Not really a good comparison. JRiver keeps charging you for product upgrades when a new version comes out. JRMC 17 isn’t going to cut it today. Don’t know anything about Plex, so can’t comment on that.
But not very much. It’s a totally different stratosphere of cost.
I am not attacking Roon so there’s no need to go on the defense here. I am pointing out that when someone says “give Roon a break” I say I think that compliments and pushy criticism don’t seem off-balance in the forum especially since Roon is by far the most expensive product in its category. I willingly pay the price.
But if you are going to charge like a Rolls Royce, some folks are going to expect their latte and loaner car when they show up at the dealer for service.
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Factor in each upgrade at $20-30 and it adds up. Just saying.
But you are and with completely incorrect information. JRiver does not offer a lifetime license and Plex is 1/2 the cost per month, not 1/10th.
My bad I had Tidal’s cost in mind. True, Plex is 1/2 not 1/4 the price. But as I said, Plex is a totally different package that does a lot of other stuff - not apples to apples comparison from a pricing standpoint. When Roon does video and streams everywhere, we can talk about it. (But I hate DLNA and not asking for those features).
JRiver certainly is lifetime, but as Robert correctly points out, that’s not upgrades. Still $440 is a lot of upgrade buffer.
Even with all of that, Roon’s price is higher than any other by a substantial margin. Again, not being critical, just pointing out that when you price that way you create expectations.
But do you really create expectations or do people think, like me, fair enough that’s a good price for what I’m getting.
As other new or improved features arrive it just seems better value.
My expectations are that it will continue to do so. What I don’t expect is for roon to jump when I say so, maybe when everyone says so but they’ve been doing this for over a decade if you count sooloos.
Look here:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=74319.0
Quote:
“Sorry, but we don’t offer lifetime licenses.”
I think it’s both. If I were people, I would think “fair enough that’s a good price for what I am getting and expect to get based on that price and Roon’s positioning themselves as the premium product in the category.”
Anyone who feels ripped off just didn’t look before they leaped, but that doesn’t eliminate a reasonable expectation that the premium priced product in the category comes with an aggressive schedule to maintain that lead and resolve issues that prevent some of the features from being fully utilized.
I don’t expect Roon to jump. Plus all I said was that based on what I’ve seen in the Forum, Roon doesn’t need a break. They get plenty of accolades. And it’s fair for their pricing to create expectations.
That said I do not agree with posts where someone seems to be really angry that their pet desire isn’t available right now but a lot of that is from new posters who leave after trying Roon for 5 minutes and don’t give it a true chance.
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Semantics. The distinction you are drawing is that Roon’s license comes with upgrades forever. My point is that the $440 difference in price is a pretty big buffer for upgrades.
My apologies if my statement detoured the thread about what will be in Roon 1.6. I just felt it was OK to point out that Roon gets a lot of accolades and by no means is the forum just a collection of angry Roon criticism.
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Some sort of automatic notification when Artists in your library release new albums would be absolutely amazing…
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Display publicly accessible Tidal playlists in response to search queries
Qubuz
Resolve Tidal MQA streaming issues
What Tidal Streaming issues?
+1 … 80% of my library is Tidal and most of that is MQA … no streaming issues that I am aware of.
Tim
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I wasn’t pointing out anyone in particular, just some of the attitude - and this goes for most tech forums, and maybe our society in general. I realize it’s fairly expensive, but is that truly a problem in a hobby that reguarly sells pieces of wire for four figures? Personally I saw the investment in Roon as actually similar to an investment in hardware. It’s given me a lot more joy in regards to my music collection than any $500 cable or power supply ever could.
I’ve made my feature requests on here; Roon is far from perfect (whatever that is) and I wouldn’t consider myself uncritical. I also subscribe to Adobe software, and even with a huge company like that we’re lucky to get no more than a handful of minor updates a year. I do see a lot of “why aren’t they telling us where it’s going?” complaints here and elsewhere. I wouldn’t doubt they’ve white boarded much of what’s been punted around on here, but until it’s truly ready to go it’s suicide for any software company to make any promises to any of their customers.
Personally, here are the three things I would love to see: more user customizable UI, Qobuz integration, and better internet radio integration.
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We purchase a Roon licence based on what it does today. Since I signed up there’ve been a significant number of enhancements … while we may not know about these until they arrive they seem to keep coming.
Moreover, I am enjoying my music far more than I ever did before. And when I think that I didn’t need to spend £500+ on a CD player I am very happy.
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How practical would that be? My library is very modest and I have nearly 1,200 artists. The Artists page or TIDAL What’s New gives me new release information. How would you improve upon this? What are you suggesting?
Maybe this needs moving to a new thread under Feature Requests.
IMHO a Roon license is an absolute bargain compared to some “audiophile” fare, its easy to pay $150 for a fuse with this hobby, never mind special boutique interconnects!
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Boy, I sure did not mean to start a debate over whether Roon is “worth it.” I’m an annual subscriber and I have re-upped twice with no intention of unsubscribing.
GAn Early bird update last year was $20, they have the base price up from $50 to $60 I think so this years upgrade will be say $25. I haven’t seen it yet
But as I often state the 2 products are very different, a few commonalities but not many
They both play music
I maintain both, DLNA for video etc
Edit Early Bird upgrade is at $20 before end Jan
I wasn’t singling you out. 
Simply sharing my experience and suggesting that the pipeline of changes we’ve seen, including bug fixes, “maintain that lead” you referred to.
As an aside, I’ve never used JRiver. But I did buy Audirvana+ before trialling Roon. IIRC that cost around £80 and every major release since requires an upgrade fee. Although a traditional music player maybe this is where Roon is competing? I think Amarra is another audiophile player that’s arguably not “cheap”.