I’m using a Galaxy Tab A and a fire hd8. Both work fine. App on the phone doesn’t work as well, but a phone is really too small to get the benefit of Roon.
Ditto to all the above.
I’ve on my third year long subscription to Roon and if I’m being entirely honest I feel like there’s now a stubborn determination on Roon’s part to continue to ignore this issue. It’s beyond a joke now and insulting.
I have a LG V30 and Fiio M11. In both cases Roon is the bottle neck in regard to getting the most out of the device’s internal DAC.
Cheap third party apps are capable of bit perfect playback without the need to constantly dumb down the original files with endless and needless processing due to Android’s limitations.
I’m going to reclaim my music library from the shackles Roon loves to apply by not renewing my subscription. Fed up of requesting this simple fix and certainly won’t beg!
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It’s been a while because Paul has been patient!
We have a limit to our patience - it’s silly that I have a good DAP (the M11), but end up using just the Qobuz app and the god awful FiiO music app for locally stored music whilst I’m in the same location as my Roon Rock. Crazey!!!
It’s not as if Android is an obscure operating system.
However, I will continue to twiddle my thumbs and hope for the best.
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I can understand the frustration, but just to note, we’ve been working on a complete re-write of Android Audio since May – it’s a big project.
We still have work to do on this project, so it’s not going to ship next week… But it’s not being ignored, and will go live as soon as possible.
We really do appreciate the feedback here, guys. Good things coming, even if the wait has been longer than I’d like!
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Thanks Mike.
As someone who has worked on android apps, I can appreciate the challenges Roon might have in getting hi-res audio to work reliably in the background.
Unlike iOS where you are targeting a single unified platform, Android can sometimes be a bit like PC development in that phone manufacturers can provide their own implementation of some services (UI) usually with little or no information or support around the unusual and unexpected issues these can often cause to app behaviour particularly when it transitions to the background.
I have spent way too many hours of my life staring at debug dumps in Android studio trying to diagnose such issues and it can be really frustrating and very time consuming. It can also make predicting ship dates really hard as well. You can get to feature complete, fully tested and think you are almost ready to release to app store then one common phone model that isn’t part of your main test matrix turns the apple cart over and sets you back by a couple of weeks because one day it starts acting weird out of the blue.
Very frustrating.
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Surely that should be referred to as the android cart? 
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Hi again everyone! OP here. I’m back! I’ve been using Plex reasonably happily since last. Oct. But now Plex is becoming, frankly, a joke. As a result, I have to rethink my entire setup. Including reassessing Roon.
So my original concerns/requests for Android app were:
- Be able to use Focus in the app.
- Be able to edit metadata in the app.
- Not have the app crash every time the screen turns off.
- And also, others mentioned fast scrolling etc.
Does anyone know where those issues stand as of now, 10 months later?
Thanks!
Thanks Fred. One can get an HD10 for $99. I might be willing to buy one specifically for use as a Roon remote, if I had to.
I heard that tablets have screen size/scaling to where Focus, fast scrolling, and metadata editing become available, as opposed to a phone. If so, that would only leave the issue of app crashing when the screen goes off. Can you or anyone confirm the HD10 lacks that “feature”? Thanks!
Nothing has changed yet, but an Android refresh is in the works but not sure all those will be addressed ,phone is too small to use focus or edit stuff if you ask me.That said the app does not crash on my Tablet Samsung Tab S2 does on my phone OnePlus 5.
Thanks CrystalGypsy. Well guys, I took Fred’s advise, and today bought a Amazon Fire HD to use as a dedicated Roon remote. Got a cool looking blue one, too. I reinstalled Roon on my media server and created a library. I installed Ropieee on a Raspberry Pro 3 with a HiFiBerry DAC + pro to use as a headless client. Which used to have Rasplex on it, but Plex is dead to me now.
And…I actually have nothing to bitch and moan about. Like, at all. Other than having to reimage the Ropiee microSD (my own fault as I apparently I used the Ropiee XL image instead of the regular one, and it was stuck in config), it’s been excellent and has just worked. Took Roon all of 4 seconds, seemingly, to process a 22,000 track library. I’m now rocking out to Armored Saint’s Symbol of Salvation, which as it turns out, is a pretty killer hard rock/metal album.
The problems with the Android app that I had before do not exist. App isn’t crashing. I have editing and Focus on my tablet, which I don’t really see why you couldn’t use that on a phone but whatever. I’m enjoying having a dedicated remote device, and the 10" screen is nicer, for sure. Navigation is fine. The Focus related artists, recommendations etc. is a bit wonky, but not bad at all, more than good enough to be helpful, and fun to use.
So hey, I’m enjoying it so far! Roon, along with tequila, has made for an exceptionally entertaining beginning to my Friday night. I’m digging this Roon powered listening experience. Well done!
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There should be an Android update coming soon due to Android 10. The current Android Roon app does not work with Android 10, or at least on my Pixel 3aXL which has been running Android 10-beta for the last few months.
Glad it’s working for you, Lee. I’m mostly happy with my HD10. One minor annoyance is that the screen lights up somewhat periodically for no discernable reason, which means it will run itself out of batteries after a few days unless plugged in. But I generally can leave it plugged in when not using it, so it’s not a deal breaker. It’s also nice that Roon is on the Fire store, so you no longer have to find a backdoor way to access the Google Play Store (altho I can’t live without Genius for lyrics, which still isn’t native on Fire, so I still need the Play Store for that).
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Works relatively well on my Google Pixel 2 - but maybe the pure Android implementation is helping. Occasional hang s and crashes, but I don’t really notice the difference when using the iOS version on my iPad Mini.
USB DAC is not a problem as a ROON Endpoint. I use the DragonFly Red all the time. But there is some setup to do on your computer. There are detailed instructions on the AudioQuest website.
I have also used the Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100 in the past. No special setup needed.
Enjoy the music.
I think you missed the point that hes using it on Android device. Roon does not see or register dacs on Android at all.
Well, that may be the case. But you can still playback through the Dragonfly.
Connect the Dragonfly to any Android device and, if needed, configure that device to playback audio through the USB port. Next start the Roon app on your Android device and you can select it as a Roon endpoint. The music stream will be output through the port the Dragonfly is connected to.
I do this all the time.
No it won’t. The device will route audio out to it but it’s fixed at androids set audio rate normally 48/24.it sees it as headphones. Roon does not see it nor mentions it. I have 3 Dragonfly I am not imagining it. Plug it in and look at your signal path there will be no mention of a Dragonfly anywhere and you will have one fixed sample rate for all content and a lovely green light in Roon instead of lossless. It might be Roon tested dac but it’s not in Android.
Infact only a few apps on Android can make use of USB DACs at all. UAPP, Neutron and Onkyo app. The rest just router system audio through at 48/24 no switching , non MQA in Tidal no Hires from Qobuz.
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It looks like you know more than I do.
Hey Gipsy,
Neutron is a great app that I’ve used almost since its inception, especially if you can get passed the UI.
Now I’m not expert here, but what happens if you use an OTG cable? Will that change the way android handles such dacs? Just a thought.
Cheers.