Official Roon User Impressions Thread

[amir57bs]

Roon is good, better than Audirvana

[bobbmd]

planner-can you explain what Jriver WDM is and how to use it? Could this be used try and listen to Qobuz and/or Audirvana Plus also?

thanks

[bobbmd]

REShaman-there is also a playlist called Dad's Ultimate Playlist or something to that effect(with a very colorful album art) 400-500 songs absolutely great mix of songs all genres and time periods-I think it is just past the Rolling Stones list-have to leave for work will get the exact place it is found later if you don't find it first.

bobbmd

[planner]

planner-can you explain what Jriver WDM is and how to use it? Could this be used try and listen to Qobuz and/or Audirvana Plus also?

thanks

 

Jriver WDM is a virtual sound driver. You can find out more with this link. https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/WDM_Driver

[bobbmd]

Thanks will try it out but i have a Mac mini and think this is a Windows driver'

Do you know or does anyone else know how to stream TIDAL/Qobuz using Jriver for MAC?

bobbmd

[ejlif]

Hey guys can you answer me this? I am thinking of Roon to consolidate my itunes and TIDAL files. I want to also get an Onkyo DPx1 portable player so that I can load music from either itunes files or offline TIDAL. Will this work smoothly to add files to the portable player through ROON?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hey guys can you answer me this? I am thinking of Roon to consolidate my itunes and TIDAL files. I want to also get an Onkyo DPx1 portable player so that I can load music from either itunes files or offline TIDAL. Will this work smoothly to add files to the portable player through ROON?

Roon can't add files to a portable player.

[asdf1000]

I'll have to plagiarize @planner 's comment "the user interface is really impeccable".

 

I'm nearing the end of my 2-week trial this weekend but it looks like I'll be going ahead with a 1 year Roon subscription. There's so much changing in network streaming I thought it's probably best to play it safe with just 1 year.

 

I have Roon Server on my Qnap. I don't have a "reference quality" system by any stretch but as per my signature I have a very simple system chain, that's completely PC/MAC-less:

 

Qnap 251+ & Roon Server> iFi USB Purifier2 > Peachtree Audio 220se (via USB audio cable from QNAP) > Speakers

 

I'm just using Roon Server alone obviously (no PC for HQP) and RAAT seems fine. Roon Server on my Qnap sees my Peachtree 220se's 24/192 DAC and I've even tested it to make sure the sound coming out of my Qnap is 24/192 (the Oppo HA-1 displays the bit depth and sample rate) and it's all good, no dropouts or stuttering at all.

 

I don't have Tidal and I never thought I'd ever convince myself to pay $120 a year for an app to playback my own music collection.... consider me convinced :-)

[ejlif]

Roon can't add files to a portable player.

 

can you do this with Audirvana?

[asdf1000]

I've been exposed to more unfamiliar music in the 6 or so months of using Roon than probably in the 6 or so years of using other music playing software. Roon Radio takes me on a journey through my own music library and along the way I'm able to easily find related music on Tidal. As a music lover, I consider Roon to be an absolute blessing

 

Fully agree with this, and I haven't even started my Tidal subscription yet. I'm already impressed with Roon with just my own library. I'm surprised all these other massive software companies (Apple, Google, Spotify) haven't been able to match Roon's UI and discovery/linking through meta-data yet, with their own streaming apps. The Roon lads have music playback UI and discovery nailed to perfection.

[kennyb123]

The Roon lads have music playback UI and discovery nailed to perfection.

 

Exactly

[Jud]

Hmm, here I thought the title was "Roon User Impressions Thread."

 

Gotta put you on my ignore list, b&m - the endless complaints about hardware (Apple, USB accessories - which you call "toys") and software (Roon, HQPlayer's GUI, A+'s OS X orientation) are just getting too tiresome.

[kennyb123]

Gotta put you on my ignore list, b&m - the endless complaints about hardware (Apple, USB accessories - which you call "toys") and software (Roon, HQPlayer's GUI, A+'s OS X orientation) are just getting too tiresome.

 

I'll be doing the same. He'll be the first that has made it onto my list.

[sdolezalek]

Chris: Might I ask that we move the last several pages of ranting about Roon pricing to its own thread?

 

The title of this thread is "The Official Roon User Impressions Thread." Beerandmusic has explicitly admitted that he has not used Roon. So his opinions do not belong here.

 

Rather than having a bunch of us waste a lot of time explaining why Roon more than justifies its pricing so that other readers of this thread are not misled, why not just move this to a thread that can be called "Why I think Roon is overpriced even though I've never tried it."

[kennyb123]

Chris: Might I ask that we move the last several pages of ranting about Roon pricing to its own thread?

 

The title of this thread is "The Official Roon User Impressions Thread." Beerandmusic has explicitly admitted that he has not used Roon. So his opinions do not belong here.

 

Rather than having a bunch of us waste a lot of time explaining why Roon more than justifies its pricing so that other readers of this thread are not misled, why not just move this to a thread that can be called "Why I think Roon is overpriced even though I've never tried it."

 

That's a great suggestion.

[orgel]

Rather than having a bunch of us waste a lot of time explaining why Roon more than justifies its pricing so that other readers of this thread are not misled, why not just move this to a thread that can be called "Why I think Roon is overpriced even though I've never tried it."

 

Best thread title ever.

 

--David

[The Computer Audiophile]

Chris: Might I ask that we move the last several pages of ranting about Roon pricing to its own thread?

 

The title of this thread is "The Official Roon User Impressions Thread." Beerandmusic has explicitly admitted that he has not used Roon. So his opinions do not belong here.

 

Rather than having a bunch of us waste a lot of time explaining why Roon more than justifies its pricing so that other readers of this thread are not misled, why not just move this to a thread that can be called "Why I think Roon is overpriced even though I've never tried it."

Done.

 

If user = @beerandmusic, then send to http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/why-i-think-roon-overpriced-even-though-ive-never-tried-it-30097/

[jvlata]

beerandrant since yesterday is in my ignore list.. and please do not reply to him with "Reply With Quote" Thanks.

 

I'll be doing the same. He'll be the first that has made it onto my list.

[paul30d]

can you do this with Audirvana?

 

No. Audirvana cannot do it either. Plex can, but Plex is more of a multi-purpose compromise (movies, videos, photos, music). I think it is on the Roon roadmap, but not likely in the short term.

[MNG]

 

Our position on Qobuz is summed up here: https://community.roonlabs.com/t/qobuz-streaming-integration-would-be-appreciated/807/6 -- but I'll repeat here: Once Qobuz is out of bankruptcy protection, we'll see what their future looks like. They are looking for external investment and/or buyers (from a non-competitor). I'm not sure they will survive the year out, but I'd like to see another viable competitor to TIDAL. Right now, they are interesting, but with a very uncertain short term future.

 

Has this situation changed at all? I'd have thought that Qobuz was more secure than TIDAL now. I certainly prefer Qobuz and would prefer not to have to subscribe to TIDAL. I am Lifetime on Roon so it seems that I may have no choice.

[MNG]

Needless to say, as a lifetime subscriber, my impressions of Roon are excellent. I have gone from having to use several different control apps to just one powerful, easy to use master control app.

 

Even my wife likes it. She hated the confusion of different apps for different devices, but she loves Roon.

[beerandmusic]

Needless to say, as a lifetime subscriber, my impressions of Roon are excellent. I have gone from having to use several different control apps to just one powerful, easy to use master control app.

 

Even my wife likes it. She hated the confusion of different apps for different devices, but she loves Roon.

 

A happy wife is a happy life...nice to have the wife's blessing on a purchase!

[dannyroonlabs]

DISCLAIMER: I work for Roon Labs, and have been heavily involved with communicating with TIDAL and Qobuz.

 

Has this situation changed at all?

 

No. Qobuz still refuses to give us what we need. TIDAL gives us their database dumps, directly from the music labels, whereas Qobuz won't do that. The API they provide is not acceptable as it provides basic me-too functionality, and not the rich integration that Roon provides with TIDAL.

 

I'd have thought that Qobuz was more secure than TIDAL now.

 

TIDAL has millions of paying users in most of the world, and the funding of a music entertainment conglomerate who is growing the business both in user count as well and direction (they are now sponsoring more entertainment, such as boxing matches and concerts). They also are prepared to lose money to grow, as shown by their recent losses (mimicking the business models by Apple, Spotify, Deezer, Rhapsody, etc..)

 

Qobuz is a small French company with no where near TIDAL's revenue or user count, launched only in a few countries, and was recently bailed out by a French video game and eBook magnate.

 

My impression is that Qobuz is still on very rocky footing (still), and TIDAL is pretty par for the industry.

 

I certainly prefer Qobuz and would prefer not to have to subscribe to TIDAL. I am Lifetime on Roon so it seems that I may have no choice.

 

I understand that you'd prefer an editorial lean that differs from the pro-pop/hiphop that Roc Nation brings to TIDAL -- I would prefer it too! We are working on this issue. No solutions yet.

[MNG]

Thank you for the response Danny, that is appreciated. I'm not keen on TIDAL but your integration is well conceived. I am very happy with Roon and consider it to be miles ahead of anything else that I have used - rich functionality, ease of use, exploration, control of multiple different devices, multi room. I could go on.

 

Keep up the good work, but an alternative to TIDAL would be welcome.

[audio.bill]

I understand that you'd prefer an editorial lean that differs from the pro-pop/hiphop that Roc Nation brings to TIDAL -- I would prefer it too! We are working on this issue. No solutions yet.

I think it would be logical to provide editorial content suggestions based upon the general makeup of each user's selected favorites. That would of course be dynamic for each user, but shouldn't be too difficult of an algorithm to develop. It could be coded to only run periodically on a snapshot of each account rather than each time TIDAL is accessed.