Don’t think it’ll be a game changer. Considering the amount of tinkering with port forwarding, NATs etc, it’ll be limited to either the tech tinkering types or those who are lucky enough to have an ISP and router that just happens to work seamlessly.
I don’t know how other music server software work, maybe there’s no easier way. If so, this’ll stay in the tinkerers domain until the technology catches up.
It also doubles the support requests to Roon I expect. (Which was high already,). Hope they’ve hired extra people to deal with Arc issues
I agree, car music is so much better. I also have Tidal and Qobuz, so I am not restricted to listening to only one streaming service at a time, ARC pulls in music from both.
I am far far away for being considered a huge supporter for Roon. In fact I was litlle upset when I made an investment just for being able to do a 14-days free test
The information that retrieves from music and some interesting connections and discovers done in these days in both music and musicians made me keep it working after trial
I open a ticket for the very same reasons yoy explain and in my case the poor connection between my library (NAS) and my Roon core (a Windows Pc) was the reason
I tell you this as sure as today I put on the same switch both NAS and Roon core et voilà! Flawless working under WiFi and 4g
It doesn’t mean it would be interesting enough for your needs, or your set-up is quite different from mine but I must share this to you for feeling honest.
For me it is a good addition. I have an SSD in the car but am lazy and don’t update it. I stay away in the UK overnight a bit and find my Qobuz app a bit hard to use but only because I don’t use it much as mainly use Roon at home.
The last two days I used ARC on an overnight business trip to North Devon and only lost signal once but it restarted flawlessly when signal came back. Signal mainly low 3G. On the way back today with no mist and rain it did not cut out at all on exactly the same route.Thumbs up Roon as I can’t hold you responsible for the UK weather. I used it for 6 hours over two days in the car and used 0.8g of my EE data so was impressed with the lack of usage. Can’t really vault it. Qobuz App is no longer needed and BBC Radio 4 is getting too depressing at present.
Had average WiFi at a Hotel and it was great with my little DAC headphone setup.
I had to research the port forwarding but the BT (UK) router I am using has a very useful website and I just fiollowed that and was surprised I got it going so quickly.
For me it is great. I just need to take my power bank with me if out and about but then on the mountain bike I can only pick up Sat nav and it is not really “getting free” so may give it a miss when in the Welsh hills.
After doing an a/b comparison of ARC vs. USB Audio Player Pro (USBAPP), I found the sound quality to be far superior using USBAPP. The ladder has the ability to stream native quality mqa to my dragonfly red, whereas ARC seems lossy and compressed. It was like I had suddenly downgraded my IEMs. I’m not really seeing a use case for ARC at this point.
I wasn’t excited about ARC in the beginning and it took some effort to make it work. But now I do find it a game changer. My fiancee has a 1989 Kenwood stereo system for her listening enjoyment I purchased a Node 2i, connected it to her AUX jacks and now we have my Roon at her place minus the horsepower
Game changer? Probably not. But if it attracts some more subscribers, then why not. However the way I use Roon with two cores in two locations, ARC doesn’t add any value for me, I just don’t need it.
For me, it is definitely a game changer. Being able to access my library on my 40-minute commute is great. I hope it does eventually get added to Carplay.
The biggest plus for us, however, is just grabbing the iPad when we go to our cabin in the mountains, instead of packing up the NUC, SSD, and Dragonfly. I have a set of Peachtree-powered speakers, and using an older Apple TV with optical out, I have Airplay to the optical input. That and the two Sonos give me a nice ready-made group.
Yes, of course - however what I’m saying is the Xperia has dedicated LDAC that feeds their Bluetooth and a dedicated DAC to feed the 3.5 output. They claim 24/96 on both, but the Bluetooth requires a headset that understands LDAC to get those sort of numbers.
Here’s an interesting write-up on the BT LDAC support;
Here’s Valour talking about the audio capabilities of the Xperia 1iii as well:
It will be a game changer when it gets hacked for the first time. And it will get hacked, just like all the remote applications of the various NAS vendors before. Hence a function to fully deactivate ARC in the Core settings is absolutely mandatory. I know the workaround, but it is shocking, although not unexpected, that Roon hasnt implemented a simple deactivate button. ARC should be deactivated by default and only activated if you know what you’re doing.
Besides the security concerns, ARC for me personally is a nice idea, but useless. I have all my music files in my phone/car/tablet already and can use the Tidal app if I have a good network outside, so really no use for me.
I understand that for other people it might be a killer feature and I’m happy for them. But as said Roon must allow the user to decide.
I run both Roon and PlexAmp - Roon for inside the house, PlexAmp for outside. I use SoundIiz to sync the playlists (via QoBuz in the case of Roon, since Roon doesn’t provide a way for it’s playlists to be auto-imported.)
PlexAmp works great outside the home - especially since fidelity isn’t terribly important when wandering around a busy city. Additionally, PlexAmp supports both Android Auto and Carplay…so that integration is already there.
When I am offline, I use the 1TB SD card on my phone (Sony Xperia 1iii) to playback. The phone syncs each night to my music directory, and reads in exported Plex playlists just fine.
So I’m covered on all fronts:
home: Roon, High Fidelity
Out-and-about: PlexAmp
Offline: Music directory on my phone
I think Roon ARC is a game changer for some and not others. If you have a lot of local music files and no Tidal or Qobuz streaming service or Apple Music, then yes.
If, like me, you have no local music files but have Tidal, Qobuz, and Apple Music, then no.
The question is how many customers fall into those two categories as well as a third category of Roon customers, those who have local files but don’t want to fool with Roon ARC.
You have a server on your network that you don’t trust, and you want it to have a switch to turn off some functionality. As you don’t trust the server, it makes no sense to trust this switch. The sensible solution is to turn off the port forwarding on your router, then it’s irrelevant whether you trust the server
I do not have Tidal and Apple Music, I used to use iOS Qobuz while driving, but the experience was very frustrating, and the app crashes a lot. So Roon ARC is a game changer even I am streaming Qobuz, and I like the Roon Radio feature, and I can’t wait for the forthcoming Live Radio.
I purchased a Node 2i, connected it to her AUX jacks and now we have my Roon at her place minus the horsepower 
