The Roon Dilemma

I don't care for Adobe, but the subscription model has been successful. Getting Photoshop and Lightroom subscribers for $10/mo gets them many customers that would never purchase the app for $800. They would lose even more to Pixelmator and many others than they do now. It keeps many folks from discovering that they don't need Photoshop. Just as I have friends that swear they need Word and Excel yet never do more than type a letter or make a list which can be done quite well on free stuff like OpenOffice or is free on their Macs.

 

I think it has definitely suffered from some bloat. It's also gotten much slower and I think that's why, though they did fix some of the slowdown recently.

 

As this is a SAS thread, I'll point out those dudes should be using Google Docs for their letters and lists, as its one less program to install and OpenOffice is uniquely awful for reasons best explained as "open source Linux neckbeardery".

 

I've always giggled at the performance. I've always said Roon has excellent designers and horrible devs. You basically have to use a network and hardware stack capable of flawlessly streaming 1080p video to have 44/16 audio work correctly. I've moved my core from an i3 to an i5, but it's still a dog. And don't get me started on the mobile apps.

 

I don't do any more with Google than absolutely necessary, but yes. Actually most old the folks I am describing would be well served with a Chromebook, though they are the ones that are outraged every time they read of Google or Facebook abusing their privacy, yet jump on every free online game or quiz or other harvester.

 

It really is a curse, in so many things. Some non-audio examples:

• Google's constantly redesigning the navigation features of Maps, so the prompts don't come when you expect them.
• Google's constantly redesigning all its Android apps, so all the buttons and menus move around and drive you crazy.
• The new model of the same car moves the controls, or changes the direction of rotation for the wiper timing.

Needless change for change's sake really is a brain-cell waster. In my programming days, I used to cite "Mike's Law": Every time you learn a new editor, you lose a million brain cells.

 

Whoa did I click on a Roon thread or a XKCD comic?

I bought Roon’s lifetime sub in Dec ‘15, which I think makes it the piece of my audio system that I’ve owned the longest. I find it indispensable. It is delightful to use, their designers are proactive, and their marketing team has made inroads throughout the industry in a very short time.

Any software company these days is running continual sprints trying to address planned improvements, bug fixes, and customer suggestions—people (me included) need to get more comfortable with change being the only constant. If you like something they’re doing, let them know. If you don’t, it probably won’t be there forever anyway.

 

I gave it a spin a while back but didn't subscribe .. overkill for me. It seems best for Tidal/Qobuz users who also have very large libraries.

 

I tried Roon in January as part of my “get library streaming finally figured out” New Years resolution and purchased a year subscription. By the end of February, I knew that a lifetime subscription was in my future... I just can’t afford it.

It has tremendous value for me, as I have not been meticulous in tagging over these past 14 years of ripping CDs, and the “Discover” and “Radio” features have been staples for me AND my wife.

I wish $500 wasn’t such a large expense for me, but it is. The most I ever spent on a cable was $70 used, so I may not be the demographic referred to in the original post.

 

Paid for two annual subscriptions when the current subscription is up for renewal will update to lifetime.

Upgraded to a dedicated small green computer Roon server from a Mac mini. In my opinion you need a dedicated computer to operate the Roon server, whether it be Roon’s own product, a NUC, or my choice the small green computer product, I’m sure there are other options as well for a dedicated computer.

After switching from Mac mini the sound improvement using Tidal high Rez was more significant than I was expecting.

 

Roon will refund any unused months left on an annual subscription when you upgrade to Lifetime... if you subscribed in January and upgrade in June, the refund would mean that you would “only” have to shell out about $450...

It’s not automatic, you have to ask for a refund, but I believe it is their policy...

 

I switched to a lifetime. After six months I knew I wanted if for the long haul. I used the Roon Forum to ask about upgrading and getting a credit for unused months. Within a day I received an email from a Roon rep explaining the details with an invoice including my 6-months credit.

 

Yep. I am well aware of the pro-rate for a lifetime. My yearly income is probably many forum members’ monthly income at the moment. Owning a small business has its perks, but it also has its drawbacks.

 

Roon may not be for everyone, especially those with a satisfactory solution they like such as JRiver. I tried JRiver many years ago when it was first coming out for Mac and found it to be a big f'ing, buggy mess. I'm sure it's fine now, but I ended up running LMS on a QNAP. I never found that to be a satisfying user experience, so I ended up not using it very much. I am technically adept, so picking one or the other for that reason isn't an issue. Last week I bought a NUC, RAM, and two SSDs for storage, and setting that up to run ROCK wasn't difficult at all for me.

What makes Roon the game changer for me is the Qobuz integration and Roon Radio, along with the user experience for exploring connections to music I already have or am playing. It's sort of the Tivo of high-resolution digital audio. I have discovered so much that I really enjoy, that I might never have known about otherwise. That part of it is so good that I invested in a major upgrade to my streaming hardware about a month ago. That's saying a lot coming from me, a lifelong devoted analogphile who for a very long time resisted digital source for serious listening, for its lack of sound quality by comparison. The combination of Roon and my new streamer still isn't as good as my analog front end, but it's much closer than it ever was and is finally good enough for me to enjoy for serious listening.

 

I find it very hard to get help or any information about Roon. There is no manual.

Since I don't see a lot of value in streaming, and, the cool pictures and info that I expected to appear on the screen while a song plays don't happen....I just don't see the value of Roon at all.

I hear people talk about streaming on Roon, and about controlling multiple systems on portable devices with Roon, but, I don't do either of those. I have a listening room where everything is all set up for a great listening experience. I don't need anything wireless or controlled through an iphone.

So, when the subscriptions ends, my access to Roon will end and I won't even notice. I am really surprised at how little documentation and support exists for Roon.

 

I found this support site very helpful:
Roon Labs: Support

 

Thanks. That "Support" only helps to get you started so you can play songs with Roon. Or, in other words, it helps you do on Roon exactly what you can already do more easily on iTunes or JRiver.

I guess I was just expecting Roon to do more.

 

I found Hans Beekhuyzen's YouTube videos helpful with more fully understanding what Roon can do. A good place to start would be his video on the 1.6 release. He makes the point that a list of features on its own doesn't really help that much.

 

This seems to be a trend especially with smaller manufacturers and/or software developers who use forums for support and only provide a basic manual to get up and running quickly. Roon, Audirvana, HQPlayer, JRiver, Uptone, iFi, and Sonore are just a few among those who are choosing this route. Fortunately support via the forums is pretty quick.

 

I have found quite the opposite in my case. Whenever I have posted a query in the support forum, I always get a response within the same day. There is also a lot of support from other users.
It sounds like from your setup and listening preferences, however, Roon isn't a good fit for your situation anyway.

 

The Roon documentation is just fine, in my limited experience (3 mons or so). Just about any time I've had a question I found the answer I needed. When I don't – and that is generally something more specific to my gear – the Room community forum helps.

Last week I set up a NUC from scratch to run ROCK. The Roon documentation guided me through hardware and software setup step by step, and had me up and running within an hour or so. It was very complete. I didn't have to wonder, guess or search for any part of the process.

When I've had other questions about setting up and using Roon Core (DSP settings, for example) a Google search has taken me right to the KB article(s) and relevant forum threads. Anyone using Roon should really have no problem getting the information they need to configure, run and use it.

 

So why and how is Roon better than DLNA. If I've been using DLNA for a decade and had no issues why should Iminvest in Roon?

 

I've read and read – and read – about Roon, and come away with little insight. I guess it does something desirable for computer enthusiasts who like to resolve networking / multiroom / wireless performance. I'm (fairly) confident I could learn those things, but none of it is of any use to me. The bigger picture is that I can't discern a significant musical advantage that JRiver can't deliver.

Even if I did become interested in multiroom, I don't see an incentive to dig in any further than Sonos or Bluesound, where someone else has resolved the networking. As long as I can employ DACs of my choice, I'm good.

But that's just me. I live in Simpletown.

 

The first time I used Roon I installed Roon Core on my Mac Mini, went through the setup to add my Qobuz account and pointed it to my audio file storage, and enabled my Roon endpoints (Naim streamer, a Squeezebox touch and two Apple TVs). I didn't have to figure anything out. The online knowledge base has everything I needed to repurpose my SBT as a Roon endpoint, but the connection to the Naim and AppleTVs was easy peasy. The install guided me through the process. Then it just worked. I didn't need to change a thing about my network for Roon to work.

 

I like Roon and if I didn't have an Auralic device with their Lightning DS setup, I'd probably pay the lifetime subscription for Roon. I have plenty of experience with DLNA solutions and while a lot of them are easy to setup, the Roon solution seems to be the easiest and cleanest. Their interface is also the best I've used.