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Roon

snaphappybob

snaphappybob

pfm Member
I currently have Audiovarna (older version, bought and paid for) on my Mac mini streaming Qobuz through a Chord Mojo 2 and rather good it sounds.
I was looking at Roon and wondering whether it offers any functionality or benefits over what I already have? The remote app looks much better as the older Audiovarna app doesn't alphabetise artists just lists from your last favourite added.
Am I right in thinking that if load Roon onto my Mac (which is connected to the only Hi-Fi I use) I have to pay a subscription for it on top of my Qobuz subs? If so Roon is about as much use as a handbrake on a canoe, for me at least.
 
snaphappybob said:
I currently have Audiovarna (older version, bought and paid for) on my Mac mini streaming Qobuz through a Chord Mojo 2 and rather good it sounds.
I was looking at Roon and wondering whether it offers any functionality or benefits over what I already have? The remote app looks much better as the older Audiovarna app doesn't alphabetise artists just lists from your last favourite added.
Am I right in thinking that if load Roon onto my Mac (which is connected to the only Hi-Fi I use) I have to pay a subscription for it on top of my Qobuz subs? If so Roon is about as much use as a handbrake on a canoe, for me at least.
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Yes, you have to pay a subscription to Roon. What’s the problem with that? You can download it and try it free for a month. Like most things in life, if you think it’s worth paying for you pay, if not you don’t. Decide for yourself what advantages it offers. I use Roon with Qobuz and my own library which it integrates with very well and am happy enough to pay the paltry amount of money they both cost. Have tried Audirvana and LMS. Prefer Roon. Roon costs about 30p a day, and Qobuz slightly more. Dunno what you can spend 65p on that is better value. A mouthful of chips from Macdonalds?
 
Roon is as bug riddled as a 1920's brothel in the American midwest and doesn't work when your internet is down or when their cloud infrastructure has hiccups. If you're not big on (often times questionable) metadata, it's a complete waste of money. Whatever bugs you encounter can be considered features, because they'll remain unaddressed. LMS with Material skin and MAI plugin gives you a much more stable outcome and most of the same information for nought, and it happily runs on something as lowly as a Pi.
 
evand said:
Roon is as bug riddled as a 1920's brothel in the American midwest and doesn't work when your internet is down or when their cloud infrastructure has hiccups. If you're not big on (often times questionable) metadata, it's a complete waste of money. Whatever bugs you encounter can be considered features, because they'll remain unaddressed.
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I’ve been running Roon with Tidal & latterly Qobuz, along with my own library for about 3 years, using a MacMini as a core.
Never had any “bug” issues & obviously no streaming system will work when your internet is down, so that’s an irrelevant criticism.
I think it’s great, but it’s price has risen over the last year or so.
Try before you buy with a free trial is surely the way to go.
I used to use Audirvana but one of the updates a few years ago really mucked up my library & I could never work out why.
I like the extra meta-data but understand why it’s not a big thing for everyone. The EQ/DSP is a great feature.
a mate of mine has been using Audirvana for years & wouldn’t swap it for anything else.
Each to their own.
 
evand said:
Roon is as bug riddled as a 1920's brothel in the American midwest and doesn't work when your internet is down or when their cloud infrastructure has hiccups. If you're not big on (often times questionable) metadata, it's a complete waste of money. Whatever bugs you encounter can be considered features, because they'll remain unaddressed. LMS with Material skin and MAI plugin gives you a much more stable outcome and most of the same information for nought, and it happily runs on something as lowly as a Pi.
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Not to mention that LMS sounds so much better than Roon . . . . and whilst it may run happily on a Pi it makes my Antipodes Oladra sound sublime.
 
manicatel said:
…no streaming system will work when your internet is down, so that’s an irrelevant criticism.
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nonsense, you can’t even play tracks a local library if your internet goes down. Roon is not a streaming system, it plays local content as well as content from streaming services.
 
I like Roon whilst I had it but multiple updates made it a less pleasureable experi nice for me. I didn’t find much difference in sound quality but I can certainly live with my Touch/LMS/Material Skin combo. I’ve never believed that there are huge sound differences between product regardless of price.
 
I am not a fan of Roon but putting aside the need for it to be always "online" even to play local files, any perceived sound quality differences between it and other players, its stability issues and some of the stupid stuff it does (IMHO, which is why I never used it outside of the several trials I did), the make or break really comes down to the following.

If you place some value in having

(1) immediate access to lots of additional metadata that isnt in your files (album reviews, artist bio's, music collection stats, funky drilldowns etc)
(2) plus an attractive (if somewhat verbose) interface
(3) seamless integration with local and online files (as long as your intenet is up)
(4) the Roon Radio and ARC features
(5) suggested/similar artists

then its not worth the aggro.

As noted, LMS with the Material skin provides most of the above in a free and less troublesome software package:

(1) immediate access to album reviews, artist bio
(2) an attractive interface that is simple to use
(3) seamless integration with local and online files (tidal, qobuz, deezer, spotify plus numerous others)

@evand and I (plus others) are long term LMS users and would be happy, via this thread, to help you get it running.

If you have the bandwidth/interest then try both and see whether the $$ cost of Roon plus its software "baggage" (of which I havent detailed above) is really that much better than LMS with the Material skin.

Peter
 
evand said:
Roon is as bug riddled as a 1920's brothel in the American midwest and doesn't work when your internet is down or when their cloud infrastructure has hiccups. If you're not big on (often times questionable) metadata, it's a complete waste of money. Whatever bugs you encounter can be considered features, because they'll remain unaddressed. LMS with Material skin and MAI plugin gives you a much more stable outcome and most of the same information for nought, and it happily runs on something as lowly as a Pi.
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I have been using Roon for nearly 4 years now with great success and pleasure and cannot identify ONE BUG. NOT ONE. There are features that might be improved, perhaps, but for listening to and discovering new music with loads of pertinent information and interactivity one would be hard pressed to find a solid competitor.
It would have been more honest and accurate had you stated roon is simply not your cup of tea.
 
evand said:
Roon is as bug riddled as a 1920's brothel in the American midwest and doesn't work when your internet is down or when their cloud infrastructure has hiccups. If you're not big on (often times questionable) metadata, it's a complete waste of money. Whatever bugs you encounter can be considered features, because they'll remain unaddressed. LMS with Material skin and MAI plugin gives you a much more stable outcome and most of the same information for nought, and it happily runs on something as lowly as a Pi.
Click to expand...
I have been using Roon for nearly 4 years now with great success and pleasure and cannot identify ONE BUG. NOT ONE. There are features that might be improved, perhaps, but for listening to and discovering new music with loads of pertinent information and interactivity one would be hard pressed to find a solid competitor.
It would have been more honest and accurate had you stated roon is simply not your cup of tea
Fourlegs said:
Not to mention that LMS sounds so much better than Roon . . . . and whilst it may run happily on a Pi it makes my Antipodes Oladra sound sublime.
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A voodoo cable reseller claiming "LMS sounds so much better than roon"? Pretty sure now there is no hope for humanity.
 
Tom60300 said:
I have been using Roon for nearly 4 years now with great success and pleasure and cannot identify ONE BUG. NOT ONE.
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Neither have I with about 17 years of LMS. And for free...
Tried Roon, not my cup of tea to pay for smth similar that I have for free...
 
I have used both LMS, with the Material Skin and the MAI plugins, and Roon. The meta data and suggestions slightly edged it for me when I tried Roon last year. I decided to go all-in with the lifetime subscription and later purchased a used NUC to run ROCK.

The downside of LMS is that you do need a bit of computer knowledge. It isn't a simple plug and play solution. There are clear step by step instructions available but it is easy to take a wrong turn or two on your journey to a working LMS solution. The upside is that it runs happily on a Raspberry pi.

Roon can be downloaded and run on just about any PC.

I still have my LMS setup and it's a fallback if Roon had any problems.

As for bugs in Roon my only issue so has been caused by operator error (getting confused when tired and upsetting the ROCK SSD through switching the NUC on and off repeatedly).
 
I also find these threads amusing; yes it's a matter of personal preference. I love Roon because I love the interface and I love how it has allowed me to discover more music. That second feature is, to be honest, the thing that I really value. I'm sure I could get used to other interfaces, but Roon Radio has given me more access to more joyful music than I could have imagined and for that reason I am a fan.

More amusingly though is the argument as to what sounds better and then in the same paragraph, referncing your Rasberry Pi or MacMini/Book/ etc as the music server/streamer/renderer. Any home PC is an appaling device to use for this purpose; although it will of course work just fine, if you care about the quality of the replay then a home PC is about as noisy and polluting as drinking the water from sewage pipe whilst sitting on the M25. Whatever subtle differences may exist between Roon and say JRiver evaportate in the squalid envinrontment of a home PC.
 
geetee1972 said:
Any home PC is an appaling device to use for this purpose
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No its not. Fancy streamers from hifi manufacturers are at the heart of it a computer. Nonsense spouted about 'noise' is at best non substantiated. Pcs are used in mission critical, literally life or death scenarios. My wife used to be an electron microscopist. Very fancy set ups, with massive vibration sinks and lead lined walls etc. They were happy enough to use one of those super noisy PCs though.

But but the power supply mannn!

A pc running dedicated software such as Rock (or indeed daphile for LMS) are indistinguishable from boutique hifi, support for which gets dropped just as soon as they can.
 
garyi said:
No its not. Fancy streamers from hifi manufacturers are at the heart of it a computer. Nonsense spouted about 'noise' is at best non substantiated. Pcs are used in mission critical, literally life or death scenarios. My wife used to be an electron microscopist. Very fancy set ups, with massive vibration sinks and lead lined walls etc. They were happy enough to use one of those super noisy PCs though.

But but the power supply mannn!

A pc running dedicated software such as Rock (or indeed daphile for LMS) are indistinguishable from boutique hifi, support for which gets dropped just as soon as they can.
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Well if you say so, who am I, with a decent set of ears and 30 years listening experience, or any of the other brilliant engineers who make these devices and have decades of experience in this field to argue with you; we must all bow to your superior knowledge I guess?
;)
What I can't quite work out is what you're doing on this forum in the first place. I mean, it's meant to be for people who care about music replay, about the quality of engagement and emotional response you get from really good replay; about how the way a system is engineered impacts that and how so often the things you think you know or take for granted cannot possibly affect the audio signal, do end up doing just that.

So what are you here for, or is it just to be a pompous ass?
 
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