Article: HARMAN Acquires Roon

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[PYP]

interesting!  Part of Roon's comment from their community website:

 

"If you’ve been reading our posts over the years, you’ve probably sensed that getting a startup to escape velocity is a struggle. That’s because it is; startups with passionate founding teams fail every day. Succeeding as a young company is a constant quest to balance serving the needs of customers with keeping the lights on and bringing on talented people to augment the team. Achieving that balance – particularly without external funding – takes vision, nerves, and a deep reservoir of reckless optimism.

 

In our new position under the Harman umbrella, we can lean into our vision without the frayed nerves. We look forward to being able to serve the needs of this amazing community with a tremendous amount of support and momentum behind us."

[PYP]

Samsung > Harman > Roon (corporate nesting):

 

[JoeWhip]

I prefer these! Picked up in Russia.

[loop7]

Predictions on how Stereophile will frame this?

[JoeWhip]

Not sure much to frame, for now. It will be interesting to see what changes are made in 6 months.

[botrytis]

I am not sure how to react. All this merging, while good for companies is not necessarily good for consumers. It means less competition.

[LarryMagoo]

I don't know what to think.   I have been a Roonie for almost 7 years and I'm worried a new owner might throw a wrench in the works.   Roon has allowed me to be hear more and better music than I have my whole life!    I'm also have a lifetime membership that I hope remains in force.    I hope they make a statement on what their intentions are......No companies make one move without wanting PROFIT out of every move they make....

[genefruit]

While we're speculating, the purchase does provide another avenue to customer's playback choices which could be used in a myriad of ways, without directly owning a streaming service.  Perhaps free Roon for those purchasing Harmon devices.  Maybe a "special" version of Roon that provides additional features exclusive to Harmon customers.  

[firedog]

If Harman doesn't interfere much in Roon, it will be a positive development. Roon will be availble on many more devices and be a more important player. It will also give Roon some more power with the streaming services and benefit us. 

[AudioDoctor]

The first nail in Roons coffin, imo...

[botrytis]

14 minutes ago, firedog said:

If Harman doesn't interfere much in Roon, it will be a positive development. Roon will be availble on many more devices and be a more important player. It will also give Roon some more power with the streaming services and benefit us. 

 

Maybe drop the price.

[daverich4]

With Samsung as the owner, how will that affect companies that want to work with Roon but not share all their inner workings with Samsung?

[PYP]

positive spin:  the Harman companies insist that Roon updates don't mess with the sound  (latest update apparently included tracking that increased network traffic, for example) and are better tested before rollout.   

[Marco Klobas]

Mixed feelings, as usual when a small company is bought by a bigger one.

 

Lifetime user here. I hoped to see Apple Music integration in Roon. Now the odds are even lower. Then again, Apple uses Samsung components in their devices. Who knows, maybe there's still hope.🙂

 

We'll see how it will evolve and act accordingly.

[firedog]

9 hours ago, botrytis said:

 

Maybe drop the price.

 

8 hours ago, daverich4 said:

With Samsung as the owner, how will that affect companies that want to work with Roon but not share all their inner workings with Samsung?

I'm keeping an open mid and hoping for the best.

My impression is that Samsung is very light handed with Harman. They seem to still be doing exactly what they've always done.

I'm sort of doubting that Samsung itself will pay much attention to something as small and several levels removed as Roon.

I'd guess that it would be pretty easy to draw up contracts that would satisfy the desire to protect IP for potential Roon customers.

[Shadorne]

/start rant
 

I am worried. I already feel that Roon has lost direction in the last 3 years. I find I am frustrated waiting for updates/database re-scans etc. I find myself fighting the user interface to know where tracks are and their provenance. Searches now take far too long - it is becoming painful to use (even on the fastest machines money can buy).

 

I am lifetime user since it started. I am finding user interface is worse than when I started. I am finding bugs when playing two DACs simultaneously. I am finding audible processing problems in several situations - for example turning on parallel/core processing causes audible sound quality degradation on my Mac M2 Max Studio. Roon radio used to have good suggestions but recently it is terrible - proposing garbage - I realize this might be due to it becoming mainstream and therefore more listeners have no musical depth (I play highly regarded classics from maestro monster musicians and yet Roon radio proposes modern garbage from lightweight musicians that barely deserve to be called musicians)

 

Sadly Roon suffers the curse of all software. Initially it is developed by people that use it (like Steve Jobs) and they keep it functional. Finally, at the end stage, the software team is full of people who don’t actually use most features of the software and they are just dumping new features into the application until the point that it does everything with mediocrity and no longer excels at anything.

 

I have seen this in my engineering career countless times - it seems to be an inevitable unavoidable cycle and Roon is on it’s last legs.

 

Folks, I am ready to look for alternatives - what are your suggestions?

 

/end rant
 

 

 

[botrytis]

6 minutes ago, Shadorne said:

I am worried. I already feel that Roon has lost direction in the last 3 years. I find I am frustrated waiting for updates/database re-scans etc. I find myself fighting the user interface to know where tracks are and their provenance. Searches now take far too long - it is becoming painful to use (even on the fastest machines money can buy).

 

I am lifetime user since it started. I am finding user interface is worse than when I started. I am finding bugs when playing two DACs simultaneously. I am finding audible processing problems in several situations - for example turning on parallel/core processing causes audible sound quality degradation on my Mac M2 Max Studio.

 

Sadly Roon suffers the curse of all software. Initially it is developed by people that use it (like Steve Jobs) and they keep it functional. Finally, at the end stage, the software team is full of people who don’t actually use most features of the software and they are just dumping new features into the application until the point that it does everything with mediocrity and no longer excels at anything.

 

I have seen this in my engineering career countless times - it seems to be an inevitable unavoidable cycle and Roon is on it’s last legs.

 

Folks, I am ready to look for alternatives - what are your suggestions?
 

 

 

 

I would ask in a separate thread.

[ray-dude]

I'm a huge advocate for highly opinionated software for this reason.  There are 50 ways to do anything.  If your software enables all 50, it becomes a mess (unless you have ridiculously gifted designers)

 

Roon had no serious competition on the feature front, so no excuse for where it has drifted except lack of focus (or feeling they needed to justify the ever increasing fees)  Really feels like they were looking for a way to justify a more premium revenue model

[Shadorne]

4 minutes ago, botrytis said:

 

I would ask in a separate thread.

 I leave it to moderators. The relevance of my remarks are my perception of a software losing its focus and the acquisition by Samsung/Harmon ties into my perception. Obviously many are welcome to disagree - it is somewhat a gut feeling I have about Roon/

[Dr Tone]

Roon life timer.

 

I haven't really used it years, just applying the updates.  Apple Music integration will never happen, after Apple Music offered lossless I've been pretty much using it exclusively to listen to new stuff.

[botrytis]

Just saying, if wanting different - that may help is all. Cheers!

[botrytis]

I am not crazy about a software that has to ALWAYS be connected to the Internet.

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, Shadorne said:

 I leave it to moderators. The relevance of my remarks are my perception of a software losing its focus and the acquisition by Samsung/Harmon ties into my perception. Obviously many are welcome to disagree - it is somewhat a gut feeling I have about Roon/

I read your comments with interest and would appreciate a new thread on the topic of what people see as replacements for Roon. 

 

Note: I'm not advocating for people to jump ship away from Roon. I'm very happy to see good people at Roon sell the company. They put blood, sweat, and tears into it for years. I also realize Roon isn't for everyone and people should have a good discussion about what else to use 

[LarryMagoo]

If there was something as good or better than Roon, we would know about it...currently there is not....Roon is currently the finest way to listen to music from a stockpile of digital files... IMO.....