I know this is an old thread - but first impressions seemed applicable to me, having finally taken the plunge today after lurking here for a while. I was holding out for the iOS remote as that’s really the way I’ll use it as I have a headless server, but since I had a few days at home I thought I’d just get stuck in. I’ve also signed up for a Tidal trial (Sorry Qobuz - don’t worry, I’ll be back when you’re supported) to get the full experience.
First impressions are really very good.
The setup was straight forward enough. I’d read a bit on here first, but it was still a pleasure to have to do a minimal amount to get up and running. I was a bit confused about the default iTunes path options, as I dont have mine in the default place, and they couldn’t be edited - I had to disable them and create a new one (no idea if this has the same benefits).
The whole UI in general feels nice, and there aren’t an overwhelming number of options, and when you need to configure something you kind of seem (so far) to be presented with the option dialogues at the right time.
I’ve left myself just in my iTunes folder until I know what I’m doing or what the benefits are of a managed system (well, managed by Roon rather than iTunes).
Loved the zones thing - took me only a few minutes to work out what was going on (after realising I didn’t need the local playback speakers etc enabled). I only have one zone at the moment, but I can see this will be amazing when get something supporting Roon in kitchen/bedroom.
I seem to have a proper connection (purple?) to my Devialet over USB ticking the usual options and not a hitch so far. Whether it’s better/worse SQ than Devialet’s Air and the setup I was using before I’ll save for another time….
Not much more I can say as it’s a new piece of software that I don’t really know how it works, but I think I’m going to enjoy finding out. I feel a bit out of my comfort zone not just having a classic setup of albums/genres/artists - I feel I could get lost in here, but maybe it doesnt matter.
My most used feature in the first few hours is clicking on artists I know (mainly electronic so far), and following through to the ‘similar’ and ‘followed’ (no idea what that means) to discover new stuff.
There are three things I’m immediately not so keen on so far, which I will note as they are real first impressions - it may well be configurable or just take some getting used to:
-Play. Yes, really! When i hit play I really do want to play NOW. I don’t want to confirm or have to make another press. After such a slick UI this seems a bit overkill, akin to ‘do you really want to delete all your files’? Maybe I’m doing it wrong but I would prefer a ‘Play’ and an ‘add to playlist’ which wouldn’t take much of the beautiful real-estate.
-I dont particularly like the order of information presented - individual favoured tracks first for example, as I rarely listen like that. But it’s new, I need to explore and see how it all works first.
-Switch from vertical to horizontal scroll is a bit odd. It means you don’t quite know which way to go - you get used to one way and then things stop moving and you realise you have to go another way. I do like the pages rather than perpetual scroll though.
So, that’s just first impressions, I love the interface so far its such a change from all the other Audio Applications I’ve used its hard to understand how no-one managed to do this much sooner - but hats off to the team. Initially I did feel a perpetual subscription to play my music was a bit too much of an expense, but I can see the logic especially in a ‘lifetime’ membership.
I hope iOS comes out before my trials ends so I can test it too, but if not, I’m enjoying the remote application - that too is a very slick way of doing things and I have it on both laptops to test (the remote access needing to be enabled caught me out though, finding that wasn’t so obvious to me).
Yes, I’m feeling guilty about Qobuz, but enjoying some new music to take my mind off it.
Thanks Roon team.