Official Roon User Impressions Thread

[beetlemania]

Other good news - Roon is pretty low overhead on my CPU. The temp goes up to about the same as JRiver.

 

Someone help me understand what Roon is, please . . .

 

I watched the first few minutes of the video; it appears to be a glorified music player, like JRMC or Foobar but with a better GUI? I can use it with my PC (Windows 7)? What am I missing? It seems like much ado about nothing . . .

[robbbby]

Watch more than the first few minutes of the video?

You'll get a better understanding of what it is watching the video as opposed to somebody trying to explain it.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Someone help me understand what Roon is, please . . .

 

I watched the first few minutes of the video; it appears to be a glorified music player, like JRMC or Foobar but with a better GUI? I can use it with my PC (Windows 7)? What am I missing? It seems like much ado about nothing . . .

If you're a music lover you will love using the app. It's an experience that is unparalleled on Windows or OS X. I highly recommend downloading the trial if watching more than a couple minutes of my video was a bridge to far :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

So i've had a bit of time to play with Roon now on my desktop PC which my headphone rig is attached to.

I'm having a lot of fun, I really like the layout of the interface and the interactivity is top notch. I'm also enjoying it's simplicity, setup is very easy (so far, haven't played with "remotes" yet), I like the fact that it doesn't have a normal menu bar like other software. There is no 'File > open' file/folder browser so it forces you to go through the library, some may not like that but i'm not bothered by it.

 

One thing I don't care for is how the artist info, album info, random info, etc. is done. It gives you a few lines of info within the gui, generally underneath the artist name/album/file info/focus button then to read the rest you need to click the little blue arrow, this forces a white popup screen (in windows at least), it would be nice if all this extra info can be scrollable from the main screen or if clicking the little blue arrow scrolled down to more info on the same screen without the big popup.

This is just a small gripe and is a personal preference sort of thing, others may prefer the popup window.

 

I can only hope that the mobile apps for tablet browsing/playback are as well done and just as interactive as the desktop software.

 

I plan to install this on my main system soon but i'm not sure what the best way to do it is.

I have a fileserver running windows 7 that serves all my music to the network. I then have my CAPS running win 8.1 hooked up to my main stereo/dac. Am I best to run the core program on the caps and have it monitor the drives on the fileserver or am I better off installing the core program on the fileserver and running my caps in remote mode?

My guess would be to install Roon server on your file server (if possible) and install Roon as a client on your CAPS. You can control playback from any Roon device (server or client) or soon to be released iOS / Android apps. From what I'm told, the iOS app will mirror the OS X/Windows interface.

[The Computer Audiophile]

My guess would be to install Roon server on your file server (if possible) and install Roon as a client on your CAPS. You can control playback from any Roon device (server or client) or soon to be released iOS / Android apps. From what I'm told, the iOS app will mirror the OS X/Windows interface.

I take that back. Now I'm not so sure you can send from the server to the client. researching now.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I take that back. Now I'm not so sure you can send from the server to the client. researching now.

Just tested it and it works to stream from the server to a client. I got confused at the labeling of my output as Private. Carry on :~)

[robbbby]

I wasn't 100% sure if the "remote" PC could be the one attached to the dac, though I think it can, I remember people wondering if they could use 1 Roon license to control 2 different DACs in different rooms/computers. I think the limitation is having only 1 PC to manage the library. I may be entirely wrong though.

[robbbby]

Just tested it and it works to stream from the server to a client. I got confused at the labeling of my output as Private. Carry on :~)

 

Thanks for taking the time to double check.

[baddog]

Does the lifetime membership Unlimited Remote Devices include the AURALiC ARIES? Is that considered a remote device? It seems as though you can swap computers at any time; right?

 

I would like to better understand this as well. I have an Aries, I understand integration with it is planned but not yet complete. So should I wait to trial/purchase Roon, how soon until the special offers go away?

 

I am presuming that since I have my Aries connected to my DAC, that Roon won't be of too much value until the Aries can perform as the server, is this correct, or can the Room software installed on a Mac see the Aries as a renderer?

[dannyroonlabs]

LOL! Danny, if we did use the "None of these look right" option, we can try to update these in a few days, right?

 

Yes, you can just go back into the same place where you hit none of these, and find the right one.

[dannyroonlabs]

When I go to Bach, Roon says I have 31 "works", JRiver shows 65 tracks

When I got to Beethoven, Roon says I have 47 "works", JRiver shows 158 tracks

When I go to Mozart, Roon says I have 83 "works", JRiver shows 225 tracks

When I go to Mahler Roon says I have 40 "works", JRiver shows 69 tracks

Going way down the list for Beethoven I see that Symphony No. 1 is "one performance" and when I click into it I can get to the four movements. I think everything is there, it's just different.

 

When I go to The Rolling Stones Roon says I have 12 albums, JRiver shows 12 albums

When I go to The Beatles Roon says I have 26 albums, JRiver shows 26 albums

 

I see you've found the composers + works hierarchy... you can always go artist -> album, but Beethoven never released any albums.. only works.

 

Still have no idea how to control my main stereo using an iPad with RDC. After adjusting all of the possibilities the best I could do was to get playback out of the iPad - yuck. I also tried naming the zone (typing in the exact name I created in Roon on the main system) but it didn't work.

 

I must say say though that the "discovery" capabilities in Roon are really cool. I am having fun digging through my collection and finding connections - would rather be sitting on my lazy ass doing this on an iPad.

 

There seems to be some minor confusion on the zones and remote access, so let me clear that up:

 

1) you can run Roon on a Mac or PC -- that Roon is your library manager. It's like the brain of the system. It manages your files, and it manages your audio devices. When we made Sooloos years and years ago, we used to call this "The Core". Your Roon Lifetime or Annual membership allows you to run this once, and on 1 Mac or PC. Later, we hope to offer Linux builds of this as well.

2) additionally, you can run Roon on a Mac or PC, and in the very near future, Android tablets, and in the slightly further but still near future, iPads -- this Roon can be a "remote control" for the Core. It uses a very fast and optimized data transmission protocol between the Core and the remote, so the remote actually feels very fast. When you buy a Roon membership, there are no limits to how many remotes you can run. Got 10 tablets? Go for it. They all talk to the single Core Roon. The remotes don't manage music files, and they don't really manage audio devices. That's mostly done by the Core.

3) Remotes have a thing we call "Private Zones". They are zones that are exposed by the remote, but only accessible from the remote. This is because while every remote can access the Zones the Core manages, you wouldn't want your kids playing music on the zone in your hands. Also, these zones are meant more for like private auditioning.. The use case we were thinking was listening to something "in bed" before you go to sleep.

4) We have a audio streaming protocol called RoonSpeakers. We use it internally, but we are also working with hardware partners, the first of which includes Auralic, to add RoonSpeakers natively to their hardware (the Aries in the case of Auralic). This will allow the Aries to be discovered and use the full Roon experience with zero sound quality sacrifices.

5) we also plan to release RoonSpeakers as an app for your Mac/PC/Android/iOS, so you can create a permanent zone out of your gear you already have lying around. There is even a Raspberry Pi version of this in the works, and I use a non-packaged version for Windows/Mac every day. This is coming shortly.

 

So for now, you can use the private zones in many cases, but long term, you will want RoonSpeakers hardware or RoonSpeakers software (which will be included in your membership).

 

This stuff is confusing, because it works so differently than what's already out there. Bear with us while we get our messaging straight :-)

 

Also, I know a bunch of you guys are freaks about HQPlayer. We've already reached out to Jussi and gotten a dialogue started. Nothing planned yet, but we are exploring options.

[dannyroonlabs]

Does the lifetime membership Unlimited Remote Devices include the AURALiC ARIES? Is that considered a remote device? It seems as though you can swap computers at any time; right?

 

The Auralic Aries currently supports UPnP, which Roon does not, and they have Airplay and a non-official Songcast implementation that we got working, but only at 44.1khz. They actually approached us to integrate RoonSpeakers, which we will be doing shortly. I hope this will get delivered as a firmware update to you all.

 

Roon has no limits on audio endpoints, so your single membership can stream to as many zones as you want. See my previous post above about the distinction between the Core and the Remote for more information on what a membership actually buys you.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Thanks Danny.

[dannyroonlabs]

@bplexico -- When the Aries has great RoonSpeakers integration, You will still need a device to run Roon as "The Core" that I mentioned above. The Aries does not have the CPU or memory to effectively run Roon. I wouldn't want that much electrical noise near your renderer anyway. RoonSpeakers on the other hand is both very lightweight, and allows the renderer to own the clock, unlike AirPlay/SongCast.

 

I don't know when we will take away the special offers, but I suggest you grab it, play, and worry about the plumbing later. If you aren't happy, we'll do our best to fix that :-)

 

We had originally planned to release in August, but we were convinced by our friends over at Tidal to release at the High End Show in Munich this week. Things are a bit rockier than we would have liked, but it means you get to play 3 months earlier.

 

You can always find me on our community site https://community.roonlabs.com/ as @danny.

[baddog]

Great explanations. Thanks Danny. I have one or two items specific to Aries and will post at your community.

 

Barr

 

and decided to heed your advice and take the special offer. No guts, no glory!

[Jabs1542]

Thanks Danny. I'm in but I won't be fully immersed until the tablet remote control capability is released.

 

For those curious, watch Chris' video. He starts playing with app about 10 minutes in. The app itself is very cool from an exploring and discovery point of view. I made a playlist last night based off different elements in the credits, the playlist was enjoyable and it was a combination of music I would have never ever gotten to without something like Roon showing me all the background inter relationships.

[pdvm]

 

Also, I know a bunch of you guys are freaks about HQPlayer. We've already reached out to Jussi and gotten a dialogue started. Nothing planned yet, but we are exploring options.

 

❤️

[Adyc]

I have just installed Roon. I have extensive collection of classical music. Let say I go to composer and choose Bela Bartok. The screen shows all the works by Bartok. However, it is not very useful as the number of works can be very large. I want to further filter by Genre and then by work. Basically, I would like to see:

 

Genre->Composer->Work->Album or

Composer->Genre->Work->Album or

Artist->Composer->Work->Album or

Conductor->Composer->Work->Album or

Orchestra->Composer->Work->Album

 

Is it possible to do it in Roon?

[Haninger]

I'm definitely considering getting this great product. I currently have an Aries, a Synology NAS, iOS devices, and a Windows laptop. Does this mean that I will need to have my Windows laptop on when using Roon since only the Core can be operated there? Thanks.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I'm definitely considering getting this great product. I currently have an Aries, a Synology NAS, iOS devices, and a Windows laptop. Does this mean that I will need to have my Windows laptop on when using Roon since only the Core can be operated there? Thanks.

Yes.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I have just installed Roon. I have extensive collection of classical music. Let say I go to composer and choose Bela Bartok. The screen shows all the works by Bartok. However, it is not very useful as the number of works can be very large. I want to further filter by Genre and then by work. Basically, I would like to see:

 

Genre->Composer->Work->Album or

Composer->Genre->Work->Album or

Artist->Composer->Work->Album or

Conductor->Composer->Work->Album or

Orchestra->Composer->Work->Album

 

Is it possible to do it in Roon?

Hi adyc- Have you tried using the Focus tool while in different areas of Roon. I believe you can accomplish what you want.

[jmathers]

So far I'm unimpressed with Roon's ability to gather my CD library.

 

Lots of CDs in my library are not recognized. All are in WAV format, all are ripped from regular CD, either with EAC or with dBpoweramp.

 

I found out by clicking on an artist that has many CDs in my library. Only two of the six or seven CDs showed up.

 

However, if I search by title for one of the non-listed CDs it shows up but with an error. On one CD, the error was that one of the tracks was 3 seconds longer than what was in Roon's database - seems like a pretty picky error to flag the CD as not importable.

 

A related issue is that it's not readily apparent when Roon does not find a CD in your library. It juts indicates that X number of files have been imported. You'd have to be looking for that particular CD or browse via artist and know how many CDs you have of that artist to recognize that, hey, it did not pick that up and put it in my library. Uggg.

 

I posted a similar response on the Roon community. Hopefully it's just something I'm doing wrong or is easily correct-able. I'd be interested if others have found CDs not being picked up by Roon's import feature. Early days yet I know.

 

Jeff

[The Computer Audiophile]

So far I'm unimpressed with Roon's ability to gather my CD library.

 

Lots of CDs in my library are not recognized. All are in WAV format, all are ripped from regular CD, either with EAC or with dBpoweramp.

 

I found out by clicking on an artist that has many CDs in my library. Only two of the six or seven CDs showed up.

 

However, if I search by title for one of the non-listed CDs it shows up but with an error. On one CD, the error was that one of the tracks was 3 seconds longer than what was in Roon's database - seems like a pretty picky error to flag the CD as not importable.

 

A related issue is that it's not readily apparent when Roon does not find a CD in your library. It juts indicates that X number of files have been imported. You'd have to be looking for that particular CD or browse via artist and know how many CDs you have of that artist to recognize that, hey, it did not pick that up and put it in my library. Uggg.

 

I posted a similar response on the Roon community. Hopefully it's just something I'm doing wrong or is easily correct-able. I'd be interested if others have found CDs not being picked up by Roon's import feature. Early days yet I know.

 

Jeff

Hi Jeff - My guess is this has something to do with the fact you're using WAV files that are notorious for tagging compared to formats like FLAC and AIFF. Not positive, just a hunch.

[Bloodwound]

Roon Labs: You just lost one potential customer.

For the 14 day trial you first require me to make an account, not really happy about that, but I'll live. Then afterwards you require my credit card details just to start my trial. On principle, this is a big no thanks from me. Now I have an Roon account I can't seem to delete.

[jmathers]

Hi Jeff - My guess is this has something to do with the fact you're using WAV files that are notorious for tagging compared to formats like FLAC and AIFF. Not positive, just a hunch.

 

Yes, I suspected this may be the reason. It's unfortunate since I'm not going to convert my library to FLAC any time soon. I guess it would be easy enough to test out on a single CD though - convert a unrecognized CD from WAV to FLAC and then re-import the library. I'll check back tonight.

 

BTW: That's another disadvantage. I can't mess around with it at work since I'm limited to a single home machine. :-) Back to business.