… about the number of new users who seem to be hitting the wall when first setting up Roon? It would seem to be a tough sell for several.
Being totally different from predecessors is great as an endpoint, but the transition seems unduly arduous.
No real point here…
It seems to me some don’t read up the knowledge base before jumping in. Something I think is essential to do.
Yeah, but let’s assume folks are just semi-stupid and lazy consumers. They wander onto Roon and say, “sure, let’s take it for a spin.” My sense is that the experience is generally a rude one.
And that’s not good for Roon, regardless of who’s at fault. Then again, perhaps Roon might not want to keep that kind of consumer. Dunno…
There’s certainly some who are coming from other music players, and finding it difficult to adjust to Roon, which as has been said by the Roon Labs team is “very opinionated” software. I think there’s also another group; music lovers who are not necessarily computer-literate who need a degree of hand-holding to get going. Roon looks quite simple on the surface, like a basic set of Lego; but there’s a lot of depth, and it can be assembled in a multitude of ways. There’s also always roon for improvement in the KB; it often assumes a degree of computer literacy, which may not be present in the reader.
And hurrah for Roon selling Nuclei. However, dealer support after the sale seems to be a hit-or-miss affair.
As a recent convert who is both an audiophile-geek and a computer-geek, I think the fact that both the kb and the forum throw around terms like ROCK, core, endpoint etc like anyone outside of this world would know what they mean can be a hurdle.
Also, while i understand that running core and end points on different machines is the recommended setup, it might make it simpler for newbies to at least test out the software if the trial was setup on one box.
You have a great point. I spent more time and effort figuring out my “transition path” from iTunes etc to Roon. Just getting set up for the test drive was a challenge.
But here’s the flip side. Anyone driving Roon on a substandard kit will have a substandard experience. At least I did.
Agreed. But at least they could be listening to music while figuring out a better path😉
If you ask me youtube explanations by Hans Beekhuyzen are lots more appealing but reading line after line in a KB.
5 years ago I would also have said a propperly written KB is ideal. But I recently wanted to use docker on my synology and after having read more but half a bible without getting where I was wrong, I tried youtube (as my kids do). And after having watched 3-4 guidelines about docker I got it.
Conclusion? audio-visuals do win over textual information. I think roon should consider to do some short 1-2min example videos covering some aspects which are completely differnt to other software. This will get more important for future generations of users which are used to get information that way.
I agree that the learning curve is arduous. There really should be an 800 number for new users to call into for help. The post a message for help scenario is very unfriendly. Someone said that new users should read the knowledge base. That’s not a solution. The newbie that has no networking experience that just wants a plug and play solution is not going to read the knowledge base. It’s never going to get past the people that can’t figure stuff out for themselves if better help is not provided.
Then it would cost $250 a year with no screenshots etc 
Why? Maybe set up calls cost $50 per incident.
People complain about the costs now!
So what. The original post was a concern about the barrier to entry due to the technical requirements. It was you that said if Roon charged for install support the yearly cost would be $250. I was trying to offer a solution for those that needed human intervention to get themselves up and running that would not impact people like you and me that figured it out for themselves. Geek Squad makes a living helping people that can’t hang a TV on the wall or figure out computer issues. Same thing here.
Your right should have just said I think that a phone support line is a bad idea.
Like any potentially challenging technical products, Roon would benefit from a coffee table book explaining the concepts and lingo.
As an option when signing up? And to let friends and relatives browse while listening to the sweet music that can be served up with this pretty software?
Having an online KB and a (mostly) user driven forum as helpdesk doesnt really cut it for a high dollar product. (I assume most customers find Roon in some way costly, compared to the alternatives)
If they are really approaching 100k members
then it would seem the number of people posting here for help would be a small percentage of those who figure it out for themselves.
The staff do say only a tiny proportion of users are on the forum
But we dont know the number of people who gave up after a trial period.
I think the roon team do though.