Roon Changes Support For Uncertified Roon Ready Devices

It used to be the case that if you owned an uncertified Roon Ready device, meaning one that was still going through the certification process but not yet certified, it would still work. You could still use it as a Roon Audio Output device. As of September 21st, things changed.

But let’s hit the Whys first. Here’s Roon Labs:

The Roon Ready program, the RAAT networking protocol, and the certification process is all about creating trust.

The Roon Ready program and the RAAT protocol allows manufacturers to add audiophile-focused network streaming to their devices without sacrificing simplicity and reliability.

The certification program exists so that you can trust that the devices will work perfectly when they get to your house. During certification, we often find bugs that undermine the sound quality, networking reliability, and status of the current device (signal path and transport stuff).

A device that is “uncertified Roon Ready” means that it is in the process of becoming “Roon Ready certified”, but has not yet completed the testing and certification process.

Uncertified devices are not meant to be sold to the public, but instead only used by the manufacturers’ development teams.

The thing is, some manufacturers were selling Uncertified devices (= Bad).

In order to enforce the terms of the Roon Ready license, which is a good thing for Roon users (like me!) because it ensures consistent quality when using Roon, any Uncertified device that was not in use prior to September 21, 2020 will no longer be supported, i.e. it won’t work as a Roon Audio Device.

Roon flags Uncertified devices in their app with a pink banner under the Device Info in the Settings > Audio screen as shown here

The good news is Roon has come up with a workaround that lets Uncertified devices that were in use before the September 21 cutoff  to keep working (=Good).

This solution requires owners of such devices to fill out a form which can be found in the Roon’s Community pages post:  A fix for Uncertified Roon Ready devices.