Roon 1.8 is exactly what I expected after watching the series of 5 video’s and the explanation of 1.8 by the CEO. I am sorry to say that the CEO, while I am sure he is smart, passionate, and capable, has totally misread the market and the user base requirements.
The whole focus on this is supposed to be “improved features” as regards to search, metadata, and metadata and search presentation. I guess there are a group of Roon users who are “power” users who care deeply about being able to create five filters (producer, bassist, venue, band, etc.) and explore music this way. But CEO dude … get real. Most of us know what we like, use the search and deep metadata infrequently, and have either robust libraries of music we’ve accumulated or use Roon Radio (I still prefer the original Sooloos term “swim”) to “discover” new music related to what your playing habits are.
Far more important is the need to bring the UI into the 21st century. IOS integration so the volume control and basic features sit on the lock screen and are accessible. An UNNESTED volume control that doesn’t have a completely unusable slide bar. And a much better use of screen space (a nested, tiny volume bar in a sea of white).
CEO of Roon, come down to earth! If you want to survive as a product, you will have to expand your audience outside of the core power users who care or want deep metaphysical experiences from filtering metadata.
If you want to survive, you need to find a way to tap into music lovers of all stripes, including people like my wife and kids who just refuse to deal with Roon. When I am listening to music and my wife walks into the room and says “lower it for a second” and I have to 1. Open my Iphone, 2) navigate to Roon (usually it’s not the first screen) and open it 3) Wait for it to discover network and update 4) go to the volume control in the lower left hand corner 5) Hit the mute button or lower the volume after missing the slide bar two or three times. At this point she is just livid cause I’m staring at my phone so long it looks like I’m ignoring her.
My kids say “this is stupid, just look at Sonos, it doesn’t take time to reload, and we can do everything on the lock screen.”
Roon also professes to be a music lovers refuge. But the best thing in music today is the curated music on Sirius XM. What real music lover doesn’t listen to Jim Ladd? Yes, I know the sound quality leaves something to be desired, but the curation is unmatched! And if I’m sitting on the terrace and want to hear Jim Ladd’s show on my terrace speakers do I care if I’m not getting cutting edge sound?
Maybe usability is the next tackle in 1.9 or 2.0 But as it is now, Roon is destined to remain a poorly designed niche product whose appeal extends to audiophiles or very detail oriented music lovers, while the rest of the world shakes their head at such a poorly designed product.
CEO -learn your product, learn your base, and respond to it!
Because I’m an audio nut and a previous Meridian Sooloos user who values mqa conversion I am forced to have two end points - an MQA decoder (I use Meridian streamers) AND a Sonos end point. I am forced to pay and wire this debacle because Roon is absolutely clueless to the issue of usability. How do you design a sleep timer without a wake up alarm? Just how does that happen? So if I want to go to sleep to WQXR classical and wake up to the same I have to use Sonos. If I want MQA I have to use the meridian.
It’s an insane missed opportunity. Insane.