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    The Computer Audiophile

    Major Changes For Roon in Version 1.8

    On February 9, 2021 Roon will be updated to version 1.8. I'm short on details, but hope to have the team back on the podcast to talk about all updates. For now, here are the written details straight from Roon. I was told Roon version 1.8 runs natively on Apple Silicon Macs with the M1 SoC or newer. I'm waiting on a second confirmation of this and will report back as soon as I hear. 

     

    UPDATE: Just got confirmation that version 1.8 won't initially support Apple Silicon natively. Rosetta 2 is required. 

     

    Press Release: 

     

    February 2, 2021 – Roon Labs, the world’s most innovative music discovery and streaming platform that offers users a way to engage with their music collection in a whole new way, has made significant improvements with its latest software release.

     

    Roon 1.8 brings an immersive new experience that delivers even more from the Roon features you know and love, in a powerful and beautiful new way.

     

     

    Refined and redesigned
    In its latest release, Roon becomes a captivating gallery of music for you to browse and explore your collection on a much deeper level.

     

    Roon 1.8 presents a fresh, modern design with bold typography that looks visually stunning and is a pleasure to use. But the changes made are more than skin deep. Each of Roon’s newly designed layouts, from the new Home and artist screens to the composer and genre pages, are curated just for you.

     

    The new vertical scroll makes it quick and easy to find the music that you’re looking for, no matter what device you’re using – meaning your Roon experience is consistent and seamless across desktop, tablet and smartphone.

     

     

     

    Roon 1.8 02.jpg

     

    Intelligent and powerful music discovery


    Roon 1.8 brings extremely powerful new browsing capabilities and recommendations that understand your music collection like no other. By combining Roon’s deep metadata and learnings from how you and Roon’s community of 100,000 expert listeners use the platform, suggestions are made with uncanny insight and is tailored to each individual listener.

     

    Whether you have an extensive music collection you’ve built up over years or you’re just starting out, your own music collection is always just the starting point. Roon helps you rediscover your own music collection and find new music outside it. And by connecting TIDAL or Qobuz streaming services to your Roon account, you have access to a vast world of high-resolution streamed music and the possibility of making endless new discoveries.

     

     

    Roon 1.8 03.jpg

     

     

    Focus: far beyond “search”


    Roon’s Focus feature has long been the most powerful way to explore your own music, but the newly-expanded 1.8 release goes beyond your library. Focus can now be used to find music anywhere in Roon – even across Qobuz and TIDAL – giving you a 360- view of your favorite artists, genre, performers and composers.

     

    Browse and filter your favorite artists’ most significant albums, their top collaborations, their influences and connections to the artists you already love – to find exactly the music you’re looking for. Not only can you browse a variety of new Roon-powered recommendations, but the new Discography view makes it easy to browse even the most prolific artist’s catalog.

     

     

     

    Roon 1.8 01.jpg

     

    Classical music reimagined


    Roon understands that how you explore certain genres of music is different. That’s why the 1.8 release features a completely new visual style and information layout for classical music, bringing advanced discovery and an educational experience like no other service.

     

    Whether you’re a connoisseur or just getting introduced to classical music, Roon guides you to explore the genre from the perspective of the composer, performance, period or more. It also provides tighter links between albums and composers, as well as simpler browsing and intelligent recommendations based on the composer, performer, composition or conductor you’re listening to.

     

    The new Discography feature also includes a comprehensive new “performances” view, where you can use Focus to find the exact performance you’re looking for. Interested in hearing Martha Argerich performing Chopin? Maybe a Nocturne? All Bach recordings by Glenn Gould? In just a couple clicks, Focus will get you there.

     

     

     

    Roon 1.8 04.jpg

     

    An experience tailor-made for you


    Ever wondered what your most listened to artist or genre is? The updated Home screen in 1.8 includes an all-new dashboard of your listening habits over time, broken down by top artists, albums and genres. This can be switched to show data for the last week, month, year or all time.

     

    You also get a calendar view of what music you’ve been listening to over the last four weeks, and clicking on each section offers even deeper insight into your listening habits down to the minute.

     

    There are now also quick links to the Roon Community within the app, so you are always just one click away from support from Roon and its music experts.

     

     

     




    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments



    I still want a folder view. I put my files in folders for a reason and now they cannot be used as intended (I have 2L folder that I used to play from. Now those tunes can no longer be selected without a lot of work as Roon has scattered them asunder). I didn't ask Roon to make it much harder to find those files.

     

    Why can't I just tell Roon to look for my files in the exact same way Iook for every other file on my PC?

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    44 minutes ago, johncurley102381 said:

    I currently listen straight from a roon core pc.  I know roon says endpoints sound better.  Should i focus on an endpoint first or should i put HQ player on the roon core.  The endpoint would be in same room as the core anyway, any theories on what would be the bigger improvement?  Thanks, new here so i hope its okay to just ask for advice first post.

    I don't think anyone else can tell you what will sound better in your setup. Every one is different. You may or may not notice improvement with an endpoint.

    You can experiment with HQP in trial mode and see what you think.

    Maybe start with a modest endpoint like a Raspberry Pi, a second hand streamer or the new Sonore microRendu - something that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. See if you hear improvement. If not, you haven't lost much - especially with the Pi, that is inexpensive and can be reused for another task if you decide it isn't your endpoint.

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    On 2/2/2021 at 9:14 AM, AudioDoctor said:

    I hope they have worked on the Discovery some as I find it to be extremely repetitive with the albums it suggests.

     

    I second that, ... they do tend to play the same things over and over.. 

     

    I'm also disappointed in the album/artist information they provide. It all comes from AllMusic which is extremely limited on artists/albums that are less main stream so they have nothing about a  lot of what I listen to.

     

    Concerning sound quality, It can be easily shown that the data delivered from Roon is exactly the same as the data delivered from other music players. I don't dismiss the possibility that the different ways these programs interact with the operating system may affect some aspect of the timing of the data, but I put that on the DAC's inability to handle it. In my experience trying just about every kind of clocker, re-clocker, cable, server, etc. known to man... it's all about the DAC. YMMV.

     

    If Roon sounds different, another possibility is that the digital processing functions of Roon have been inadvertently turned on. If you click on the volume control icon (little speaker lower right corner) in Roon and select DSP it will show you what if anything is enabled.

     

     

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    36 minutes ago, bbosler said:

     

    I second that, ... they do tend to play the same things over and over.. 

     

    I'm also disappointed in the album/artist information they provide. It all comes from AllMusic which is extremely limited on artists/albums that are less main stream so they have nothing about a  lot of what I listen to.

     

    Concerning sound quality, It can be easily shown that the data delivered from Roon is exactly the same as the data delivered from other music players. I don't dismiss the possibility that the different ways these programs interact with the operating system may affect some aspect of the timing of the data, but I put that on the DAC's inability to handle it. In my experience trying just about every kind of clocker, re-clocker, cable, server, etc. known to man... it's all about the DAC. YMMV.

     

    If Roon sounds different, another possibility is that the digital processing functions of Roon have been inadvertently turned on. If you click on the volume control icon (little speaker lower right corner) in Roon and select DSP it will show you what if anything is enabled.

     

     

    Not sure & many others here would agree. I know many here that use Chord Dave DAC, I myself TAD DAC. High end DACs. Doesn’t make any difference how good your DAC is. The fact remains Roon sound quality compared to other players like Euphony, HQPlayer to be inferior! & now TAS (from initial reports)
     

    Taiko has designed its own software because of the variable sound quality from Roon’s updates. 
     

    I”ll leave at that! If happy with Roon SQ then you’re happy. That’s great. Enjoy! 

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    1 hour ago, bbosler said:

     

    I second that, ... they do tend to play the same things over and over.. 

     

    I'm also disappointed in the album/artist information they provide. It all comes from AllMusic which is extremely limited on artists/albums that are less main stream so they have nothing about a  lot of what I listen to.

     

    Concerning sound quality, It can be easily shown that the data delivered from Roon is exactly the same as the data delivered from other music players. I don't dismiss the possibility that the different ways these programs interact with the operating system may affect some aspect of the timing of the data, but I put that on the DAC's inability to handle it. In my experience trying just about every kind of clocker, re-clocker, cable, server, etc. known to man... it's all about the DAC. YMMV.

     

    If Roon sounds different, another possibility is that the digital processing functions of Roon have been inadvertently turned on. If you click on the volume control icon (little speaker lower right corner) in Roon and select DSP it will show you what if anything is enabled.

     

     

     

    Well... What DAC do you suggest? Besides the Yggy I also have a Lampizator Pacific which has a built in Roon bridge, and HQPlayer to an NAA to the USB input still sounds better than Roon direct.

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    I run roon server on a qnap nas.  Does that mean in order for me to upgrade to 1.8 I will need to wait for the creator/developer to update the qnap roon server?

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    6 hours ago, mfsoa said:

    I still want a folder view. I put my files in folders for a reason and now they cannot be used as intended (I have 2L folder that I used to play from. Now those tunes can no longer be selected without a lot of work as Roon has scattered them asunder). I didn't ask Roon to make it much harder to find those files.

     

    Why can't I just tell Roon to look for my files in the exact same way Iook for every other file on my PC?


    The trick is bookmarks 

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    6 hours ago, johncurley102381 said:

    The endpoint would be in same room as the core anyway, any theories on what would be the bigger improvement?

    What endpoint ? How is it powered. 
    Maybe start a new tread ?

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    1 hour ago, robbbby said:

    I run roon server on a qnap nas.  Does that mean in order for me to upgrade to 1.8 I will need to wait for the creator/developer to update the qnap roon server?

    NO

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    On 2/3/2021 at 12:39 PM, ASRMichael said:

    If you don’t notice then...

    .... then ipse dixit

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    15 hours ago, R1200CL said:

    What endpoint ? How is it powered. 
    Maybe start a new tread ?

    sorry, i saw multiple people talking about roon sound quality, thought it would be okay to ask those people a question.  Won't be back

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    27 minutes ago, johncurley102381 said:

    sorry, i saw multiple people talking about roon sound quality, thought it would be okay to ask those people a question.  Won't be back

    Please don’t be afraid to start a tread. Many will help you. 
    Your subject is very interesting to discuss. 
    (It may been discussed elsewhere). 

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    4 hours ago, Curljam said:

    sorry, i saw multiple people talking about roon sound quality, thought it would be okay to ask those people a question.  Won't be back

     

    Your initial post was in the middle of another discussion, and I completely missed it.

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    18 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

    Yes, but I didn't say different, I said better. I don't find Roon by itself to sound very good. I find it acceptable on its own when running on Euphony OS, but then using it with HQPlayer still sounds better.

     

    Maybe I'm a little slow.. I understand you prefer Roon with HQPlayer enabled, what I'm not sure on is if you are processing with HQP or just passing the data through it. Curious what settings you use that cause you to hear an improvement. I also use HQP with Roon upsampling to maximum power of 2 with Poly-sinc filters. I slightly prefer the sinc-M filters but the processing delays cause songs to be cut off when using Roon radio,

     

    Also curious if this result would be the same no matter what front end you were using for HQP. In other words, is HQP making up for some inherent issue with Roon, or is it that you just like what HQP is doing no matter what comes before.

     

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    1 hour ago, bbosler said:

     

    Maybe I'm a little slow.. I understand you prefer Roon with HQPlayer enabled, what I'm not sure on is if you are processing with HQP or just passing the data through it. Curious what settings you use that cause you to hear an improvement. I also use HQP with Roon upsampling to maximum power of 2 with Poly-sinc filters. I slightly prefer the sinc-M filters but the processing delays cause songs to be cut off when using Roon radio,

     

    Also curious if this result would be the same no matter what front end you were using for HQP. In other words, is HQP making up for some inherent issue with Roon, or is it that you just like what HQP is doing no matter what comes before.

     

     

    Of course I am upsampling with HQP. I am also using its volume control. IMO HQP is much cleaner sounding, less dark and muddy, than Roon is on its own. I also agree with @ASRMichael that Euphony and HQP sounds far better than Roon and HQP. I use Sinc-L and either NS9, NS5, or LNS15 depending on DAC and what I am upsampling. I find Roon radio plays just fine for me, internet radio works just fine.

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    23 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

    Of course I am upsampling with HQP. I am also using its volume control. IMO HQP is much cleaner sounding, less dark and muddy, than Roon is on its own.


    You’ve changed the content completely and then blame Roon. This quoted comparison is a comparison of your DACs internal upsampling vs HQP’s.  Not Roon vs HQP.

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    1 hour ago, ASRMichael said:

    Euphony / HQP sounds far better than Roon / HQP

     

    not very familiar with Euphony. Are you using a complete Euphony system (hardware + software) or just running it on your computer? Are you comparing Roon and HQP when running it inside of Euphony or some other way?

     

    It looks to me like you can use Roon and HQP inside of Euphony so trying to wrap my head around what is actually going on and how you are using it. All 3 (Euphony, Roon, and HQP) can function as the file player on their own, Roon can use HQP player, Euphony can use Roon and HQP,  so I don't understand how they are all integrated.

     

    looks interesting but also looks like so many options/variables it is hard to do apples to apples or even figure out how it is all configured.. like I said, maybe I'm a little slow

     

     

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    49 minutes ago, Dr Tone said:


    You’ve changed the content completely and then blame Roon. This quoted comparison is a comparison of your DACs internal upsampling vs HQP’s.  Not Roon vs HQP.

     

    If that were true, don't you think my DAC would so the same to both sources?

    Second, I do not like Roon as is, however using the exact same hardware with different software sound better. Geez, it's not a hard concept.

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