I have started to do this as I have forgotten I owned a few and now have duplicates.
i wouldnt bother, arc is completely useless to me because it doesnt allow you to play all the tracks from your library or to manage tracks within playlists. its full of bugs and appauling UX
A few things to remember regarding quality / reliability etc, when using Arc:
- it depends on your home internet connection speed, congestion at home, congestion at your ISP.
- it depends on the mobile coverage - 5g / 4g, or Wifi strength & bandwidth there as well.
VS, using Tidal / Qobuz / Spotify etc.
- There shouldnāt be issues with them in regards to bandwidth from their streaming servers (huge advantage vs the home-setup)
- The mobile network provider - 5g / 4g, or Wifi provider at office, - would prioritise their traffic over the Arc traffic.
To have a solid Arc experience - streaming music - youāll need to create a list of all the things that must be 100% right for it to be perfect - working correctly. Else, simply playing stored music from Arc on your mobile that you had downloaded is the way to goā¦
I had some issues setting up ARC initially due to my home network. I also initially had some connection issues that were either due to phone connection (or nearby mountains).
At this time, Iām not having any issues. I took a trip recently which was 7 hours out and 7 hours back. I used ARC while driving. I had no issues and a fully charged phone had about 20% charge (on Android) after around 7 hours of play.
I think the initial setup may still be a problem for some. Since phone service quality is critical, that may be a stumbling block for others. Also, I think that my T-Mobile coverage has improved recently which has made ARC (and other phone based services) more enjoyable.
I think anyone that does much travel should give ARC a shot. Your enjoyment will depend on how well the entire transmission chain back to your Core performs.
I like to use ARC to listen to my own library while I am away from home. Sometimes it connects and sometimes it doesnāt. Not sure why. However, Roon is paid software. They should be able to develop software that easily allows access to your server. Plex, which I also have, is free software and works perfectly away from home. If Plex can do it for free, why canāt Roon do it in a reliable way? that said, I have Plex when I am traveling, so I have options, but . . .
Depending on net neutrality laws in any country, I guess
I have almost no problems using it straight from my iPhone 14 while I am stationary. I do get poor connection sometimes when traveling, but then again I live in Maine, and outside the population centers, service can be sketchy anyway. CarPlay is another story, and very buggy, requiring restarts, and other workarounds, but, as I understand this is a work in a progress, so will look forward to improvements.
Yes, but, but back when I was giving ARC a chance, why didnāt PlexAmp have the same connection reliability & server connection issues I experienced with ARC.
Roon and plex coming from same computer, same wires, same internet providers, when Arc was having issues plex still worked.
I very much could be wrong in the following:
- Plex and Roon work in a similar manner that they need that initial connection back to Plex / Roon Servers, - Then, the connection is continued to the home-server.
Arc / Plex Client <ā> RoonLabs Servers / Plex Servers ā Roon Core / Plex at home.
The connection is not.
Arc / Plex Client ā Roon Core / Plex at home.
Plex is a larger company than RoonLabs, - larger user base and different business model (loads more revenue) - more capacity and technical capability. Therefore their services are more reliable in comparison to Roon. Roon IMHO offers a very niche product for itās select target market, hence the high subscription costs in comparison to other services. Their ARC service offering is still young, and software development capabilities are being developed in the field.
I suspect the above to be correct because when I enable the VPN service to my Home - Roon Core. Arc works perfectly fine as though Iām at my home wifi. If you can, set up a VPN to your home and try it then to see if it still has issues.
RoonLabs primarily is focused on the functionality - features at home mainly. Arc is a new thing for them, from ver. 2.0 I guess (from reading the above).
Personally, Iād suggest for the subscribers to use Arc - despite itās issues - provide feedback, encourage the developers to allocate a bit more resources onto it for it to become what we need it / like it - prefer it - to be. The less people that use Arc, the weaker the business case for them to develop it.
Very very true. In the land of Oz, Netflix has the highest priority, followed by the other streaming services. ISPs are also working with the Streaming services to add dedicated cache systems to facilitate the stream. Thankfully though - VPN connections still have a good decent priority next to TV streaming.
I especially like how I have to reset it every time to get my playlists to sync.
ARC 100% reliably unreliable: download-install-login-connect-pause play-canāt find-core[core is on and connected]-delete app-rinse-repeatā¦
1 hour playback on iPhone 7+ eats 20% of battery
Arc is not worth the trouble in any way. I have tried. A lot.
In the car I have satellite radio. On Carplay I have Radio Paradises and Tidal.
Arc? Why botherā¦
And yet none of those issues exist with Plex. My lowly LTE 3 bars actually does deliver music. Even on WiFi at home refreshing for albums is painfully slow when it feels like it should update itself for new content. CarPlay interface is supposedly out of their control yet it still comes up short of other apps. It should still read beta based on its daily performance for me.
I have ARC and Tidal side-by-side in CarPlay. After several good faith attempts at using ARC - I have usually gotten a bad connection or a whirlybird when I select something. I can only remember a couple of times when everything worked well, Iāve pretty much given up and use either Tidal or Sirius which both work everytime flawlessly.
I deleted the app. The unreliability and the lack of bookmarks are just too much of a hassle. My library is mirrored in Apple Music, including the non-streaming stuff, which has been uploaded. Maybe Iāll try again in a few months.
It eats my newish iphone SE battery to, its just a battery hog like all Roon apps are as its constantly using the wireless network. If using BT as it will resample on the deivce which will add to battery drain to.
Iāve had my 2020 iPhone SE for just over a year now. Itās battery capacity is still at 97%. And ARC together with Bluetooth to my earbuds drains the battery in a matter of hours.
If Iām using the Qobuz or Tidal apps, the battery lasts much longer.
ARC is a huge drain on the battery.
And now Iāll just go ahead and give my own personal answer. (YMMV, of course.)
ARC has turned out to be an unsatisfactory feature providing a redundant service with less reliability and design elegance than other mobile streaming solutions already in the market.
If it were up to me, Roon would cut bait on this adventure. But thatās only one guyās take.
It worked on one single occasion for me in between āunexpected playback errorā messages. Now uninstalled. 