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Roon I’ve tried it and....

whatsnext

Naimless
So you have tried roon. Maybe a trial, a year or even a full lifetime purchase.

Naim forum had a thread that ended in personal comments and got vanished. Do Fishes have a view on roon they care to share? Please accept others will have different views.

Me I had a 14 days trial but ran out before I got it doing anything. So I didn’t build an appreciation of its good features. By others comments if you enjoy lots of related info to your music it may be your thing.

I just use moode and it’s UpNP to find and feed music to a Naim Muso-qb and Moode itself.

What are your Roon experiences?
 
I really like it, yes it's an extravagance but what isn't in this arena.. I also have a really cool uPNP setup via dbpoweramps asset6.2 and the audionet MMI app. They both have Qobuz integration. i just like the look of roon a bit better. but the audionet app is nice and clean and has great artwork.
For Asset6.2 i wrote my own tree structure so is tailored exactly as i want it.. If roon didn't exist I'd be perfectly happy without too.
 
I’ve been using Roon for about 6 months, and am generally pleased with it. I used J River for years, but then a couple of years ago I got a Qobuz subscription. Qobuz increasingly became my prime source and it became very frustrating that there was no remote control and J River couldn’t integrate it with my own music. So I gave Roon a punt, and have stuck with it, though currently only with an annual subscription. Plus points are the integration with Qobuz, the rich metadata such as information about performances, artists, composers, the understanding of a classical composition, the remote app, and the ease of use - the mrs uses it, which is a first. Minus points are the lack of a powerful way of organizing my own views which I miss from J River, and a complicated, slow and not always trustworthy search. Sum up: not sure I’d recommend it unless you also had a Tidal or Qobuz subscription. If you do it’s the way to go imo.
 
I have been using Roon for nearly a year now and using a Roon Nucleus. Only signed up for 12 months but will covert to a lifetime. Just love the way it seamlessly ties together: SSD plugged into the Nucleus and Tidal. Like that with a tap on a link you can see the lyrics and the musicians involved. Also the suggestions of similar music that I would not discover otherwise.
 
If you have music stored on your system AND a subscription to Tidal or Quboz then Roon makes excellent work of it. Half the time you are playing music and actually you do not know if it a local or internet version you are playing unless you pay close attention to the screen. You can at any time choose to limit your search to local only if you wish.

It can run several zones (I don't) and really just lets you choose and listen to what you want. You can search for some surprisingly obscure stuff just be typing some of it in. Going for a random walk in this fashion can be fun.

I have the Roon server installed on a headless Mac mini that sits in a remote part of the shelving. Local music on a USB hard drive hanging off the back of the Mac. Control is usually a thin laptop, or the wifes Ipad if I can get near it.
 
How does lifetime vs annual compare on pricing?
I have bought a few lifetime licences that turned out to be anything but after a few years for various reasons.
 
How does lifetime vs annual compare on pricing?
I have bought a few lifetime licences that turned out to be anything but after a few years for various reasons.

$119 a year or $499 lifetime. You can convert from annual to lifetime and you get a credit of the unused bit of your subscription. They say a some of the cost is in licensing for metadata and Artist/Composer bios etc. I haven’t gone for a lifetime, but I may do.

https://roonlabs.com/pricing.html
 
Been subscribing to Roon for a couple of years now. The UI is great and updates have been significant and progressive. The next update will be a revamp of the Internet radio function which I have been looking forward to. I did use IPeng and LMS previously and Roon has now left it firmly behind.
 
I’ve been using it for about 2-3 months, after several years of using Audirvana. The last upgrade of AV screwed my library & I could not get it sorted. So I ran the Roon trial.
Easy to instal, very slick to use & sounds excellent. I’ve taken a year subscription but frankly I will up that to the lifetime deal as it’s so nice to use.
Yes it’s bloomin expensive & my only negative is what happens if after a couple of years it goes bust or another better version comes along.
I have my library ripped to a Mac mini & I use Tidal. The way Roon integrates the two is excellent.
I was fine using AV until this latest update screwed it up for me, but despite the cost, I wont be going back to AV.
Roon really is very good indeed.
 
Love Roon. Fantastic for discovering new music with Qobuz/Tidal. Nothing beats it.

Waits for the whinging about price.........
 
Wasn't the whole point of Roon that it was supposed to process digital audio "more perfectly" than anything else rather than it had a nice user interface?

No comments so far that it actually sounds any better than other things.

My experience is that soft players certainly don't all sound the same and properly written ASIO2 and Kernel streaming interfaces are important.

So far JMRC is the only thing at sensible money that does all the output formats properly. Does Roon do ASIO2 and kernel streaming or is it Wasapi only?
 
IIRC roon is a creation from the same guys who developed Meridian SooLoos systems a decade or so ago.
I still have a Sooloos control 15 and had a 6 months trial with Roon. IME both are excellent with pop music but poor with classical.
Splendid if you are not sure what to listen to next and want a suggestion linked to your preferences.
I am not keen on this, I prefer to choose what to listen to myself and worry that they won't suggest something I will actually like since it is so unlike what I have listened to in the past, a bit like facebook's worthless algorithm.
 
So far JMRC is the only thing at sensible money that does all the output formats properly. Does Roon do ASIO2 and kernel streaming or is it Wasapi only?

Dunno about kernel streaming but Roon sees both my DACs ASIO driver and offers WASAPI esclusive mode so I have a similar choice to JRMC.

As far as cost is concerned, Roon + Qobuz Sublime costs me about 90p a day which is absurdly good value for the use and pleasure I get out of it. What else could I get for 90p a day that would enrich my life so much?
 
In order to “roonify” my Naim NDS, I bought a Small Green Computer sonicTransporter i5. Was easy to set up Roon core and SGC’s UPNP Bridge, import my library from a QNAP NAS and add TIDAL. Have also set up zones for a couple of Airplay clients. I like how Roon aggregates my music, and the discover function is fun to use. Just bought a lifetime subscription, and look forward to trying DSP and one or two of the extensions. Roon has also made it a lot easier for Mrs. Hook to play music when I’m not around.
 
Wasn't the whole point of Roon that it was supposed to process digital audio "more perfectly" than anything else rather than it had a nice user interface?

No comments so far that it actually sounds any better than other things.
Does Roon do ASIO2 and kernel streaming or is it Wasapi only?
I asked around a bit before trying Roon & most of the responses I got were indeed about the user interface rather than the SQ.
I found that it sounds better to my ears than Audirvana. A bit smoother & easier to listen to over longer periods.
“More Analogue sounding” is a bit of a cliche that I usually don't like to use but it’s a relevant short-hand way to sum it up in this case.
Plus, as it has extensive DSP facilities & Audirvana has its audio plug-ins etc it’s possible to fine tune it to your taste.
I couldn’t tell you about the ASIO2/Wasapi question.
In short, it looks superb, sounds excellent, it’s very slick to use & once you’ve tried it, I don’t think many will go back,
but it is a bit £££.
 
We had it on trial and enjoyed using it. Just waiting for a bespoke server to be delivered and have already paid for a life time subscription.
 
Wasn't the whole point of Roon that it was supposed to process digital audio "more perfectly" than anything else rather than it had a nice user interface?

No comments so far that it actually sounds any better than other things.
Roon is mostly about the interface and multi room. with full integration into your interface of Qobuz and Tidal. Roon isn't WASAPI only. Where did you get that idea? It also has all sorts of DSP and upasampling functions if you want to use them. I don't think Roon claims that it sounds better than other software. It's about the UI and integration of metadata from the web and your streaming service.
Not for everyone.
 


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