Review on Ultimate Music Experience with ELAC Discovery Music Server by Brockington Zuniga

Update April 19, 2021: I've been able to use the remote app on two 2013 Nexus 7 tablets for a while. I can also use it on Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s. Another 9 months have passed. 09/01/2020: • The latest firmware update 1.7 brought many improvements, including an unlimited number of titles in the library. Search YouTube for Hans Beekhuizen's Elac Discovery Music Server Update 1.7 video. • I have owned Elac for 6 weeks now. Initial setup was easy when you start with the Roon Essential app on a supported mobile device or desktop computer. I started with a Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S phone and an old Nexus 7 tablet with small screens that don't work well with the app. None of them could find the core of Roon. I then installed the app on the newer Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1, everything went smoothly. • When I signed up for a Roon Essential account, the Remote Essential app sent me to the browser and the website stopped after I entered all my information. I have waited in vain. I started the process again from the app and everything went smoothly. • For those who don't like the bright LED, there was an option to turn the LED off during initial setup, although I can't find an option to turn it back on now. I had to restart the server without downloading the backup (metadata, not music) to get the LED back. Then restored from backup. After recovery, my library does not need to be rescanned. • After the 1.7 update, I can see the lyrics of many songs with microphone icons. Internet radio is now cataloged in a variety of ways, as are many Internet radio applications. You can easily select stations and add them to your favourites. You no longer have to add manually via the link. • I have around 8,000 tracks in my collection stored on a networked PC. Also tried storing music on a NAS and a USB stick connected to Elac. Everything is working well. I don't notice any latency difference between USB stick and NAS. The search is fast. It also helped me discover new music. It also integrates my collection with my Tidal & Gobuz libraries. Also, in many cases, search has found alum/tracks in Qobuz that I can't find in Qobuz's own apps. • I heard that new music can now be dragged onto the main screen of the Essential desktop app. I tried it and it will ask you which storage to put the files on as it is connected to multiple storage devices (see above). But as soon as I select storage, the app crashes every time. I couldn't add music that way. I'm fine as I'm adding music directly to the NAS anyway. • The search results show all versions of the same album available on Tidal, Qobuz and in your own library. • I mainly stream Elac on SOtM sMS-200 Neo as Roon EP. You can also output music directly via the line-out. Both sound good. I can easily stream 24/7 with Qobuz. I have confirmed this on my DAC. Neither Elac nor my DAC decode MQA. I tried the Tidal track in FLAC 48kHz 24bit/MQA 192kHz. My DAC shows FLAC 48kHz. To take full advantage of MQA, you need a DAC that can decompress and decode MQA. Anyway, I get full permission from Qobuz. DSD is not supported. You appreciate how important this is to you. • RCA 1 and RCA 2 are perceived by Elac as two audio devices, each capable of playing different music. The two digital outputs (coaxial and optical) count as a third device, meaning they play the same music but may differ from the two RCA devices. My Marantz AVR is equipped with HEOS and is treated like any other device. My SOtM is also seen as another device. • All audio devices can play different music. When I switch playback from one device to another, it remembers what track I was playing the last time I streamed to that device. According to the specifications, devices can be grouped into music zones, and all devices in a zone can play the same music while zones can play different music. I haven't tried the zone function yet. • I can connect any device and play different music from the same Essential Remote app for tablet or PC. And they can all play at the same time. According to the specification, the same can be done with zones. • Also, I can control Elac to play a track on a device/zone from a single instance of the remote app. At the same time, someone else can control Elac from another instance of the remote app and play other music on another device/zone. It's like playing multiple music sources on multiple music players at home! • I can control the volume of any Roon-enabled device directly from the Essential remote app. Or I can set the devices to play at a custom fixed level and let the preamp the device is connected to control the playback volume. • I haven't explored all the features of Elac yet. • For the retail price I bought it for, this is amazing value. Full price is slightly more expensive. I almost built an Intel NUC and installed the full version of Roon ROCK. This will be a fun project, but it will take time and work that I don't want to afford at this stage in my life.