I think you missed the point entirely.
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Ah, you forgot two vital pieces of information, that in todays society, no one is accountable and that it will always be someone else’s fault.
What a bigoted thing to say. I would imagine the “sophisticated, educated market“ in North America is far too small (probably already saturated), forcing Roon to find ways to attract the uneducated masses overseas. Such an inconvenience that they don’t speak English.
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Roon may be an American company, but it has a global team that has actually taken account of the fact that there are other languages available than English - a fact for which I applaud them.
However, @BlackJack 's point is that the metadata providers do not.
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I think that’s the point. Roon only ingests in english. Metada obviously exists in other languages but roon doesn’t take it in. Duh!
While this is also true, the original point was that for the vast majority of people that don’t understand English, the decision for or against the use of a given music player software isn’t based upon the availability of additional metadata like for example Bios and Reviews – at least not as long as they are available in English only in any player.
Like it or not, English is popular and dominant as it’s the language of Flight and agreed across the world.
Also it is historically the main language of 20th century popular music, American Blues Roots music, Country, Rock and Roll, The Beatles and the Stones, Woodstock, and onwards.
This is not to decry great music in other languages and much of the above music has roots in African rhythms and the legacy of empire and slavery.
You missed the point too.
I don’t think so, Roon is a growing evolving platform and it had to start somewhere. I’m sure as it evolves and data is available in other languages, they will do what they can to accommodate it to make the product better and more appealing to a wider range of people as possible. In the mean time, we are where we are and it’s right that this is highlighted.
Let us all rejoice that there are many languages in the world. I have studied some of them. And learning another language at times helps you think in ways that English doesn’t even ponder. For example, in German there is a word which means “active silence” (schweigen). It’s actually a verb. But English has no way to express such a thought as a verb. (You can find it in Goethe’s famous Lyric Poem: The Wanderer’s Natchtlied. Even the word Natchtlied defies English translation, though it’s close to Lullaby, I think.) Spanish has to words that speak to “being” - one is a “current” (or temporary) type of “being.” And then there’s an enduring “being.”
Ok, I’ll set that aside. Because last night I noticed something. That at first worried me. So l read some things at the Roon Knowledge. And now I’m “in the weeds” after all. Let me say first, to those above, that generally I hate what’s termed Jazz. It’s just not me. However, many years ago, I was returning from a meeting and listening to NPR’s music program. And they played this music that was transporting! So I was very careful after it played to listen for info, so I could get this music. So it was brand new at the time: Officium. I happen to enjoy meditative types of music (among other things) and this to me was like Gregorian Chant but with a saxophone as “another voice.” My husband never liked it. But I love it! And it’s on Tidal. (By the way I did check out Quobuz, but to me it seemed they had a very limited classical collection.) The Tidal, even if expensive, seems worth it. Thanks for the info on cost. I just need to decide which price level I ultimately need.
Anyway, so I’m listening to this lovely music, playing at CD level kHz. And beside the music are these recommendations. Which I’ve been trying some of. So I decided to try one. And my DAC always tells me what kHz it’s playing at. And I looked at this new one and it said 192 kHz on my computer screen. Which floored me. But when it started to play, my DAC said: 96 kHz. And I thought: what happened? So this morning I did a little reading and went back and looked at the 2 signal paths. “Officium” had a simple path: FLAC -> Nucleus -> McIntosh (ALSA - which turns out to be a Linux thing that the DAC uses for processing,I assume), But the other one has 5 different “things” in the signal path. So extra processing, including “authentication” of Masters Quality followed by something called MQA Core Decoder (which is the source of the reduction or whatever happens). Anyway last night I thought there was a problem. But this morning I see that somehow the Nucleus, I guess, knew to make this change. Personally, I did like the one “song” but there was too much Jazz. So goodbye to that.
However I have learned. About the signal path. Which, folks, I intend not to mess with!
As for Metadata, I now know how to find it. Nothing more has “frozen up” but if it happens I now know what to do.
And I’ll keep my eye on that signal path. I can affirm that so far whatever I’m getting there is what’s called “dark purple” but to me it looks “light purple” - but I don’t have the screen at its brightest. So that may explain “light purple.”
There is NO problem. I feel reassured about that. Having read about the signal path this morning. And I see that info is so recent it was only put up last week.
So, long message. Just to say I’m pretty happy here. Things cost money. Nothing is perfect. But anything is better than Trump! (The music is keeping me SANE!)
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Qobuz has an extensive classical collection (at least from what I’ve found). I mainly play music in the classical genre, and switched from Tidal to Qobuz a year ago. The reasons being that 1) with very few exceptions the music was to be found in Qobuz; 2) Qobuz provide digital booklets (the liner notes, which are then picked up by Roon for display) for most of the new releases, whereas Tidal still don’t do this as far as I am aware; and 3) the MQA audio format (unique to Tidal) doesn’t interest me - the Hi-res formats of Qobuz are good enough for my ears.
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Thank you for that info, Geoff! (Sorry I spelled your name wrong…)
I may not have tried Quobuz too well. I stopped the trial after only a couple of days.
Maybe since I only tried for so little time, they will let me have another trial chance. Since I have plenty of time, I should go ahead and try them.
I honestly agree that the CD quality is probably enough for me. I’m not sure I can hear a difference when things play at 96. But it’s probably a good thing the McIntosh Receiver can handle higher quality as maybe that’s the way things are going.
Thanks so much for all your advice!
Hello, sounds like things are at least a little better today.
In your first topic, a weeks or so back, you mentioned your equipment and the upgrade you had done to the receiver to get the McIntosh Dac installed. That got me to wondering how much of an improvement a Dac would make to my listening enjoyment.
So ,with that in mind, I made 2 changes to my equipment.
First, I already had a Roon Ready OPPO 205 disc player that reportedly had a high end internal USB Dac. The OPPO player can be connected numerous ways, (Ethernet, HDMI, USB, Etc…) and I had not gotten around to trying the USB Dac yet. I can hear the difference but can’t really verbalize what I’m hearing.
The second change was to add a quality Dac to my PC for the Bedroom zone. The difference there was easier to express.
With the PC internal Dac the sound was flat, every note and instrument sounding the same, no separation, and it was like every note include bass like a loudness switch was on.
With the new external Dac there is an obvious space between the instruments and voices. A separation of sound and timing. And the bass comes in when it should instead of hanging around all the time. The new Dac handles MQA/Hi-res and with it I have the brightest star showing for the Signal Path. Was just the solid purple circle with the internal dac.
I believe the difference in the higher res music versions could be expressed similarly. I can detect the difference between CD quality and hi-res, even with my limited hearing. You will have options with some albums if you select Versions. There could a CD version with higher-res version available for the same album. Listen to them back to back. I do enjoy the hi-res versions and, in some cases, the difference could be expressed similarly to what I experienced with the new Dac.
Reading the discussions in your Topic/Thread/Post, on history, types of music and recommendations, and equipment, prompted me to dig a little further and find my listening enjoyment greatly enhanced.
Thank you for that. It seems I learn something new about Roon and Music every day.
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Also called, “America’s classical music”!
So glad to have “helped” (purely by accident). But it all adds up!
Cheers!
I’m now looking seriously into the Quobuz, which I thought I had tried, but it must have been something else. I think it will offer everything I need. And maybe more. It’s curious, though, because there are several different types of offers with them. Even the same services but “a special offer” which is more expensive than the one on the web. (Strange)
I guess I’m not very American then. 
I’d rather define myself as “citizen of the world” actually.
Glad I married a European. (I miss him greatly…)
But we spent the last few years of his life appreciating how great it was to have had so many years together. (So glad we had 6 years advance warning. Actually they told us he had approximately 3-5 years. But he lived 6!)
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I believe I never did try Quobuz. It was something else I kept only for a couple of days. Briefly looking there, I think I can find everything (just about) that has interested me in Tidal.
But how does Quobuz work in Tidal? Does it come inside Roon as Tidal does? And will it work just as well with the Nucleus? It also seems to me they even have more higher resolution options for classical than Tidal. Plus that higher resolution would be cheaper for the yearly subscription. (At least at the moment)
I don’t think I need to be purchasing the music though.
Are there downsides I should know about??
Qobuz doesn’t “work in Tidal”, it’s a separate music service. It integrates with Roon just as Tidal does and it works well with the Nucleus (I have one too.)
Thank you, Steve! So I download an Ap for it, which I’ve done. But once I activate it, it will show up in my Roon Account? Like Tidal does now? Do I use the separate Ap? Or will it be “inside” Roon on my iPad?
I am just so glad I got the Roon! Because I really needed advice. And I have nowhere else to turn. (People here in the retirement community seem never to have heard of Roon. Whereas I knew it would be a possibility with my DAC from the get-go. Just didn’t have time to do anything till after my husband’s death and the aftermath (including a 3 month trip to Europe.) So glad that trip is behind me. Especially - traveling with this corona virus? NO!