Article: Roon From Roon Labs - A Video Run-through

[The Computer Audiophile]

B-b-b-b-b-b-booyah!! They emailed me. I signed up, downloaded and installed the software, and within ten minutes was listening to a queue I had created.

 

Thanks Chris for the video you put together. It was kind of a yawner and I was waiting for you to play something. But once the installation finished I was well-prepped to set things without any "how do I do that?" pauses.

 

I don't know if I'm an audiophile. But sitting here with my Magic Mouse and Bluetooth keyboard, across the room from my MacMini displayed on a 60" TV, I am so glad somebody else interacts with music the way I do.

 

Really liked (ironic choice of words) that I didn't see a single reference to Facebook or Twitter or whatever during the install or setup.

 

Anybody read the user agreement? Will Roon inspect my library for illegal duplicates? Will my tastes be sold to record labels and artists who will send me unrequested email? Just wondering.

 

Enjoying.

 

T.

I was going to play some music in the video to make it less of a yawner, but Youtube tends to make you jump through hoops to use copyrighted music.

 

I used Roon on a similarly large Pioneer Elite plasma and loved it on the large screen. Good stuff.

[Forehaven]

Ive never tried, so how do you all use Roon off your plasma's? Seems like you'd need an hdmi connection from your mac/pc? I guess no way to do it using my macbook pro?

[baddog]

Ive never tried, so how do you all use Roon off your plasma's? Seems like you'd need an hdmi connection from your mac/pc? I guess no way to do it using my macbook pro?

 

Either your Macbook Pro would need to be connected to your plasma via a long HDMI cable, or if you had an AppleTV you could do screen sharing from the Macbook to the AppleTV/plasma.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Ive never tried, so how do you all use Roon off your plasma's? Seems like you'd need an hdmi connection from your mac/pc? I guess no way to do it using my macbook pro?

Mac with HDMI output :~)

[Forehaven]

Mac with HDMI output :~)

 

Man, my 08 mbp is showing it's age! I can try using apple tv/sharing though. I'll give this software a test drive as I've always loved the Sonoos interface.

[Anil Kalagatla]

How is support for classical music on this app? The video only devotes a few seconds on this; does it also provide an equally rich environment for classical music? Support for Works (Opus/BWV/Kochel etc), instruments, periods, orchestras, libretti, performers etc? That would be quite amazing if true. Currently, it's a real pain to manage classical music (even on JRMC which is super flexible about this).

 

Also, does anyone know when the 10% discount expires? If it indeed sounds as good as JRMC or other current players and provides the amazing interface (for classical as well), the price seems reasonable (especially with the discount).

 

Anil

[Anil Kalagatla]

Sorry to follow up on my post - looks like classical music support is equally good:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=27&v=bmf00DrTak4

 

 

(from their blog). Very exciting..

[DaQi]

One thing to note is that they do require a credit card for the 14 day free trial. So, if you don't like it you need to remember to unscubscribe. Not as user friendly as it could be.

[baddog]

Similar in approach to Tidal, HBO Now and other services.

 

i believe there are a number of considerations. Imagine if no credit card was required the number of users who would trial with no intention of purchasing, or would have multiple trials.

 

I do do agree it would be nice to not to have to ante up a credit card tohave a free trial but I do understand the business logic to some degree.

[AvilleAudio]

Downloaded it. Impressive! My tastes run the gamut, but classical is a big part of my listening. This is the first playback software that gets it right when it comes to classical music. I've got a lot of obscure albums...some from tiny, out-of-business labels. Albums, works and movements were absolutely perfect. So far I haven't found any metadata that needed edited. Album art wasn't as spot on as the metadata, but the few albums missing artwork were easy enough to google and download to Roon.

 

So far, so good. This is the first piece of consumer/audiophile software I've seen that comes close to hitting the mark.

 

Still waiting for the iPad remote and DSD capability! Based on the initial release, I expect to be impressed.

[DaQi]

I have a Caps 3 with the Intel DN2800MT Mini-ITX board and it will not run Roon due to a fatal error "OpenGL needs to updated or graphic driver" which I have been unsuccessful to upgrade. Does anybody have any suggestions how to resolve this issue? Or this particular board not compatiable with Roon!

 

I am having the same trouble with my NUC board. Are you connecting remotely? I suspect that may be the problem. It is late tonight and I don't want to bother hooking up a monitor, keyboard and mouse to it but I suspect that is the problem as the remote desktop app is not supporting OpenGL. Just a thought and what I will try when I have some time to mess around with this.

[alice]

I usually browse music when I'am listening so android tablet remote is a must for me.

[extracampine]

I was looking at the N2800MT board too, so am keen to hear the outcome.

 

Has anyone tried Roon with this board/processor?

[Audio_ELF]

Man, my 08 mbp is showing it's age! I can try using apple tv/sharing though. I'll give this software a test drive as I've always loved the Sonoos interface.

You should have a DVI output? It's a simple (passive) adaptor to convert from DVI to HDMI.

[jay]

I also had several crashes in a about a 15 minute window. I hope that is addressed quickly in the 14 day trial period...new-this-year Mac Mini with hybrid drive and tons of memory so I don't think I'm limited from a hardware perspective (if so, that's a problem for Roon). I guess that's the risk of starting a 2-week trial on day 1...I may have to trust that it improves over the coming months. Certainly deters me from a lifetime subscription in weeks 1 and 2. Roon, please understand many of us expect some kind of track record from you before making that kind of $ commitment.

 

Setup, otherwise, was quite intuitive and very quick. SQ seemed decent to good--but I only had about 30 minutes with the product so far on my Audeze LCD-3/Aurelic Taurus setup. I will further compare to Audirvana as time allows this weekend, as going backwards in SQ would be a real concern for me, as I'm sure it would for most. As mentioned by others, integration with Audirvana (etc.) would be a real benefit if possible.

 

Also, anxiously awaiting the iPad app. Audirvana and iPad app are higher on my priority list than DSD, FWIW.

 

Pretty decent start Roon--please keep going!

[goldendarko]

Seems interesting but I thought the goal was to get the PC out of the audio chain. To be honest I was a bit disappointed because TONE Audio said this would change the way we think of digital media but it basically looks like JRiver with links to the AMG built in. When is the planned iPhone support for this going to be available. Really don't want to have to purchase a computer or an iPad on top of buying this software to use in my listening room.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Seems interesting but I thought the goal was to get the PC out of the audio chain. To be honest I was a bit disappointed because TONE Audio said this would change the way we think of digital media but it basically looks like JRiver with links to the AMG built in. When is the planned iPhone support for this going to be available. Really don't want to have to purchase a computer or an iPad on top of buying this software to use in my listening room.

Hi goldendarko - You've been listening to a lot of marketing talk from manufacturers that are disguising computers in expensive boxes and telling people to get the computer out of the listening room. Everything is a computer now. Whether it's in a fancy box or a Mac it works the same. I believe it comes down to the experience, not the name of the device (computer, server, etc...).

 

I highly recommend giving the app a spin as it's nothing like JRiver. That said, it's not for everyone.

[matt123]

Lack of DLNA support is a big downer for me:(

 

Jesus R

 

+1

 

As a very happy Sonore owner...would be great to have UPNP playback via Roon. Seems like a logical step, so maybe its in the works?

 

More broadly, I don't understand the need for specific hardware integrations. We have a standard, UPNP/DLNA, so why not use it? The benefit of the standard is that you don't need a custom integration for every product.

[The Computer Audiophile]

+1

 

As a very happy Sonore owner...would be great to have UPNP playback via Roon. Seems like a logical step, so maybe its in the works?

 

More broadly, I don't understand the need for specific hardware integrations. We have a standard, UPNP/DLNA, so why not use it? The benefit of the standard is that you don't need a custom integration for every product.

I would also love to see UPnP / DLNA work with Roon. However, it's the most nonstandard standard around. Getting it to work with many of the DLNA devices can be a support nightmare. Devices like the Sonore Rendu are easy, but it's many of the other devices that pose the problem. Plus, some manufacturers / developers don't believe in UPnP and would rather use different methods with differing amounts of control over clocking.

 

P.S. I was talking to the JRiver guys last year about a specific DLNA certified device from a giant manufacturer. The device wasn't working correctly. it turned out that the manufacturer had misspelled some of the required language needed t communicate with other DLNA devices. Unfortunately this is not a rare case.

[Distinctive]

When will the iDevice version surface?

[The Computer Audiophile]

When will the iDevice version surface?

I believe June.

[matt123]

+1

 

As a very happy Sonore owner...would be great to have UPNP playback via Roon. Seems like a logical step, so maybe its in the works?

 

More broadly, I don't understand the need for specific hardware integrations. We have a standard, UPNP/DLNA, so why not use it? The benefit of the standard is that you don't need a custom integration for every product.

 

Thanks Chris!

 

Just found Roon's statement on UPNP here. Seems like a "maybe" ??

 

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/does-roon-support-upnp-streaming-devices/56

[Catalysis]

Hi Everyone,

 

While I still am in revelation mode about the functionality of Roon, I was more than a little surprised to discover, via their support forums, that there are currently no plans to support ASIO. The current Roon product uses WASAPI. See here - https://community.roonlabs.com/t/drivers-windows/527

 

My general understanding is that it would be better, on external devices with a supporting driver (which I have) to use ASIO. Although the Roon output sounds absolutely fine, what is everyone's opinion on this?

 

Asio is something that Tidal also doesn't support, but Qobuz does and, I think, with superior results. I thought that Roon would solve this with Tidal, but apparently not.

 

Kind regards

Chris

[DaQi]

I am having the same trouble with my NUC board. Are you connecting remotely? I suspect that may be the problem. It is late tonight and I don't want to bother hooking up a monitor, keyboard and mouse to it but I suspect that is the problem as the remote desktop app is not supporting OpenGL. Just a thought and what I will try when I have some time to mess around with this.

 

Connecting directly fixed the OpenGL problem. I am guessing that OpenGL won't work over remote connections.

 

Now I am having problems with Roon not recognizing my ifi micro DSD USB DAC. This software looks very interesting but with all the challenges with getting in working I am fast losing interest. Especially since it is not cheap either.

[DaQi]

Hi Everyone,

 

While I still am in revelation mode about the functionality of Roon, I was more than a little surprised to discover, via their support forums, that there are currently no plans to support ASIO. The current Roon product uses WASAPI. See here - https://community.roonlabs.com/t/drivers-windows/527

 

My general understanding is that it would be better, on external devices with a supporting driver (which I have) to use ASIO. Although the Roon output sounds absolutely fine, what is everyone's opinion on this?

 

Asio is something that Tidal also doesn't support, but Qobuz does and, I think, with superior results. I thought that Roon would solve this with Tidal, but apparently not.

 

Kind regards

Chris

 

Damn, there is my answer. The ifi Micro is connected using an ASIO driver. So, no dice - that's frustrating.