Official Roon User Impressions Thread

[zoom25]

Really digging the software and it's presentation. It looks like the most professional app yet. Been listening to HD 800 out of my Dangerous Music Source.

 

I've been comparing Audirvana Plus (2.2.0.7) to Roon. I made sure to optimize each software to the max in terms of exclusive/integer/direct mode. NO EQ, Audio Units, or other DSP engaged (as far as I know) on Audirvana Plus. Same volume output (max), same FLAC albums from various artists and genres.

 

As much as I liked Roon, I'm unlikely to purchase Roon at this point for two reasons: steep price!!! Even more importantly, the sound quality is lacking to Audirvana. Audirvana is a whole league ahead of the competition at this point in SQ. At one point it was trailing Amarra. Then 2.0.9 came and Audirvana Plus took the lead. Currently, it's smoking all other software in playback. I have no idea since it's bit perfect playback as you mentioned in previous pages. No idea what Damien has been tweaking over the years while being bit perfect, however, it has clearly been paying off. It's just very engaging to listen to. If you want specific differences in sound, I can describe that.

[flatmap]

Yeah, "bit perfect" doesn't say much about reconstructing a real time analog stream.

 

For example, Seattle has a bus system and -- let's say that every bus is a bit -- you could venture that the system is bit-perfect. That is, every bus is accounted for, there are always the right number, and no bus is fundamentally changed as the day progresses. On the other hand, the buses are never on time.

 

As a rider, a claim that the system is bit-perfect --so to speak -- is of limited interest. It doesn't address my key concern as a user of the system that every bus is on schedule.

[REShaman]

I finally got around to installing the roon Remote Client ("rRC) on my iMac. Then updated the rRC today having forgotten to do so. V1.1.55. 2 seconds tops. Now I know what has kept me from launching roon with TIDAL HIFI in study/computer room. Stumbled on a playlist in TIDAL HIFI entitled Rolling Stones Best Songs Of All Times, 457 tracks, 30 hours. That was 3 hours ago. I am sure I have been doing something other than listening to one glorious song after another. My first experience with a pre-constructed playlist. I tend to play albums mostly or 99.999% of the time. I am listening through my Logitech 5.1 in StereoX2 via Coax to the back of my iMac and the front LR (not center) and rear LR in the back of the room are filling the room with roon. Subwoofer is also accentuating the positive.But this is absolutely entertaining. And addictive. Up to song number 44. Only 414 to go.

 

Enjoy the music,

Richard

[firedog]

I finally got around to installing the roon Remote Client ("rRC) on my iMac. Then updated the rRC today having forgotten to do so. V1.1.55. 2 seconds tops. Now I know what has kept me from launching roon with TIDAL HIFI in study/computer room. Stumbled on a playlist in TIDAL HIFI entitled Rolling Stones Best Songs Of All Times, 457 tracks, 30 hours. That was 3 hours ago. I am sure I have been doing something other than listening to one glorious song after another. My first experience with a pre-constructed playlist. I tend to play albums mostly or 99.999% of the time. I am listening through my Logitech 5.1 in StereoX2 via Coax to the back of my iMac and the front LR (not center) and rear LR in the back of the room are filling the room with roon. Subwoofer is also accentuating the positive.But this is absolutely entertaining. And addictive. Up to song number 44. Only 414 to go.

 

Enjoy the music,

Richard

 

Did a search for "Rolling Stones Best Songs of All Time" - and that list didn't come up. Can you post the page link from Tidal in your browser?

[REShaman]

Did a search for "Rolling Stones Best Songs of All Time" - and that list didn't come up. Can you post the page link from Tidal in your browser?

 

 

Hello firedog,

 

First time I used the TIDAL browser to search; and I could not find it. Instead I went to Playlists/Recommended/Search and found it. Could not figure out how to create a link so I used my iPad Air 2, employing the various "services" to send information, in this case email to send you the email and in the text of the email, the following was automatically created by TIDAL (quoting):

 

"Hi,

I am listening to the playlist "Rolling Stone: Best Songs of All Time" in TIDAL, and thought you would enjoy it too. Check it out: http://tidal.com/playlist/eacd9536-3a86-4841-a930-0d3a4cdb6a21 and experience the difference."

 

Hope this helps.

Best,

Richard

 

 

Sent from my iPad

[ted_b]

Roon running on an iPad Pro! That's the ticket.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Roon running on an iPad Pro! That's the ticket.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]20836[/ATTACH]

Will be very nice!

[Markhh2]

Just downloaded, will have to wait till tomorrow to set up. Long time coming

[firedog]

Roon running on an iPad Pro! That's the ticket.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]20836[/ATTACH]

 

Not sure I get this. Are you envisioning an iPad pro as the file server? (Not sure iOS can even do this.) If not, and you just want it as a large scale tablet interface for Roon, I'd get a Surface Pro 3 - at least there you get a full scale OS.

[ted_b]

Not sure I get this. Are you envisioning an iPad pro as the file server? (Not sure iOS can even do this.) If not, and you just want it as a large scale tablet interface for Roon, I'd get a Surface Pro 3 - at least there you get a full scale OS.

 

Dog, it was a fairly innocent but hedonistic post about the newer bigger iPads. Roon is well known to be a beautiful presentation of our hallowed music collections, and the thought of a just-recently-announced larger iPad was just too much to not comment on. Yes, it would be GUI only; yes, it would not be a server...but it's an iPad. I am not saying it is the only choice; you bring up another good option. (Maybe it's me but lately I have been sensing a real stress level and sense of defensivism for even the most innocuous of thread subjects here on CA. I am going to hope it's just me.)

[firedog]

Dog, it was a fairly innocent but hedonistic post about the newer bigger iPads. Roon is well known to be a beautiful presentation of our hallowed music collections, and the thought of a just-recently-announced larger iPad was just too much to not comment on. Yes, it would be GUI only; yes, it would not be a server...but it's an iPad. I am not saying it is the only choice; you bring up another good option. (Maybe it's me but lately I have been sensing a real stress level and sense of defensivism for even the most innocuous of thread subjects here on CA. I am going to hope it's just me.)

 

Thanks.Wasn't trying to be defensive or anything, I just didn't understand the point, so I thought maybe I was missing something. One of the disadvantages of forum communicating is that we are missing all the visual and audio clues we use to communicate context in person. No worries.

[findog3103]

I am using roon with a Mac Mini and I am having some hiccups when playing a 24/96 file. The music stops for a second or two and then continues. Is anyone else experiencing this?

[miguelito]

I am using roon with a Mac Mini and I am having some hiccups when playing a 24/96 file. The music stops for a second or two and then continues. Is anyone else experiencing this?

 

I'm on a 2012 i7 mini. No such issues.

[baddog]

I am using roon with a Mac Mini and I am having some hiccups when playing a 24/96 file. The music stops for a second or two and then continues. Is anyone else experiencing this?

 

I don't have this issue either with a Mac Mini 2012. Are your music files on a NAS or on a local hard drive?

 

I am really guessing here without knowing much details about your setup, however if the problem persists you might try going into Settings -> Audio Setup ->Output Settings and adjust the setting for Resync Delay. If it is set to 50 ms, try changing it to 100 ms first and see if the problem persists.

[findog3103]

Thanks, baddog, I will play with the settings. I use a NAS.

[REShaman]

I am using roon with a Mac Mini and I am having some hiccups when playing a 24/96 file. The music stops for a second or two and then continues. Is anyone else experiencing this?

 

Hello findog,

 

Mid 2011 Mac Mini, i7, 2.7GHz, 16GB, Thunderbolt edition, fed by a Promise Pegasus 12TB R6 Raid 5. No issues with any sample rate/format/OSX. Sorry for your troubles.

 

Has this issue been covered over at the roon community forum? Vaguely remember some posts re your issue. Hope baddog's suggestion or roon support can help.

 

Best,

Richard

[baddog]

Thanks, baddog, I will play with the settings. I use a NAS.

 

Are you using a Synology or other NAS? Regardless you should enable SMB3 on the NAS if you can. It improved performance on my network and with my dedicated Mac Mini and Roon. If you have a Synology I can tell you how to check if it is enabled.

[findog3103]

Are you using a Synology or other NAS? Regardless you should enable SMB3 on the NAS if you can. It improved performance on my network and with my dedicated Mac Mini and Roon. If you have a Synology I can tell you how to check if it is enabled.

 

Yes, I have a synology 212.

[baddog]

@findog3103 - I posted details on setting one's Synology NAS to use SMB3 on the Roon community site. Please let me know if you don't see the posting I made in this link.

[findog3103]

@findog3103 - I posted details on setting one's Synology NAS to use SMB3 on the Roon community site. Please let me know if you don't see the posting I made in this link.

 

Link works. Will try the setup tomorrow. Thank you.

[baddog]

You bet - let me know what your setting were after you try tomorrow ( meaning was it already set to SMB3 or was it set to SMB1 ). This may resolve the issues you have been having.

[findog3103]

You bet - let me know what your setting were after you try tomorrow ( meaning was it already set to SMB3 or was it set to SMB1 ). This may resolve the issues you have been having.

 

Just changed the settings from SMB1 to 3. Will let you know of any change in program.

[baddog]

Ok, and you are mounting the NAS from Roon using the "smb://xyz.x.xy.z/music" syntax, correct?

[findog3103]

Ok, and you are mounting the NAS from Roon using the "smb://xyz.x.xy.z/music" syntax, correct?

 

Yes, correct.

[planner]

I have been using Roon for a couple of months now. The user interface is really impeccable and I enjoyed browsing my music so much with it. Sound quality by itself isn't bad and with Jplay added on, it's wonderful! But I needed room correction and had previously invested in Acourate to work with Jriver. But playing music with Roon via Jriver WDM is highly unstable. Especially so with hi-res files. I have tired almost every possible configuration on the latency to make it work. But with much frustration, nothing works. The problem still persist. Then I decided to try the Acourate Convolver. With the friendly help from Uli, I got it worked out seamlessly. And to my surprise, it actually sounds very good! It's smooth, crystal clear and transparent. Imaging is spot on. So much better than using Jriver with it's in-built convolver which is using the exact same filters. I'm a super happy Roon user now.