Official Roon User Impressions Thread

[The Computer Audiophile]

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.

Hi bloodhound - You should at least be happy Roon has published a list of open source code it uses :~)

 

https://roonlabs.com/oss.html

[The Computer Audiophile]

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.

Let us know how it goes.

 

P.S. I hope you're the boss at work because one man's disadvantage of not being able to play around at work is another man's fireable offense :~)

[craighartley]

Sorry , I realise I posted the following on the wrong thread so am copying it here:

Initial impressions-

What I was going to say is that it makes rather a jumble out of my library, and as it seems to ignore accurate and consistent metadata, apparently thinking it knows better, it actually does less well than JRiver (for example) in giving me lucid access to my music - particularly Classical. A couple of examples - classifying disparate music into a single genre with mystifying relevance. So that Keith Jarrett appears under Classical even though I only have Jazz albums by him. And Daniel Barenboim appears under 'Latin' (presumably because he was born in Buenos Aires) even though I only have him conducting Richard Strauss. And Pop/Rock includes the Seattle Symphony and Czech National Symphony. And so on.

It fails to recognise certain grouped works within an album, so that for instance on an album with three Haydn Symphonies and one by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, the three by Haydn are recognised and grouped into movements within individual Symphony headings, but the Bach movements show up as unknown composer (even though the composer is accurately recorded in the file's metadata in composer field) and the individual movements are not grouped or named as part of the same work. And if that is a relatively obscure Bach, Roon also shows one album of the Matthew Passion as 'unknown composer', and shows Johann Sebastian Bach as the performing artist....

 

Maybe I'll find some way of improving this or find I'm doing something wrong but I suspect I will abandon the attempt until others note an improvement in such things. As it stands I will find it unusable.

 

A pity.

[beetlemania]

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.

 

Wow, I don't even know what this Roon gizmo does. I'm with you re: credit card info. No "free" trial for me.

[Bloodwound]

Hi bloodhound - You should at least be happy Roon has published a list of open source code it uses :~)

 

https://roonlabs.com/oss.html

 

Well, that is good and all and should be expected. I have no doubt they have used a lot of time to come up with something that looks pretty impressive.I saw your video too, and the UI looks quite slick.

 

But the principle that I have to enter my credit card details for a trial, and then have to actively cancel the subscription within 14 days or I will be automatically charged, is just smellyfishy. Will be happy to try the software when this practise is reversed. If I find it to my liking and worth the money, I will buy it.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Well, that is good and all and should be expected. I have no doubt they have used a lot of time to come up with something that looks pretty impressive.I saw your video too, and the UI looks quite slick.

 

But the principle that I have to enter my credit card details for a trial, and then have to actively cancel the subscription within 14 days or I will be automatically charged, is just smellyfishy. Will be happy to try the software when this practise is reversed. If I find it to my liking and worth the money, I will buy it.

I hear you and wish it was different, but I'm not going to punish myself by not purchasing the service :~)

[thaddeussmith]

Their account/trial/billing practice is no different than any other SaaS provider, including the likes of Spotify or Tidal. Speaking of which, those services cost $119.88 and $239.88 per year (respectively, pre-tax) and offer up nothing more tangible or permanent than Roon. It's just the nature of 21st century software consumption models.

[Mercman]

Is it possible to evaluate the trial and then purchase the lifetime version?

 

And thanks to Chris for the excellent video on Roon.

[dannyroonlabs]

@beetlemania and @Bloodwound --

 

Due to license agreements with our data partners, this is unfortunately a requirement of our trials. Believe me, I hate it as much as you do. We get a lot fewer signups that we would without the credit card requirement, and our application really must be seen and used, to fall in love with it!

 

 

We would like to renegotiate these contracts, but being a startup, we have no power here. We are hoping that in 1 year, we can renew this on better terms, when we can prove we are a legit and viable company that isn't giving away data for free. Until then, I have to ask you trust us for 2 weeks, and if you do cancel in that time period, we will throw away all your data.

 

 

I am a founder of Roon Labs. You can contact me directly if you have any more concerns. I am available via email (my first name @roonlabs.com).

 

 

I hope you give us a chance, and please let us know if you have any troubles with Roon at our community site. We want you to love our product as much as we do, and we will do anything we can to help you get there.

[dannyroonlabs]

Is it possible to evaluate the trial and then purchase the lifetime version?

 

Yes, just trial the lifetime. If you choose to switch it to the Annual, just contact us and we can do that for you.

[fordski]

Well, after one day of the trial I'm in for a lifetime....For me my music hobby brings me much enjoyment and listening to music is an emotional experience. When using the Roon software it reinforced how important it is to have a nice visual experience as well as an aural one. While it most likely doesn't make the music actually sound better, Roon's visual rendering of my library seemed to enhance my enjoyment of my music collection. Also the ability to dig more into my library aided by the Tidal integration is a great way to discover a broader range of music.

[Mercman]

I just figured out my question. If you want the discount, you just have to purchase the yearly or lifetime version without a trial. In the end, I guess that is reasonable.

[dannyroonlabs]

@craighartley -- we had a major metadata identification issue this weekend, and it just got resolved this morning. A new backend is being deployed later today and your metadata should automatically improve itself.

 

If you are having issue with identification, could you please post examples on our community site (https://community.roonlabs.com )? I want to make sure we don't screw stuff up!

[thaddeussmith]

should we force a rescan of our libraries?

[dannyroonlabs]

should we force a rescan of our libraries?

 

not needed, it periodically scans different parts of your library.

[The Computer Audiophile]

should we force a rescan of our libraries?

If ou want to rescan now, just close and reopen the app.

 

I made some metadata changes from within JRiver to some files, then closed and reopened Roon and it recognized everything.

[thaddeussmith]

Sweet. I think my only complaint at this time is the lack of an iOS app. It's a critical component to the modern, file based system. The sooner it's released, the better.

 

My apprehension with all SaaS applications is investing time and money into a really cool system, especially one claiming to have a lifetime license and price point, only to have the service acquired by Google/Apple/whatever and the service to be shuttered. Should that day ever come, will you guys ensure a way for the application to work in a less feature-rich "offline" mode so that we can still use it for playback, import new music, and manually edit metadata?

[pdvm]

I listen mostly to classical, and was attracted by the claim "Classical music done right".

 

It doesn't do it right yet, though.

 

Examples:

- I own a few RCO Live albums, all with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mariss Jansons conducting. When I click on the artist 'Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra', I see a few albums 'With Mariss Jansons' and one 'main album', though they are all tagged in the same way.

 

- It lists some Slavonic dances as separate 'works', and some grouped together as one work.

 

Furthermore, there is no way of sorting albums on title (which is my main way of exploring using Audirvana+ 2), and what is worse: it imposes it's own (messy) album titles over my carefully tagged album titles (last name of composer - work), and splitting some albums, like the Mendelssohn album in the photo.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I'd say it's classical music done better than the other options :~)

 

Roon isn't for everybody. You kind of have to give up a little control and work with how it works.

[pdvm]

I understand that, but consistency is a first priority then, otherwise libraries become 'unbrowsable'. I really want to like it, but right now it doesn't work for me yet. With other database/players like A+ or HQPlayer, at least you know how the metadata will present itself (that is: the way you put it in the file). With Roon, I don't know what to do to improve the way my music is shown. Re-tag? Wait for improvements of the Roon metadata?

 

I like the idea of an app that 'does your metadata for you', but as said above: it has to be consistent: show every work in the same way, show all orchestras/conductors/etc in the same way.

[dannyroonlabs]

And Daniel Barenboim appears under 'Latin' (presumably because he was born in Buenos Aires)

 

Actually, it's because he has involvement with Latin music as well! For example: http://www.medici.tv/#!/latin-american-night-waldbuhne and a few other examples on that site

 

I was expecting this to be a bug, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out the data was better than my own knowledge. Not always the case, but here it was.

[beetlemania]

Roon isn't for everybody.

 

I guess you're talking to me! I don't use Tidal and don't plan to. 90% of my listening is my own collection and the other 10% is using the internet to listen to KRCL and other community stations. JRMC/Foobar give me everything I can imagine wanting other than it would be cool to see the liner notes - something I miss from LPs and CDs. Does Roon do liner notes? I can search JMRC/Foobar by genre, artist, title. What is different about Roon other than they need your credit card info before you can start your "free" trial?

 

It sounds like it's the best interface yet. But does that really make it a groundbreaking, must-have for audiophiles? When I really want to immerse myself into the music, the lights go off. No fretting about bills, stress, and, very much, no looking at a compute monitor!

[The Computer Audiophile]

I guess you're talking to me! I don't use Tidal and don't plan to. 90% of my listening is my own collection and the other 10% is using the internet to listen to KRCL and other community stations. JRMC/Foobar give me everything I can imagine wanting other than it would be cool to see the liner notes - something I miss from LPs and CDs. Does Roon do liner notes? I can search JMRC/Foobar by genre, artist, title. What is different about Roon other than they need your credit card info before you can start your "free" trial?

 

It sounds like it's the best interface yet. But does that really make it a groundbreaking, must-have for audiophiles? When I really want to immerse myself into the music, the lights go off. No fretting about bills, stress, and, very much, no looking at a compute monitor!

Have you tried it yet? You could answer all your questions quickly :~)

[beetlemania]

Have you tried it yet? You could answer all your questions quickly :~)

 

You've given few, if any, clues as to why I should. Maybe I'll watch the entirety of your video some rainy day. Meanwhile, I'm leery of giving out my credit card info for a trial. It's not fun to have your account charged against your wishes!

[The Computer Audiophile]

You've given few, if any, clues as to why I should. Maybe I'll watch the entirety of your video some rainy day. Meanwhile, I'm leery of giving out my credit card info for a trial. It's not fun to have your account charged against your wishes!

I'm not here to give you any clues as to why you should do anything. You're only hurting yourself by not trying something for free. Maybe you should see if you can send in cash through the mail. I guess I'm not that paranoid that my card will be charged against my wishes. In fact I don't think they have the ability to charge a card against anybody's wishes. the price of admission is a name, email address, and a credit card. To be honest, big deal.