Hello all, I’ve been messing around with Roon on a free trial since Sunday. It’s impressive to say the least. I installed the core on my media server PC in my office and streaming wirelessly to my living room set up via a Raspberry Pi w/ a HiFiberry pro + dac with Volumio (was pleasantly surprised that it worked with a Volumio client out of the box, I was expecting to have to flash a roon client app and boot the Pi with that). Sound is amazing, and it works flawlessly. The Radio feature is very good. The whole thing is very intuitive and easy to use yet offers a lot of control if you want to delve into it. Tidal integration is totally seamless. In fact, everything is seamless. I love it. I’ve tried everything and this really is the ultimate digital music experience.
But - yes, unfortunately there is a “but”. Android remote apps. The app does work and is nicely laid out with a pleasing UI. But on my phone, the app crashes whenever the screen goes off and has to fully re-launch - see this thread for more. I tried it on an old tablet. Again works good. The tablet does not have the app crash issue. But it does not have portrait/screen rotation, and strangely it was stuck upside down (i.e. I had to hold the tablet upside down, home button on top). I was hoping to be able to edit, and use Focus, if not on a phone then at least on a tablet. The focus is such a cool feature to go on a music adventure, and editing - not that Roon doesn’t do a great job, but it’s those quick little edits that are more idiosyncratic personal preferences that I want to do that I’ll never remember once I’m sitting in front of the media PC.
Can any Roon devs or other staff comment on these issues, or as far as a roadmap for the Android apps going forward. I want Roon. No, I need it. I don’t wanna go back! But it’s a lot of money. Before committing it would be great to get confirmation that these bugs will get looked at and fixed, and that enhanced functionality for the Android app would be on tap in the reasonably near future. Thank you!
I’ve never had any real issues w/ the Roon Android app on my phone, but I really only use it as a play/pause remote and that is pretty infrequent. It ain’t pretty, but it works. Google basically abandoned the Android tablet market, so an 10.5" iPad Pro is usually how I interact with Roon now. The iPad Mini makes a nice Roon interface as well.
Most cross platform apps are rubbish on Android. Naims especially is just awful. Some don’t even bother, looking at you Auriliac. Roons is way better than most IMO. I don’t mind it reconnecting like it does as before it did this it would loose connection permanently to the core when ever it went to sleep now it never does that and also this mode does not drain your battery. You turn off the festures recommend above and leave Roon running you’ll have no batter in next to no time. It’s a busy app in the background.
For me personally the main issue with the Android app is nonexistant support of the built-in DACs. I would really want to use Roon app not only as a remote but also as an endpoint. There are multiple devices which can produce hires/highend sound and are based on Android: iBasso DX150/DX200, Hiby R6, LG G7 and V-line. Their sound capabilities are often better then any other midrange hifi equipment.
Dear Roon development team, please do not ignore these devices. With full support (native DAC capabilities/USB DAC) of the Android you will get significantly higher potential user-base then with the support of an additional exotic high-end endpoint.
Can you not use a USB DAC w/ Roon on Android? That would be disappointing as I was thinking of getting a Dragonfly or DacMagic to use with Roon on my Android phone.
For me, my (Android) phone is my main Roon control. I don’t have any crashes but the user experience is terrible. It has the rendering issues that many users reported for years, animations are bad or non-existing, scrolling is bad etc.
Until Roon drops this thing and starts developing a “normal” native app using Android’s material design like most apps, these problems won’t go away.
Such an awesome product doesn’t deserve a remote control as crappy as the current app.
I started with an Android in my home office. Ended up getting a new iPad for my wife, and I now use the old iPad in the office. Works much better.
My #1 issue with the Android was that after 7 hours of listening, it’d end up “falling behind” what was actually currently playing. It was easy to correct (reboot the Android), but the iPad has no such issue
Fiio X7ii user here. Would be nice to have a good Android app with native dac support. It is possible (USB Audio Player Pro works like a charm with Tidal and local files at native res, even DSD files); or indeed Phone+outboard DAC connected like Mojo.
I have a LG G7 ThinQ that I am using as a Roon endpoint. It shouldn’t be to difficult to implement full native DAC support. I have UAPP which takes full advantage of the built-in or an external DAC.
Was there anything in particular you had to do to make it work?
I bought the Red on the basis of comments on the forums suggesting that Roon would recognise a usb DAC via UAPP, but it’s never worked for me.
