BTW.
A very high end DAC maker (who shall remain nameless) applied to get Spotify connect (at my suggestion) and got a ‘not at the moment’ communication back - citing they are only granting Connect Liscencing to the larger manufacturers.
So Roon too small for Apple
Boutique DAC manufacturers too small for Spotify Connect
It’s all a drag imho….
This whole thread is a very interesting read, but it makes me nervous. I see the future of Roon going one of three ways: 1) one or more of the big players open up to allow Roon integration, 2) Roon gets acquired by one of the big players or 3) Roon gets starved/sidelined into an even more niche status. Lossless and Hi-Res will continue to be the trend. It will eventually become mainstream and if Roon is not on board and widely relevant by then, even Roon enthusiasts from today will turn away. I worry…
I have to say that when Spotify goes lossless I will be using Roon less simply because I like their playlists so much . It’s just incredibly convenient to open Spotify and play.
This is not to say Roon is not incredible music software . It is. I just won’t be using it as much.
It’s the serverless part the one that does the trick! (with pros and cons, as everything else).
Absolutely true.
See:
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At the delivery level it does have to be lossless otherwise it cannot be decoded. This notion of lossless is becoming hierarchical and hard to compare as you cannot possibly compare the bits of an object-based audio (after ATMOS decoding) to stereo CD to see whether the former is lossless or lossy.
The easiest thing is still compare Netflix Atmos track bitrate against UHD Blu-ray Atmos track bitrate, although it’s less relevant to music streaming.
Noted, I think we should assume bit perfect delivery in all Atmos Music discussion.
I shared your post in reply to the post I quoted which linked Dolby TrueHD page saying that technology “requires lossless”.
Your post about Dolby Atmos Music mentions lossy codec based on Dolby Digital Plus , so I thought I would share as clarification.
I think Spotify may have a server or two somewhere in the chain but I know what you mean 
I think Room should specialise to the extreme. It is unlikely they will get Apple Music or Spotify or Amazon.
So it can go the ultimate luxury route of selling specialised server (US5K??) with yearly maintenance fee of say US1K which includes streaming from Tidal/Qobuz/other small fish or even some online store with DSD libraries.
When I took the plunge to use Roon, I understood that Roon was not necessarily a technology that would last forever. I would be surprised if Apple, Amazon, or Spotify ever provide a UI to connect to Roon. Roon will be in trouble if many of its users abandon ship to save $100 a year on streaming costs using user interfaces that are inferior to Roon.
I love Roon and I’m willing to pay a premium for it. I have, however, been hedging my bet on Roon. I will continue to pay for Roon licensing on an annual basis. I won’t upgrade from my Windows laptop that runs the Roon Core, which happens to work very well. I made sure that the Matrix Streamer/DAC that I purchased works well as just a DAC. If the day comes when Roon is no longer available or too expensive for me, whatever that I replace it with will be less elegant, won’t be as easy to use, and will more than likely include separate platforms for playing music that I own and for streaming from a service. I hope that things do not come to that.
Yes we all like Roon for what it does.
What is the key is not only the $100 or so streaming costs themselves. If Tidal/Qobuz’s library can ever be as extensive as Apple Music/Spotify then perhaps there is a fair fight.
But as we know, all good things come to an end eventually.
$100 - the price of a dinner. Is that what users will be throwing Roon and/or Qobuz/Tidal under the bus for? Sad.
And this more extensive catalog thing - what exactly is it that one can’t find on Qobuz/Tidal? Just how much music can a person actually listen to in a lifetime? And keep in mind it’s always best for the artists/labels if one purchases and downloads the music - easy enough to fill in most gaps that way.
I don’t plan on throwing Roon under the bus . I’ll be using Qobuz with Roon and Spotify or Apple with a family subscription.
Where/what the f… are you eating? 
My tab last night at our local casual pub was $140, dinner & drinks for 3 people, including 25% tip. 
Have you not eaten out lately? I’m talking about a decent (but not Michelin starred) dinner for two at a local restaurant, not a McDonald’s drive-thru.
I almost ate my tongue, thankfully it was so in the cheek!
I cannot wait until restaurants will allowed to open up here in Belgium.
If all keeps improving maybe on June 11th, cross fingers.
Dirk
