While I like the UI, it pretty much stops there. It fails as a solution on several major fronts, that mpd and MPDs variants has wins on.
There is no agreement with Spotify or other significant partner and it looks like that won’t happen.
As many have expressed there is no folder view or filtering by folder, and its a blatant lie that this is difficult or out of scope. Roon db knows exactly where the file is. Many have invested time in other systems to order things by folder. Many of us are multicultural and don’t want our indian/chinese/etc music shuffling in and out. Roon Development seems to have no respect for that and as a result I have little respect for roons egregious error in vision.
Roon plays Christmas music in July - doesn’t seem to be an exclusion feature based on time or folder.
Roon has no global-cache IP or RS232 device control capability.
Roon is very expensive for what it is. ( a music player)
Roon has exhibited stuttering on a few 24bit tracks.
Sorry to go, it shows promise but 2, 3 and 6 are barriers to adoption.
Hello @Stan_M. Welcome to the forum. It’s unfortunate that you waited to the end of your trial to raise the points. Whilst Roon may not be the right product for you some of the things you mention are either solvable or there is good reason for the way they are.
Spotify has its uses, but Hi-Fi quality streaming ain’t one of them. You have a choice of integrating Qobuz or Tidal, or both, with Roon. Take your pick!
Roon doesn’t ‘work’ with folders, and doesn’t need to. Roon’s database obviates the need to use folders to navigate. If you want such an unsophisticated method of browsing your library, there are plenty of free/low-cost alternatives out there.
‘Value is in the eye of the beholder’! I actually find Roon to be one of the best purchases I’ve made. But everyone to their own.
Stuttering is a network problem, and nothing at all to do with Roon. I can stream 24/192 from Qobuz without any problem whatsoever. Thankfully, my network is fast, and stable.
It sound’s like Roon isn’t for you. Good luck in finding what what you’re looking for. Goodbye.
Your post here is exactly why you get a Free Trial. So it’s clear Roon is not for you. That’s OK.
Regarding Folder structure. Roon have posted extensively about this and their decisions regarding it. With some simple searching or asking this could easily be found and studied and should be no of surprise to anyone.
As someone has already stated, stuttering will be a network issue or a core below minimum specs, nothing to do with Roon or it would not have survived this long.
Roon is also constantly evolving and is so much more a product than it was when I first committed to a lifetime subscription. This being the case, do come back again in a year or two to have another look. I appreciate Roon will not be for everyone… it is what it is…
Regards the cost (I call it investment), It’s been an absolute bargain for me when compared to any Hi Fi hardware purchase. It was certainly cheaper than my Meridian 506 CD player which lies gathering dust and I have lost none of the sound quality only gaining convenience with almost all the music in the world at my command in just a few clicks on my iPad… Now, remind me, why do I need folders?
I hope you find what you are looking for though as it must be out there…
Yes, I’m not ready - chuckle. My current solution for general listening is - a Bryston BDP3, its easy to use, the wife likes it, it sounds fantastic, its bit perfect, it can browse folders and it can feed other digital inputs. The workflow from acquisition to NAS is dead simple and includes more meta data than I’d ever use.
I’m not getting anything more for 120/yr let alone 500 USD am I?
Bottom line based on the comments here is Roon forum/dev has an attitude problem. Y’all plain don’t listen to what would make users lives easier. Even focus based on a folders is over looked and its so so so basic. Perhaps you are fine with your banker telling you your money is taken care of, but not actually letting you find out where it is and using it how you want to use it.
I’m here to make my music listening life more diverse while keeping it simple, not every listening is an audiophile listening session. Roon can be for everyone, but it has to listen to its would be customers.
Signing off while Auld Lang Syne plays in the background right after the BeeGees - are you serious, you can’t focus filter out the folders of Christmas music, case in point.
I think that regardless of “hifi” quality or not, it’s never a bad thing to give users a choice in streaming platforms.
For instance, I maintain a fairly small ‘library’ of well-listened albums and of 190 albums I have in Apple Music, only 140 are available in Qobuz. That’s a huge discrepancy in availability and I don’t see why a snooty stance on ‘only hifi’ benefits anyone. I’d love to have my 140 albums available in Qobuz on Roon and the remaining 50 from Apple/Spotify.
Truly, I’ve never understood the motivation behind posts like this, i.e. “I am not buying Roon and here’s why”, etc. etc…
It always comes off as a vent for bitter disappointment, or some half-assed political attempt to get Roon principles to change their vision so that the poster will buy a subscription.
Roon is designed for HiFi streaming, when Spotify or any other ‘significant partner’ start streaming music that isn’t compromised by compression it might be integrated.
A fundamental part of Roon’s design is that it does not care where the music is stored.
Roon plays Christmas music in July. As this is such a deal breaker for you, please can you tell me of another music player that knows you don’t want to hear a certain type of music in a certain time period. #Bizarre
So what?
If you think Roon is expensive I don’t think you’ve properly explored its features.
Music playback will stutter if your network or kit is not configured or working properly, this is nothing to do with Roon.
Roon obviously isn’t for you. Good luck with your search.
Clearly, Roon is not for you. That’s fine. But why bash it for not having things that most of us don’t want or care about, such as Spotify and folders? Most Roon customers are interested in high quality streaming, which they get through Tidal and Qobuz. Spotify streaming just doesn’t make the grade for serious listening. And when you don’t want to listen “seriously”, both services, particularly Tidal, offer just about everything you would ever want. Roon customers don’t need folders because Roon does an excellent job of sorting their own music collections.
Personally, I find Roon to be of tremendous value, and well worth the price. I can appreciate the fact that it doesn’t work for you, but coming here with what appears to be a chip on your shoulder and ironically complaining that everyone but you has “attitude” is a little much. Just let it be and move on. You can’t criticize a product for not being something it never intended to be, which is exactly what you’re doing.
Hang on! Roon may be for the OP, he does not know it yet, given that he comes from a different perspective and therefore has different expectation and understanding what Roon does and does not do.
I think the OP must need more time of his steep learning curve, I think his language may have made some members here uncomfortable, but I can understand where he comes from.
Christmas in July - so how do you propose I filter out the christmas music?
In other apps I simply ignore a folder. How do I filter out my latin music? from playing at a R&B house party? Most if which has few tags avaialble in roon.
How do I filter/focus on a specific user tag value? or partial value? This is pretty basic search.
The fundamental that roon doesn’t care where music is stored is flawed, I don’t care what roon wants, I care what I want to do. I want to put on 5 albums that are already in a good organizational scheme via folders. Takes 5 seconds, no filter, no focusing no bull.
BTW spotify streams at 320, while not lossless its pretty darn good.
MPD doesn’t stutter on the same files.
Evidently no one here so far can handle someone criticizing the products apparent shortcomings, so yes I say attitude - have you read the treads on tagging problems, folder indexing problems, the inability to browse your files? Its all user blame / roon is hifi / blah blah its excuses and inaction.
So shoo away your would be customers and evangelists with roons not for you, I’m sure it will take the product far.
It’s pretty sad when humans defend software like this, I’ve seen it many many times and it never ends well for the software or its community.
Well slim, maybe a course in adaptive software dev or continuous improvement or mindfullness of others is required. Feature requests like file browsing and support - say for google drive aren’t asking a lot.
And of course I’m disappointed, but im not bitter. I’ve spent time, I’ve read the forums and seen the bickering over issues, and Roon held promise, but tagging issues, simple browsing issues made it all fall apart - but it didn’t have to be that way.
You can use the focus feature to filter out X-Mass music or anything you don’t want to hear. For example select tracks from the drop men on the right, then press Focus, select Genres. While in Genres select everything you would like to hear excluding all Holiday music or specifically Christmas music. Then Bookmark it and give it a name. I have dozens of bookmarks for specific listening moods. Some are HiRes only or specific Artists or genres.
Roon takes a lot long time to adapt to. I too thought folders was the only way, because that was the only way for a long time. Today I find using iTunes or Jriver kind of a pain to use or simply to Plain Jane to navigate through.
Take some time to read through the massive threads and see what others have done or have discovered to make your music experience more enjoyable.
