Do You Have A Roon Fallback Plan - Options / Alternatives

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I’m beginning to think the whole concept of streaming music from the internet across a network to computer devices is fraught with potential issues and maybe always will be. A good fallback plan is probably advisable and worthwhile.

My plan is Roon, Audirvana 3.5, and Apple Music streaming from Tidal, Qobuz, and Apple Music. I stream to RPi4, Oppo 203, iPhone, 2 iPads, and a Dell. I have unlimited AT&T U-Verse internet data and 135GB Verizon hotspot data plus unlimited premium network data.

Fortunately, this is not expensive since I have already paid for lifetime Roon and Audirvana 3.5 and Apple Music is free from Verizon with my cellular plan. I’m paying $120 for Tidal Masters (Best Buy) and $130 for Qobuz Studio. I dropped Netflix and premium movie channels to fund this.

Of course, 100,000 local tracks would be a good “fallback” to Roon also. I have 42 local tracks.

I’m also looking at buying a B-stock backkup Nucleus this fall.

EDIT: I forgot to mention I have a Roon Nucleus plus Roon software on my Dell laptop. I keep the laptop up to date and use it when away from home. Audirvana 3.5 is loaded on the same laptop. Apple Music is also, but I use IOS devices for Apple Music to get high resolution lossless.

EDIT: I also forget that we have a Sirius XM subscription for the car. I could use that on Apple TV 4K if necessary.

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Vinyl records and cassette tapes.
All good here :blush:

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Oh and about 178k local tracks if I must.

And my server can be switched to be an upnp server in a heartbeat so bubbleupnp would keep me streaming if Roon crashed and burned.

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Buy a NUC, put ROCK on it, never think about it again.

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That’s a consideration, but I like the “turn-key” Nucleus with 2-year warranty. A NUC with Windows 10 that can run Roon and Audirvana is of interest. If it could also do lossless, high-resolution Apple Music, it would be a no-brainer for me.

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Large local collection existed pre-Roon. All endpoints are RoPieee XL which runs Airplay and UPNP alongside Roon Bridge. Airplay is in daily use to cast non-Roon audio from iPads so it wouldn’t be too much of an issue to get by.
I have never tested UPNP on the endpoints though, it isn’t something I ever want to have to go back to given how terrible the experience was pre-Roon. The last audio-sever I was playing with just before Roon, showed some promise (MinimServer on Synology NAS) and did at least seem to be trying to sort out the CODEC nightmare that is UPNP. I believe it is no longer freeware though.

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Like you I have a Roon lifetime membership which I purchased before the cost went up significantly, so I consider it a steal with what I paid for it. I also have Audirvana 3.5 and in February paid a years license for Audirvana Studio ( On a MacBook ) just to see what improvements would be made over the next 12 Months?, so not sure if I would renew. My library is on an MacMini M1 in the front room and have a Matrix Audio Elements I in the same room to stream to. As for my Qobuz subscription, may not renew in November as I have so many local files at my disposal and may just concentrate on them and save a little money!.

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I have been more or less 100% Roon for 6 years but even so I have always had one eye on backup.

I have a large local library . I maintain JRiver for video primarily but (despite what is said) the UPnP → Cambridge Audio CXN is perfect.

JRiver doesn’t support streaming but my Cambridge Audio StreamMagic app has Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz support along with access to the JRiver library. Its a bit of a frab moving between sections of the app but I don’t stream that much to worry about. Also I can stream Tidal Connect or Airplay to the CXN from their native apps. The app also looks great on 12.9 iPad Pro

I tried Audirvana Studio but couldn’t get on with it , the UI is awful so my sub will lapse in August. I have Audirvana 3.5 as well but unused for the same reasons. Not being able to customize views is a major downer for me.

I have just move to NUC/ROCK/4Tb SSD but the NUC could be repurposed by installing Windows to run JRiver. (I even have a spare M.2 SSD with windows on it !!)

Pretty well covered, my streaming listening is probably <10% anyway

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Logitech Media Server living side by side on my Win10 server, sharing ripped library and online Qobuz streaming, Equalizer APO taking care of convolution, et voilà, I’m safe…

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I don’t think the subscription model is sustainable. I buy cd’s and rip them. Primary: Roon, fallback 1: Audirvāna 3.5, fallback 2: Foobar, or drag out the CD player. Fidelia is also a Great Player. No Tidal/Qobuz.

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For what? Roon or Music?

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As with @mikeb, I’m a local library user (currently with Qobuz for “previewing purposes”). For me there are many reasons, including a ready made back up plan. If Roon doesn’t work, I’ve got various ways (direct from PC, UPnP and probably a few others) to access my music. I also have a back up CD player for apocalyptic scenarios!

I run Roon on Windows and I’m fairly confident that I can sort out (most) problems that might arise when using Roon. Obviously with the help of this wonderful Community. :wink:

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I would likely return to LMS it’s free, I know it works and covers all my zones all ready. I would also have a look at Innuos as soon as they get network streaming all sorted.

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@MikeB There are studies conducted by Apple itself, which come to the conclusion that third-party apps are significantly more popular than Apple’s solutions.

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Of course, you always have to reckon with failures and cannot rely on 100% availability. But there will be no mass market back to LP, CD or download. The way goes in the direction of bundles where everything (film, music, education…) comes from the Internet cable. The physical things are sold as exclusive additions at a high price in a loyal fan community.

The own collection should never be missing if you want to get along for years without the Internet. I have maintained and cherished this with Foobar2000. It complements itself well with Roon. Each program has its strengths and weaknesses.

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Plex Server and PlexAmp for me though I would probably review other options that could augment this.

Like many here I have invested in multiple Roon Ready endpoints plus I have half a dozen Sonos device’s.

Tidal (through connect, Chromecast and Sonos) can play to almost all my devices but I have a 60k (ish) local library that I would want to use for 80% of my listening.
I would prefer for Roon to stay around though as I have not opened the Sonos app to do anything but perform an update or check settings in 4 years.

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Don’t forget roon said if they went under they would release a local version of roon to carry on with. All you would need are local files.

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I think it unlikely I would go for a Roon Ready end point that didn’t support DLNA as well . I suspect most do anyway

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There seems to be less of them coming onto the market giving the growing prevalence of Airplay and Chromecast (and higher quality BT for those not in the Apple walled garden) but yes I can see that might be good to have feature.
None of my network endpoints have it on them, but I could still easily play from almost any music player using what I have.
As @ged_hickman1 has pointed out Roon has a fallback plan for local streaming, but interesting to see how it would work given how all the Roon server’s bring metadata, reviews etc down to the Core.

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Zen stream can do UPnP and your Arcam supports UPnP. I don’t know of any other than the Matrix or proprietary stuff like Sonos that doesnt. Sonos is UPnP under the hood though just a bit proprietary. Infact I can play via UPnP to my arc using Bubble.