Lately, I switched to a cheap mobile plan with only 5GB per month, which was fine for my limited phone use.
I was surprised to see that about half of my allotment was used on a 4-hour car trip (amount are approximate). Since the SQ advantage disappears when in cars (those that I would drive anyway), ARC does not pass the value hurdle for me.
But it does work as advertised.
ARC drains my iPhoneās battery much faster compared to using the Qobuz, Tidal or Deezer apps.
Combined with your data usage observations. It is my guess that far more data is being used compared to the streaming services own apps.
Data wise Iām okay with this as I have unlimited data in the Netherlands. With 50 gb while being abroad. But not so thrilled when it comes to the battery usage.
Iām still having this feeling. Checked the battery reports and tried to average and so onā¦ It wasnāt something obvious so I just put it aside.
I do not use roon remotes but it was one of that rare cases and I forgot to kill roon remote on the phone. And battery (that was enough for 12h) went out in 6 h or something like. I do not know if the two apps are connected in thisā¦ The feeling is that they are power hungry. But if I remember when I was using Musicast remote from Yamaha (and the phone was new) I was having the same feeling and always killed the app.
Arc will not shuffle entire library like the core. You do have to make a playlist to shuffle, or use Roon radio in Arc, which hardly ever works. Whatās the point of Arc if u need to make a playlist
Iphone users with battery issues picking up one of these Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter should help. This way I can use Arc at work, not loose battery life and plug my dac into it!
I use ARC almost exclusively with Android Auto. Fortunately, I have an unlimited data plan. Because my phone is physically connected for Android Auto there is no problem with battery drain. I have no issues with ARC until I run into one of the many mobile deserts in rural Nova Scotia (unfortunately, my volunteer work takes me there a lot) or my ISP goes wonky. I donāt blame roon for either of those, of course. If I am driving, it is not possible to switch to ARC download when the mobile/ISP issues arise but I do that when there is an opportunity to do so (SiriusXM kicks in automatically when ARC goes down). The only streaming service I have is Presto Music (really very good) which also fails in the mobile desert but is available when the ISP acts up.
I am facing exactly the same issues that you had mentioned, and a few more.
Arc on the phone is working reliably though via VPN. Phone connects to the home network VPN - then ARC is being used as though itās on the local network.
Tidal / Qobuz are working fine via Carplay, and there are no-crashes!
I think the recent update to Arc, has solved reliability problems on the phone, but created havoc for Carplay.
I guess Iām lucky. I use ARC when I go walking and it has been pretty much flawless for me. My music collection comprises Qobuz and about 800 CDs in my personal library, many of which donāt appear on any streaming service.
To be honest my only complaint is the sensitivity of my Pixel phone. Slip it into my pocket and it will sometimes jump to next track, a random track, a completely different playlist or simply app playing. But the same thing happens with Qobuz. It is so sensitive that anything can cause a hiccough. Anyway thatās not ARCās fault
I like the fact it is pretty much the same interface between home and the street.
A big YES to ARC from me.
Iāve been really happy with ARC. I commute via train and subway and have no problems streaming - it goes a better job storing a cache than the Qobuz or Tidal native apps, in that I can almost always get through 3-4 minutes without signal (i.e. between stations on the subway) without my music being interrupted.
Works great on CarPlay too though the interface is a little buggy. I made a feature request for a port to Google/Android OS for cars as streaming using the onboard LTE/5G would be a killer app.
It has actually been working OK for me last few days. Nothing has changed in my set up so Iām assuming there was an update. Hope I didnāt jinx it.
There are so many moving parts in ARC itās hard to know what changed and which change made a noticeable difference in function.
Using ARC on my Pixel 6a (running Android 14 Beta) and displaying to Android Auto on a 2021 BMW running iDrive 7 the noticeable change was that ARC started displaying album artwork (most of the time) and more importantly seems to work reliably for the first time. There are still modes in which no album artwork appears but I know where to touch the screen to select the album to cue up.
Initially ARC was nearly useless on Android with Android Auto. It has gradually gotten more functional but this recent (last month or so) change has made ARC my go to music app in the car. I wish the album selector would display the album covers, but otherwise the app is actually doing what itās supposed to do. On a recent camping trip I switched to downloaded music when I was out of cell range.
The carās album navigator lets you browse through album titles when selecting music from a thumb drive. I would love to have something like that working in ARC (maybe a cache built when the phone is on the Roon Core LAN?).
Have not tried Muse yet.