Last time I used l that it was still iTunes. The most disgusting UI and weirdest user concept I suffered from being an Apple user forever. Didn’t even look into the new stuff. Any better?
On iOS Apple Music is nice.
Apple Music on macOS is still ugly and slow like iTunes.
Improving each year though.
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At least one thesis we would agree on 
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I interpreted the competition that @Francois_De_Heel was referring to as something that would provide a near-equivalent alternative for people who love what Roon offers (when it works well)
Having used iTunes for years before Roon (and having found Roon an immensely superior experience) and despite Mac being my primary platform, I have trouble seeing Apple providing a replacement for the good aspects of the Roon experience.
I would see an Apple offering as threatening the streaming services that Roon relies on, and hence as threatening the existence of Roon, except for people who only use local music, who may not be a large enough base to keep Roon healthy.
Just speculating here, of course.
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Setup costs for Apple Music: Nil
Setup costs for Roon: £300+ (Core) plus ongoing subscription costs
Apple can - if they have to - create nice professional UIs. See the discontinued Aperture for example. Question is if they ever will open up one service beyond their ecosystem. I strongly doubt that.
No chance. I don’t think Roon will even bother wasting their time attempting to get Apple Music integrated. It’s a non-starter.
Not quite, I’d need to have to replace 5 of my zones to devices that support Chromecast or buy an iPad, ipnone and a mac. None of which I would entertain.
According to the piece on 9to5mac Apple may also be offering Dolby Atmos. I wonder whether there is a possible future connection with their VR headsets, or some kind of object oriented audio. Stereo has been around for a hundred years or so. So much more should be possible nowadays.
Agree…and like you said Apple can blow away Roon in a blink of an eye: they have itunes/apple music for stored files + streaming services + cloud music that can upload all your files and u can access them everywhere (probably discontinued now)…but the point is that they already have all the technology and capabilities to do that (if they want to) and a tiny piece of software like Roon can really disappear in a moment…let’s see
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I do hope not. I love Roon. But I do worry about the relevance of Roon in an Apple ecosystem that includes both Airplay 2 and a potential Apple Hi-Fi subscription tier.
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Especially if I can up load my entire library to ICloud in CD quality And play anything I want via Car Play etc.
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This is all just pure speculation. All the stories I’ve seen are quoting each other, from the same single source: APPLE GOING HI-FI?, which even 9to5 calls a Sketchy rumor. Will it come to anything?
Maybe it will come to something:
Agreed, but the Apple Music interface is just horrible - quite possibly the worst thing they have ever produced.
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Is Airplay 2 bit-perfect? Genuine question — I stopped using Airplay1 a while ago because it never worked reliably for me and have never used Airplay 2.
I’ve been looking for information on this and didn’t easily find anything definitive.
If not bit perfect, wouldn’t that be a drawback for Roon users? (Especially for playing ones own local high res files)
Has anyone actually managed to identify Bit perfect over a non bit perfect track under normal listening conditions?
This is good news for consumers. With this and other recent “hi-fi” announcements, lossless streaming is coming into the mainstream.
Whatever Apple does, though, won’t likely affect anyone not already all in on the Apple ecosphere.
It’s at least good for competition.
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