I don't like the idea of turning on a computer every time I want to listen to music

I’m not sure how RAAT should solve my problem. Currently, the lack of DLNA support in roon is my problem.

But… to be more precise…
I don’t plan to subscribe for Tidal, Spotify etc. My amp should only manage the core music tasks, thus getting basic input and delivering great sound for multiple audio and video inputs.

Absolutely true, you shouldn’t wait for all the streaming techonologies to be integrated into an amp ;-).
And, for sure, Sonos is not a suitable product for me. I don’t need wireless active speakers, but really good speakers ;-). I don’t like the idea of being rather limited to a single manufacturer.

I only like to have a more… straight foward music system feeding my amp.
The current roon client is a good start to get rid of iTunes. But it still lacks important functions regarding cd ripping, file conversion, and file transfer for different/mobile music hardware. I hope they will integrate these. If so, roon would be a true music managing tool. And I have no problem to use a dedicated Mac or PC to organzie my music. But it shouldn’t be necessary for playing the music.

Archiving is very simple - just link roon client to an NAS - accessible by any other tools you like.
So, once having built the archive all the music is simply there - for anything you like - structured into folders, files, and some meta data.

My Synology NAS easily connects to my DLNA - yes Dee-eL-eN-A :wink: - amp. Airplay no problem either. And with DSaudio client on my iPad it is real fun browsing and playing this archive. Without any additional hardware ;-). Works very well. Try to accomplish things with what you already have, and keep it as simple and as open as possible. Avoid duplicate functions, use what is there already.

As to Spotify, Tidal… canceling subcription would erase/cut access to any subscription based music you listened :-(. Thus, no real archive.
But, what I like is the “Tidal shop”. It allows buying albums of titles you like - in HiRes - permanently. Real archive.
Integrating the Tidal shop into roon client would be great :-).

I need roon for organizing music, not for playing it ;-).

Currently, roon seem to concentrate on all the RAAT hardware. They shouldn’t forget about the central task of organizing music.

A final comment on rather DIY RAAT endpoints like Pi boxes. I simply want to enjoy music. I don’t want to get worried of how or whether certain boxes would really meet my needs to finally have a good listening experience.
Building a suitable and working music system should not end up in getting computers to work - NO FIDDLING!

You do realise that Roon no longer organises your music files right?
Since 1.3 Roon does not organise your library files and folders.

If you are not using a Roon endpoint of some kind(PC/Mac, RPi, etc.)? Roon is pointless, why even bother?

If you want a managed library that supports DLNA? Use Plex.

Sure ;-). Organizing with roon is rather limited, at the moment. At least you can manage the albums and some meta data. And that’s better than iTunes. You are no longer bound to the very few file formats supported :-).
roon told me they will definitely work on cd ripping and file converson in their software. I hope they will do so. If so, roon client would be a very good replacement for iTunes client. That may be enough for me. So, hopefully it won’t be pointless without any roon hardware ;-).

I assume this was a private message from one of the Roon team, because I don’t recall seeing any such commitment in the forums; almost quite the contrary, I would say…

Guess so. The point is, if roon software won’t assist you ever in getting your music to some sort of file, also for mobile devices - yes, even when offline - they would leave you alone with all the tools for ripping, conversion, copying etc. If this was their strategy, the roon idea would be totally incomplete.
There are many sources and formats for music. You have to get the music into the roon music library, somehow… also for offline.

Regarding offline use - we’ve just had that conversation, and I think it would be a good feature.

Personally, I’m content with using established ripping solutions to get music online into my library. With the rise of streaming, such solutions may become ever more niche, so I can understand why the Roon team don’t see adding ripping as a high priority. Nonetheless, I think there’s a separate case to be made for being able to add offline media into the Roon library.

Eh, by “offline” I certainly ment “not being connected to the internet” ;-). So, still digital ;-).
Concentrating on online content providers only, would make the idea of a more versatile and offline enabled music library rather… short-sighted.

Well, I hope the roon idea won’t end up in something like “we provide some sort of music library data base, but we absolutely don’t care about by which means you fill it”.

I think that’s exactly where Roon is headed at the moment. And it’s both good and bad. I was happy with the organized folders in Roon prior to version 1.3. But have now accepted that I need to manage he library (the files and folders) separately. Roon also don’t write metadata into the music files unless you export them, so that should probably be taken care of as well when importing music.

I use Beets to manage my library and correct metadata and write the metadata to the files.(There is also Bliss which has a webUI)
Roon reads that library and I use it as an library “browser” and server/player.

Without some kind of managing the actual files and folders? Any DLNA device would have a hard time listing the content in a meaningful way.

I also use Plex for my movies and tv-shows. So I’ve set that up to read the music library as well. Plex has great DLNA support and even adds some extra metadata (to DLNA). It can also transcode and sync to other devices.

It’s kind of perfect for me. Roon is at home where the HiFi is (and where I need a bit-perfect player). Plex is used for lossless DLNA playback and/or lossy streaming/syncing.

If It’s DNLA you want then you can have that and Roon without another endpoint by using LMS to UPNP an on any computer or Nas on your network. It’s a plugin that was designed for Logitech Media Server but will run on its own. It makes DNLA devices available as endpoints for squeezebox, as room supports Squeezebox endpoints you get DNLA as long as your devices support PCM as Roon does not transcode . Its a little fiddly to initially setup but does work.

Well, I think of all the potential roon users who simply don’t want to care about all the different tools for ripping, converting and meta data. Thus, an integrated solution for roon client, I think, is more than a nice-to-have.
This doen’t mean that roon implenent all these taks by its own. They can use external libraries to do so.
If they want to open their system to non-techies :wink:.

Mmhh… my NAS supports LMS… but then… do I still need a roon server or would the roon iPad client be sufficient?

Nothing happens without a Core. All an iPad client can do without a Core is vainly hunt for one.

That’s really sad. No roon compatible NAS, no roon compatible amp, not willing to add additional (mini) PC. Any plans to implement server for Apple TV (4th gen.)?

Hi, actually you can run Roon Core on a NAS and it works really well.

Check here: http://kb.roonlabs.com/Roon_Server_on_NAS

I know. I wanted to say that my NAS ist not compatible ;-).

What really confuses me… why the hell do they insist on using SSDs for their “data base”. If I/O performance is the bottleneck… on an NAS, may be striped… what the hell do they use as the basic technology for the “data base” needing such a high I/O performance? Or do they need more RAM? SSDs are still rather high-priced…

Mmhh… who will buy a new NAS with higher CPU performace and fully packed with SSDs? Having in mind that the NAS would mainly serve for a central file repository, not for a roon server. This is - sadly - one more reason for hesitating to upgrade or add further H/W in order to get roon to run.

Sometimes you cannot make the mountain come to you. You have to strap on the crampons and do some climbing.

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Mmhh… no, roon is not a mountain, it is no rocket science. Please, be aware what roon really is or wants to be, from a user’s point of view.
Undoubtedly, they already invested quite a lot of money and effort in making roon what it is right now. But, what vision do they have? What kind of customers do they have in mind?

I may be one of the youngest Roon’ers here and my dad one of the oldest and he is hopeless with a computer. But with a sonicTransporter (and the same with ROCK) he just presses the power on button and by the time he sits down, Roon is ready to play music. There’s no interaction with the computer apart from pressing the power button.

It’s just a small headless computer and a cheap Raspberry Pi Roon endpoint into his Denon receiver and it’s happy days. If he can enjoy it anyone can ! :slight_smile:

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They don’t. It’s simply the case that, with the database using the same disk as the boot drive, and most modern PC’s being equipped with an SSD boot drive, this is what most users will have.

Probably the same people that will spend upwards of $10,000 on a DAC with built-in streaming, which is really just a fancy soon-to-be-obsolete computer that happens to do digital to analogue conversion. Regardless, it’s not a requirement: storing your music on a traditional mechanical hard disk is more than adequate. The goal here isn’t to build an enterprise-class system capable of mining multiple terabytes worth of data with transaction response times in the milliseconds.

This old post by Brian is still worth a read on hardware tradeoffs, and the reason why using a SSD for the Roon database is strongly recommended if you have a collection of more than 1500 albums:

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/suggested-hardware/90/20