Roon, tell me about it
- Thread starter manicatel
- Start date
I was on the fence for a while about Roon, given the high purchase price. Finally took the plunge earlier this year and am really impressed. Really like the integration with your own library and Tidal. If you play something from your library it will automatically go into Radio mode at the end of the playlist and always plays some great music of a similar genre. I use a QNAP Nas as my core and an Auralic Aries Mini with linear PSU as my endpoint. Ipad as a controller. I also control some Sonos speakers with Roon instead of the native Sonos app - Roon interface is much better.
The best thing about this setup is not having to mess with a Mac or Windows computer anywhere in the chain. I have done this in the past and would never go back.
The best thing about this setup is not having to mess with a Mac or Windows computer anywhere in the chain. I have done this in the past and would never go back.
Other than the slick interface with metadata - which is very important to me b/c in my setup all interaction is through a touch screen remote, there are 2 compelling features of Roon:
a) various built in DSP and resampling features - I can defeat a room node in the bass directly through Roon, or re/upsample music as I wish;
b) full integration of streaming service into your own library. Many other programs have a plugin for using your streaming service, but the streaming service appears separately from your local library; Roon seamlessly integrates the streaming library and displays it as if all my streaming favorites are actually found in my local library with all my rips. I find this incredibly useful and convenient.
a) various built in DSP and resampling features - I can defeat a room node in the bass directly through Roon, or re/upsample music as I wish;
b) full integration of streaming service into your own library. Many other programs have a plugin for using your streaming service, but the streaming service appears separately from your local library; Roon seamlessly integrates the streaming library and displays it as if all my streaming favorites are actually found in my local library with all my rips. I find this incredibly useful and convenient.
Cereal Killer
432
Whats the spec of your NAS BTW?
Knipester
pfm Member
Having been using roon for 3-4months with my high res qobuz account I agree that the sq is excellent but the two other features that did it for me was...
1. One UI to control all my devices (must be Roon Ready). Sold my squeezebox touch, auralic Aries mini and a sonos for all the less critical listening rooms and instead bought cheap chromecast audios as end points. My auralic Aries G1 is in my main listening room.
2. Roon radio is awesome and I’m hearing loads of new stuff as it familiarises itself with my taste in music.
1. One UI to control all my devices (must be Roon Ready). Sold my squeezebox touch, auralic Aries mini and a sonos for all the less critical listening rooms and instead bought cheap chromecast audios as end points. My auralic Aries G1 is in my main listening room.
2. Roon radio is awesome and I’m hearing loads of new stuff as it familiarises itself with my taste in music.
manicatel
pfm Member
The more I use it, the more I like it. The interface is very well sorted & the SQ ( my primary interest) is at least the equal of AV+. With the optional eq or dsp in use, I’m guessing it could sound even better.
If it was £200-250 one off cost, I’d snap it up.
Most likely, I will take it for a year, & see if there are ever any deals to convert to a lifetime membership. Either that or wait for the US dollar to weaken against the £. HaHa.
Or I’ll just say sod it, I know it’s expensive for what it is, but just go for it anyway.
If it was £200-250 one off cost, I’d snap it up.
Most likely, I will take it for a year, & see if there are ever any deals to convert to a lifetime membership. Either that or wait for the US dollar to weaken against the £. HaHa.
Or I’ll just say sod it, I know it’s expensive for what it is, but just go for it anyway.
Stunsworth
pfm Member
I went for a lifetime subscription. I initially had a year’s subscription but converted to lifetime after a few days when I saw how well Qobuz was integrated. When I converted from yearly to lifetime I was only charged the difference between the two - Roon said that was because I swapped over so soon after taking out the initial subscription.
Its a ts QNAP TS 469 pro, circa 5 years old. At the time I was researching which NAS to get, this was one of the ones recommended by Linn for their streamers. The drives are all WD red, and have been set up with Raid (I cant remember the exact configuration). I recently upgraded the ram from 2Gb to 4Gb, based on recommendations on the roon web site - very easy to do yourself, and the memory was cheap. It has been running 24/7 for 5 years and hasnt had a single problem.
Messing around with computers does not interest me at all. Apart from the initial setup, this has been mostly hands off, and far less hassle than maintaining a typical laptop.