I have had it with Roon, their lack of support, their user forum, and it's users...

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

On 7/9/2021 at 7:05 AM, The Computer Audiophile said:

I’m not one of those guys who likes to use unofficial channels, so I don’t. 

 

Good attitude. You could have taken it a step further and signed on the forum under a false identity.😁

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

You can push the argument further and claim that CD quality is of no importance either "to the masses". I would bet that 99% of streaming services users can't tell the difference with MP3 given the equipment they are using, or simply don't care.

 

Even for people who care about sound quality, digital audio is often a let down. Reasonably priced audio equipment don't necessarily provide much benefit, things get really complex quickly. If you had 500$ to spend on a stereo equipment, would you really spend it on a DAC and streamer, or simply get a basic amp and a decent set of speakers to use with your phone? 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

2 minutes ago, miguelito said:

I think many people listening carefully would be able to tell between lossy and lossless CD quality. CD to higher is much harder.

 

Listening carefully is key here - most people are not really paying attention or are patient to decide. It takes more than 10 seconds of listening to assess any sound differences.

 

See the rest of my post (which I edited while you were replying). 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

Phone > Spotify Connect > Active speakers, and you can call it a day 😉 

 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

On 7/4/2021 at 8:13 PM, AudioDoctor said:

and I regret ever giving them money for mediocre sound quality that is only improved to listenable standards by adding HQPlayer.

 

I no longer recommend Roon to anyone.

 

So what do you recommend? 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

10 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Euphony OS

 

That's an OS. What music application are you using? 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

Just now, AudioDoctor said:

 

Euphony OS...

 

They have developed their own music app from the ground up?

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

Just now, AudioDoctor said:

 

Yes, you should try it. It's an entire OS dedicated to playing music and only playing music. It does nothing else.

 

An OS is not a music application. So either they have packaged LMS, or developed something else from scratch, which I doubt. Documentation is not really clear... 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

You know, I provided a handy link to their website up above so you can learn all about it for yourself.

 

I just downloaded and tried it. Not too interested in audio quality (my DAC does not need an "audiophile" player) - library management and Qobuz is of interest. Unfortunately, Qobuz features are not any better than what is available on other applications (I have tried Volumio, USB Audio Player Pro, and LMS). Moreover, on Stylus Qobuz purchases are not accessible. Other frustrating limitations with Qobuz, on all players, is the poor navigation. How difficult would it be to navigate from a list of searched tracks to an artist or to the corresponding album ? 

 

I'll pass.

 

Perhaps Roon's forum is populated with evil Roon fans, and Roon does not answer every awesome feature requested by its users, but one has to admit that Qobuz integration is way above anything else. Unfortunately, I'm not going to pay the price for that alone (and I am not interested by Roon's library management/metadata management). Will stick to browsing Qobuz on their website, adding albums to my favorites, until something better is available.

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

1 minute ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

No one here will stop you.

 

That goes without saying.

 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

4 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

For Qobuz integration I like Audirvana, but I'm guessing you've already tried it?

 

No, I have not. The many issues after the launch of the new version did not encourage me to try. 

 

Addendum: library search on Stylus is pretty nice... 

Having a 30 day trial period without being able to play a full song or let alone a full album is really frustrating !

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

17 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Is this with Euphony and Stylus? 

 

It should be working perfectly, unless they have changed something recently in the trial.

 

Yes, Euphone and Stylus. Its not a problem, obviously, to check out the features.

 

By the way, for what it's worth, it seems that the music application (Stylus) is based on MPD. This is mentioned in the documentation (and in some of the licenses).

 

I actually use MPD now (with my own frontend), and I like it a lot: ligthweight (especially compared to LMS and Roon), easily configurable, and with many possibilities for developing apps (as I do).

 

The MPD database features arae poor but I am sure Euphony implemented their own library scanning and database around it (which is what I did as well). MPD even has a Qobuz plugin, but Qobuz does not provide the credentials for using it! They prefer to have their customers pay for applications...

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Thats weird, I don't remember it doing that. The support is great though, so if you want send them an email and they'll get back to you.

 

edit: I think I remembered the problem. You need to "register" the trial. Did you do that?

 

Yes, I registered. Thanks for the offer but I can continue testing even with limited playtime. 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Thats weird, I don't remember it doing that. The support is great though, so if you want send them an email and they'll get back to you.

 

edit: I think I remembered the problem. You need to "register" the trial. Did you do that?

 

Actually, got the trial registration code now - I had not understood the trial process.

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

On 7/4/2021 at 9:17 PM, R1200CL said:

So how can SQ be improvement ? Does anyone at Roon or you know ?

 

SQ can be improved simply by using a better DAC 🙂 

I get all the complaints about the lack of support, fanatic user community, and server performance, but when it comes to audio quality, the problem does not lie with Roon... 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

50 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

which one do you suggest I get?

 

Nothing you would take seriously given how much you have invested in your digital system. The point is, I doubt there is anyone here (with a "high end" system) using another software that does not implement heavy tweaking to make it sound better. So what's so special about your configuration? Did you really think Roon was going to solve everything? 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

Just now, AudioDoctor said:

 

I am not alone in considering Roon's SQ to be sub par, and when I want to listen for anything other than convenience I turn Roon off and use other players, specifically HQPlayer. Perhaps the question you need to ask yourself is, why don't I hear the difference?

 

I don't use Roon any longer, but I did not stop not for SQ reasons.. 

 

DACs, even those that cost 20.000$, are sensitive to what's happening upstream. You expect Roon to work like HQPlayer but they are completely different software, with different functionality! You can't have it all... 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

1 minute ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Weird assumptions, but ok...

 

You could have opened a topic to request all the Roon functionality to be added to HQPlayer... It would have been interesting... 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

1 minute ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

lol...  ok...

 

I'm not saying there isn't room for improvement. I'm sure some of the issues raised here are perfectly justified (and I had my own frustrations with Roon, as I mentioned) but one has to be realistic. 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

I'd like to see someone open a topic about sex toys as I'd be curious to see what similar hobby Danny Dulai would come up with to justify discussing it on the Roon forum. 😁