General: Lists: Add option for vertical scrolling with A-Z visual partitions (similar to iOS Contacts list). Adding as a new option would allow users to choose between horizontal and vertical scrolling. Default could be as it is today (horizontal scrolling).
General: Lists: Add option for small icon list views. Reference the Auralic Lightning DS app “Cover View” setting. Their “Grid View” is large icons like Roon has today. Their “List View” is the small icons view. Small icon view is great for mobile devices. Default could be left as it is today (grid view - large icons). I would prefer small icons when using my iPhone as the remote.
iPhone app: Add filter and ‘abc’ filter options to the list views (album browser, Tidal favorites, etc)
iPhone app: The default play action button and play action options “down arrow” button are too close together. Sometimes I accidentally hit the default action button when I intended to hit the “down arrow” options button. It’s not just a fat fingers issue, just provide a bit more separation.
iPhone app: Get rid of the More… function on the navigation menu. Just list all the menu items and let scrolling handle it.
mobile app support for sitting on top of a streaming service. (e.g. use Roon app to access Tidal account instead of using Tidal app directly when away from home).
Price: $499 lifetime. I’ve heard all the arguments about this being a good price per function application. But, I think it is a little steep. How about running a holiday special at $100 - $150 off and see how much additional development dollars you would generate. I think $350 - $399 is closer to a sweet spot where you would get many more users paying for this software. Provide a six month refund window for users who paid the $499. The other issue I have with the software price is that if I want to take the plunge, I would do it right by purchasing a standalone Intel NUC for the server which is least another $500.
Thanks for considering these enhancement suggestions.
You see, the problem is that this has been hashed and re-hashed over and over again.
The Roon principals have been steadfast, and have left no doubt, as to their pricing structure.
I assume they have actuaries that are more knowledgeable about these things than you.
You’re late to the party and for people who have been on this forum for any length of time, these ideas are tedious.
Nothing particularly personal, you’ll find that this forum is one of the more gentle HiFi forums.
Peace
BTW - I think some version of this is in the works.
Apologies if it came across as aggressive, wasn’t intentional, but I do find it rich that most folk wouldn’t bat an eyelid spending $500+ on some arbitrary audio hardware yet feel a need to comment on spending $500 on what is in effect their front end and transport, and excellent at that.
Welcome Jeff. The Roon Community Forum has seen this one (your post) several times and it stirs up a bit of a hornets nest. If you like the program, give it a whirl on the annual subscription and if you think it’s worth to you——upgrade to the lifetime. It took me 30 days to make that call.
Like all forums across all hobbies, best to lurk for a while and browse/search to see if others have had the same thoughts.
Many of your comments are in course of discussion by other users and some responses by the roon team.
Keep posting though as everyone has their individual soon on the same theme.
Concerning the lifetime amount: I only discovered Roon a little over a month ago and loved it so much I signed up for a year membership. I found lifetime too steep for me, especially when I only had a month trial.
There are some people out there that aren’t audiophiles that are drawn to Roon for it’s library management and extra functionality, the ability to combine local files and streaming content, and networking/streaming to multiple endpoints. Some of them may not have a lot of money to invest in expensive audio equipment (or even an interest in it), and $500 may be a little steep, or even unable to pay that amount up front. I personally would love the ability to pay in monthly installments for a lifetime membership, I would’ve done that if I had the option. I guess at this point I have a year to see if I find $500 a worthwhile investment in Roon (I’m 99% sure I will save up for a lifetime sub), but maybe a 2 - 3 month trial would be another option they consider in the future.
I feel Roon is possibly leaving out a large percentage of potential users with their current pricing structure, and agree with Jeff that a discount would bring in extra revenue, or as I mentioned monthly installments.
More users at lower price is not necessarily better. More users bring a wider range of needs and system configurations, increasing support and development costs. I’ve been involved in software startups, and it’s way too easy to be sucked into overextending one’s user base and ending up eaten alive by those costs. There’s some optimal point on this tradeoff curve, and Roon have a lot more information to find it than we do.
I think you may have left out a “not” in your opening sentence?
1 Like
James_I
(The truth is out there but not necessarily here)
15
Hi Jeff - please don’t take this kind of rudeness as representing the feelings of most forum users. There may also be a language aspect (many of the users are not English as first language) to the seeming aggressiveness of some of the word choices, I dunno, but there is a strain of forum users that are super defensive about Roon and tend to attack posts with certain ideas: one of which is the seeming high price for Roon and another of which is the idea that Roon should better integrate with OS organization - say, for example, that there should be a folder view. You can get an avalanche of nasty comments if you post that.
Case in point. And it is not like you NEED to read the forum and participate. People can respond if they are interested. And you would clearly be free to disagree with the poster’s suggestions, however “tedious” carries a pejorative meaning that appears to be piling on the poster. Maybe it wasn’t intended but I’d suggest people be careful if their words, and if this was a careful choice, it was not very nice.
My personal opinion is that $2k cables are not a wise spend, but to each his own. This doesn’t mean that Roon is presently in the sweet spot of pricing. High priced bling doesn’t necessarily justify the price of a different product. I would just say that cable is also overpriced.
Hardware has all kinds of additional costs that software does not: financing the acquisition of raw materials and the manufacture of inventory, shipping and storing inventory, shipping to retail or mail-order fulfillment center; real estate costs of retail location, and, repairs/maintenance aside, hardware will always do what it does and it can be resold. Plus, the price of Roon doesn’t include the hardware necessary to run it!
Roon is 4x the price of Plex and 6.5x the price of JRiver. And at least JRiver would work quite well even if they went out of business, and Roon probably would not work well without its metadata service.
I am not complaining about the price. I pay for an annual and I am happy with it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not expensive. And I don’t think there is anything wrong with providing that feedback.
A person can have tedious ideas, without themselves being tedious. Tedious can simply mean repetitious.
BTW - As usual you have taken a minor point in my post, while ignoring the conciliatory tone of the whole. I find these type of responses on your part, tedious. Tedious can also mean wearisome.
James_I
(The truth is out there but not necessarily here)
17
I don’t think this is conciliatory. It’s trying to sandwich several real digs at the OP in between smiling emojis.
This was simply an explanation of why the tone of one of the responses was the way it was. It wasn’t anything more, until you tried to make it more.
Again, if you’re going to quote me, quote the complete sentence, not just the parts you want to.
1 Like
James_I
(The truth is out there but not necessarily here)
19
Is this better?
That said, I don’t think the entire sentence is any less of a dig. People who have been on the forum for any length of time are free to read or not read a post. I wonder if any of those who think these ideas are tedious have considered that maybe the ideas have merit and that is why they get repeated?
It is the same on any forum, not just this one. Stuff gets repeated either because posters jump in without having a good read of what has gone before (this takes time…) or they think they are the first to have an idea nobody has thought of before.
Some forums have a huge list of ‘sticky’ posts at the top covering off all the common ideas to try to head these type of posts off.
Points 1 to 5 UI and Mobile UI
Answer from
Danny Roon Labs COO
[Jul '17]
Next major UI release is going to primarily vertical scrolled, with full functionality on phones.
I can’t give any schedules or details, but I’m positive all of you will be happy with the result.
This new UI is as far from current Roon as Roon 1.0 was from iTunes!
Point 6
Danny again
This project is part of a much larger effort to unify phone w/ tablet/desktop functionality and also make Roon “mobile” ready, as opposed to just a remote for your home.
It will take a lot of time. It is our most ambitious project
Point 7
Meh.
