Roon is a essential Part of my HiFi setup. I got it when it was 700 USD something. A lot of money… the same as the Loudspeakers that I used the last 3,5 years.
But I feel like roon is well worth it . Glad there is a lifetime subscription … i probably wouldn’t use roon if there was only a monthly subscription. I’m so tired of needing a subscription for everything these days.
getting back to the point of the thread: feature updates and improvements after three years…
it’s funny. Kinda like the frog in the pot of boiling water. This frog has been in the pot since the water was tepid. Just feels same as always.
Our thread starter jumped in later, so the place feels different.
We all need perspective.
It’s indeed a fresh drop in the sea of moaning 
I was relatively late to the party. I bought a lifetime subscription in the first half of 2023. As such I paid the current price.
My expenditure on HiFi components is much lower than that of many (most?) on this forum. Most of my HiFi gear dates back to the tail end of the 1990’s with only streaming components (for multiple endpoints) purchased more recently. In total, and including Roon I have spent about £4200 - so the ~£630 for Roon was obviously not a trivial expenditure. However, I do not consider the amount paid to be excessive.
In my other interest, photography, I use CaptureOne for raw photo conversion. This software (priced at £24/month or £179/year for a subscription or £299 for a perpetual licence with only a a maximum of a 20% discount for a newer version) is regularly updated with new features and camera and lens support and, over the years, has cost me far more than Roon. If CaptureOne offered a perpetual license with lifetime updates for, say £1000, I would bite their hand off in my eagerness.
To be fair, I think Roon is well worth the price you pay for a subscription of Tidal or Quobuz, for example. However, that doesn’t apply to some markets, such as Brazil, where I live, where Quobuz, Tidal, Apple Music, etc, as well as Audirvana and JPlay, are charged in local currency and cost about 4 USD a month. So, Roon is roughly 3 times the price (plus 6% charge on your credit card for an international purchase) and subject to currency fluctuations. Still, I’m keeping Roon because it makes the experience of choosing music and browsing through the details of what you’re hearing much more enjoyable than anything else on the market. The other way to look at it is to think that we may be paying less than we should for streaming, which is unlikely to be sustainable in the long run. Cheers
I spent US$650 for 50 year old Pioneer speakers, got a free Denon AVR-2805 from a neighbor, and use an RPi4 with USB to Meridian Prime pre-amp. I paid for a Roon Nucleus and 3 lifetime subscriptions. Roon is great at any price IMHO. And, I only have 7 local albums and stream from Tidal and Qobuz.
I am coming up on 8 years since I bought my lifetime subscription. At the 8 year mark I will have been paying $5.20 per month for the service. I took the risk even though I did not like and still do not like the attitude of the previous COO. So far I am happy with Roon. Although I wish they would create a good solution for using ARC when people can’t punch holes in their firewalls.
There are no real good solutions that don’t involve a VPN of some sort. Implementing a cloud relay would be far too expensive, but maybe if they passed the cost back on the consumer.
What’s wrong with Tailscale?
I pay monthly (may switch yearly). But man I’ve had Roon for quite some time. Took a break for 1.5 years since my system was packed away. But I’ve been still going strong.
Tailscale integration is pretty good now with Roon Rock. But there is no way I can abandon Roon. I am better off skipping a dinner or two out than cutting Roon.
If you know you’re staying with Roon, definitely switch to annual and save $30 per year. That’s like a 20% return on your money.
I’m another big fan of the annual plan. I prefer holding Roon Labs accountable for earning my renewal each year. Sure, I would have saved a little money by spending up-front for a lifetime subscription, but I want to make sure that Roon Labs continues to support and improve the service.
If everyone went with lifetime, eventually Roon would experience declining operating funds and have little incentive to make things better over the long haul. Here’s some discussion on this topic from a few years ago that resonated with me:
Particularly this quote:
I’m also an annual user, who is not inclined to go to lifetime. I like Roon a lot and it’s the best solution I’ve found to meets the requirements of this household…at this moment in time. Annual fee is around £10 per month in the UK. Not a lot of money in my opinion. Since I moved from a QNAP NAS to a Windows 11 NUC I have not encountered anything like a serious problem, despite the integration of a 100,000 plus song library and a QOBUZ account. I feel for people who cannot make Roon work for them, but luckily for me (a non tinkerer) all is working well. 
lifetime subscription purchased many years ago
you know what they say,
buy once, cry once
Good point, and one that few people realize. There are also many who whine that streaming is “expensive,” yet they’ll spend $30/week on their overpriced coffees.
I pay per year for Roon, as I do with Qobuz. The cost of both per month works out to less money than buying two new CDs per month.
Back in the 80s through the early 90s I was probably bringing home between one and three CDs per week. How many of those stuck with me for lifetime? Not many. Some were played and forgotten after a month–they just did not click with me musically.
If I had to guess, if I averaged 8-10 CDs per month, and at least five of them languished for decades without being touched, that’s $60-$75 I essentially flushed down the toilet. Record stores locally won’t even take in CDs anymore–I’ve tried. Selling them via Discogs is a joke as the shipping cost is more than the CD.
So for what I’m guessing may cost me $27 per month for Roon and Qobuz combined, and I’m not wasting money on music I don’t like since I can live with it for few weeks to see if I like it enough to buy it, it’s a bargain.
I call ■■ whenever someone says Roon and/or Qobuz are too expensive…and yeah, someone b*tching about Roon when they’re sitting on a $5K DAC they probably replace every year or two…give me a break.
I thought it was a refreshing perspective too. Roon isn’t perfect, but that is on account that it’s trying to be so many things to the spectrum of hobbyists.
FWIW my audio gear is in the $5K-range (plus an $800-laptop as the core), and that was a stretch for me. My issue is that, and perhaps because of same, I’m not getting as much out of Roon’s managing of playback: I’m all in with “Radio” and “Daily mixes” where the moaning is more prevalent. But I’m happy with how Roon assists with my streaming: I’m happy with $40-per month plus the odd collectable CD and get pretty much anything (too much?) now.
Totally agree. I’m still adding to library at ~ that rate, but for a little cheaper and much more in line with my tastes. May not be sustainable for the business, of course, but that is not the topic.
Exactly if you believer and I’m believer I’m only 2 years away from having roon for free after purchasing Lifetime subscription. Totally worth it in my opinion, specially since roon getting more improvements.
Is there ever a discount on the lifetime subscription (black Friday)?
No, because Roon doesn’t want people to get a lifetime license as it’s not a sustainable business model. See the links that were posted 5 posts or so up from here.
I’ve read that, but could still be that a discount is sometimes offered. But thanks, might buy a LT when my yearly ends.