Bye Roon, why I am not renewing my subscription

Well I guess it’s both but I’m not into it as I said…to get the software you buy it with the hardware, but I don’t believe it’s much different to the way nucleus is sold…you can’t buy nucleus software without the hardware but I guess it’s not a direct apples to apples comparison.

And not cheap either

It seems to me that if you include a function at all, it should work flawlessly. Why make something broken? New releases with super features are great and all, but squashing bugs is basic to software development—unless you’re trying to annoy your customers.

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What Roon needs are less whinges from people who seem to want features that 90% of users probably wouldn’t use in a blue-moon anyway, and more subscribers who want Roon to do what it is designed to do - play music.

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One would think you’d be quite happy with Windows media player

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Same discussion as here, isn’t it? :face_with_monocle:

Duh!! That’s why we’re asking for the existing features to be implemented properly.

So we can finally get Roon to do what it’s supposed to do without fuss and stupid workarounds.

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Couldn’t have said it better myself :+1:t2:

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[Moderated]

As mentioned so many times by others and myself, we are trying to highlight and get corrected, existing features. We are not saying that those who feel Roon is great value are wrong in any way, but simply highlighting with a growing frustration, due to lack of acknowledgement by Roon itself, as to the somewhat unfinished nature of certain aspects of Roon. I don’t think that counts as trolling.

[Moderated]

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Hi Martin-

I’m going to try with an analogy here. You probably like your steak rare or medium but let’s just pretend you really only enjoy steak well done. So your steak comes out rare, and you ask the waiter to bring it back to the kitchen and have it cooked a bit more. A patron at a nearby table hears your request and tells you to just shut up and eat your rare steak.

That is sort of how your comments are coming off here. If you have a real substantive point to make that is not “I am not OCD but you all are” then we are very open to it. I don’t think anyone here thinks their point of view is the end-all and be-all, but for your point of view to be valid it has to be more than “stop whining.”

Back to the point, Roon is expensive. The most expensive in its category by a wide margin. It’s not just a “music player” in the sense that it takes a file and spits out an audio signal. Roon’s own marketing makes that totally clear.

Now, the users here do want to use it as a music player. The question is, how quickly and efficiently can we slice and dice our vast collections to assemble what we want to play? Roon’s tools are tantalizingly close to being great for that, but in some cases there are real issues that prevent those tools from fulfilling their potential.

I’m also going to debunk your point about Roon wanting more users who just want to play music - why, on this earth, would anyone pay what Roon costs JUST for an audio transport mechanism, which is what you’re implying.

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Having worked as a developer and architect for twenty years with one and the same software product (completely different industry), I have learned the following lessons: Make a feature good or leave it out. Users are much more pissed off when a feature doesn’t work well than when it isn’t there at all. Alternatively, release a feature semi-finished, but make it so clear to users, and make sure it gets a little better in every release and gets done quickly.
It’s a pity that in most critique threads no one takes a stand from the Roon team. They could easily prove that they really have the passion for their product as they advertise it on the website. It wouldn’t matter at all whether they agree or disagree with the user criticism - just continuously show that they are listening.
I don’t agree with the argument that Roon needs to improve because we as users pay a lot of money for it. In fact, we pay for exactly what we have in our hands at the time of purchase. And let’s be honest: we pay money to an economically thinking adult company with profit maximization, whose survival is secured by looking for strong industry partners (Roon-ready etc.) and not by improving the metadata editor. We do not donate to a small start-up with the ulterior motive of being able to have a say in the future. I think this is legitimate, but Roon could still be more sympathetic here and there.
Conversely, as paying customers, we have the right to use the entire product as we wish. I think statements like “Feature X doesn’t need anybody anyway, just listen to music with it” are absolutely out of place.

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this is my primary gripe Kevin and went to some length to clarify the situation to Roon and also made suggestions as to how it could be rectified quite easily…

Excellent points well put. I am in the sales trade myself, internet based, constant streams of enquiries; take the time to simply reply to each client even if to say “sorry no news” or “will reply next week” or whatever… they feel they are being listened to. The old adage of treating people how you would want to be treated springs to mind. Simple stuff!

Eh, I don’t see it this way. But everyone will have their own views.
Danny provides comments fairly frequently. When there is something definitive, he’ll frequently say so (e.g. “No, we’re not adding Wifi to ROCK”).
It becomes a question of how much communication is good enough? Does every feature request deserve an answer? On those occasions that a frequently asked for feature is acknowledged (Mobile), the next question is when?, then, why is this taking so long? (the answer is “its really complicated, really expensive, other stuff has a higher priority”), then, we deserve another update (its probably still hard, expensive, and there were problems we didn’t expect).

You will never satisfy everyone, no matter how much you try. For some folks they will just leave (which was how this thread started). Some will continue to criticize (and that can be constructive if Roon has tough skin) and some will trust Roon will basically get it right, but occasionally be disappointed. I’m in the latter camp. But it takes all kinds for a community.

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good points, I think because of the growth of Roon , it need to be addressed more formally. There’s now a distinct feeling of a smaller company (which had more personal hands on contact with the customers) growing a bit more “corporate” which is fine, but customer contact IS important and I think it needs to be taken in hand :slight_smile:

I repeat, I am pushing for change as I want Roon to survive and thrive. Not for any grudge against Roon, nono, I really like the product and hope it continues to improve for decades to come.

The worse offenders are some of the life time buyers. Many seem to believe that their $500 bought them something more than a promise that they are free from any annual costs. That now they are entitled shareholders in the company. Absurd.

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For some it may be true, but from what I get here looks to me like the main coral with roon is the fact that is not even close to what it promises at the very moment of buying (Wowo > Meh, see the front page). Now, for that, I believe some is entitled to expect fixes and improvements, at least in some very basic areas as search, playlists and internet radio which are below pathetic at this moment and where any kind of development is long overdue.

It is true, but there will be no software industry if all that they’ll sell is the product at the moment of buying. Due to the very nature of the software development, the users are expecting fixes and improvements by default (there is no such thing as a perfect software) and the software companies have to deliver them, otherwise they’ll end with an irelevant product! Which is where roon is rapidly heading. But then again, it may be that a fancy, expensive and so so interface to a variety of streaming services may be very relevant for some…

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It’s all very well to say, patronisingly, “just listen to the music”, but when the music you want to listen to is “Serenade to Music” and the crummy Roon search doesn’t readily find it (whereas Qobuz does), then, since I can’t actually “just listen to the music” I want to listen to, it is perfectly reasonable to complain. I’m not asking for something esoteric, obscure, gilding the lily, just basic competence. I’ve not been a Roon user long enough for Stockholm syndrome to kick in, so I’m not inclined to defend the indefensible.There’s loads of players that will “just play the music”.

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Roon is lucky to have a community that provides this feedback, whether whiny, complaining, positive, whatever. I don’t imagine they would be better off not knowing where their users’ heads are at.

I respectfully disagree with this statement. Not that I don’t see it as a reasonable generality, but with Roon, IMHO it’s not the case. Roon launched with some absolutely fantastic, unique, cutting edge functionality that drove its adoption, but much of the non-cutting edge parts of Roon were meh to barely functional at that time.

Users adopted it on faith that these areas would be improved, and many, many have been improved. Roon is a much improved product over its launch. It’s the areas that have not seen improvement that generate much of this commentary.

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Hear Hear! (or is it Here! Here!) nice point; one of several

Why not end this thread before it gets even more embarrassing for most participants. If you don’t like Roon, stop using it…

I like it, perfect or not.

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