I dunno. Here’s my model (not claiming it’s realistic, just the way I’ve come to think about it): The Roon Labs guys are a team of adventurers, and they are building this thrill ride called Roon. They’re building it for themselves – we can buy tickets, which help defray the development and operating costs, but we’re just passengers. If we enjoy the ride, fine, but if not, tough luck. They don’t really care what we don’t like about it, because they know what they want, but they do want feedback, because they’re smart enough to know that others may have good ideas that they’d like, too.
On the realistic side, I’m actually very impressed with the techno parts of the system. RAAT seems like a fine “moat” (in the Warren Buffett sense) that it would take other companies much time and effort to cross. The DSP and sound manipulation features in the Core seem very well done. The decision to stick with .NET and Mono interfaces is bold and risky and seems to work pretty well.
Really the disappointing part is the whole metadata handling – here it seems Roon promises much and delivers little. I still can’t believe the LYRICS tag is ignored. Classical is all screwed up, but mainly because no one has good metadata for these box sets. And the whole “take us back to liner notes” thing… Well, I bought some new jazz albums at Christmas, which come with copious notes and essays. None of which are available in Roon. Instead they have either nothing, or some insipid essay written by some staff writer at AllMusic which may or may not make sense.
But… I have to keep reminding myself I’m just along for the ride! Tied to the saddlebags while the Roon guys flog the horse to a wild gallop!