disabled in Roon.
  • In HQPlayer, turn on "Allow control from network" so that Roon can drive it.

DSD from Roon to a Linux endpoint

Roon's DSD Playback Strategy setting decides what reaches the endpoint. Its default is Convert to PCM. Native DSD works on Linux when the system's driver exposes native DSD for your DAC; otherwise Roon's help suggests trying DSD over PCM (DoP).

With Audiogravity

Audiogravity runs on a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 with Debian 13 (Trixie), DietPi or Raspberry Pi OS included. Roon comes with the Pro edition; the 30-day trial includes it.

  • Roon Bridge, installed by Roon's own installer. From Audio Software, on a Pi or an x64 machine. Roon Server is offered on x64 machines only, and never beside Roon Bridge: it already contains it.
  • Profiles that say what they run. Roon Bridge alone, Roon Bridge + MPD ("Roon or MPD directly — one at a time"), Roon Bridge + HQPlayer NAA ("Roon directly, or through HQPlayer — one at a time"), and the three together.
  • Your Roon zones in the same interface. Audiogravity registers as a Roon extension: enable it once in Roon, under Settings → Extensions. Your zones then appear in Library → Sources beside your other sources, with a browser for your Roon library. The Core is found on the network on its own.
  • Updates. Roon publishes no version number, so the box cannot tell you an update is waiting; the update button runs Roon's installer again, which always fetches the current build.

The details are in the manual: Outputs & engines → Roon, and Library & streaming → Roon.

Sources