Nice to see Qobuz finally making their move. I know a few users who have waiting for Connect a long time (7 years…).
On my side, I always prefer streaming Qobuz through Roon, but in the rare occasions I need the Qobuz apps at home, I still rely on an old Chromecast audio feeding into a Sonos Port.
Roon is very worthwhile. I originally started with BluOS. I purchased a HiFi Rose RS130 transport last November. I found that the SQ was improved with the RS130 but the app left much to be desired since Rose is fairly new and the app wasn’t very intuitive. Rose offered a coupon for a 2-month free subscription to Roon. I opted to try it since I had nothing to lose. I am running Roon on my windows PC desktop with an I9, 14th generation processor with 64 GB of member. I also have Roon ARC set up on my phone. The only challenge was getting ARC to work with my convoluted network at home. I have my PC on a wifi bridge and have no connection issues whatsoever although I did upgrade my wifi to eero 6e pro as well.
I’m going to go with the lifetime subscription when my trial is up in March. It may be $830, but it saves me from selling the RS130 and purchasing a new streamer. I have a local library of 800 albums and I am a current subscriber to Tidal. I’m loving the music that Roon pics for me and like having just 1 interface to use.
I’m dumping my Apple Music since they’re too restrictive. I used their Android app mostly and Air Play 2 since the only Apple devices i own are iPads. I’ve found that Roon is better at generating new music for me to listen to than any other service.
Roon may be complex but it’s not as complex as my audio equipment.
Different strokes for different folks I suppose, I checked my own local storage and I have 500 albums, which really surprised me! I can’t remember the last time I listened to any of them… I suppose sometimes it’s fun for nostalgia? I find my musical tastes have changed a lot over the decades, plus I’ve been a streamer since Spotify arrived in the UK decades ago. Although having said that classical music is always my biggest love and I haven’t even started to rip those CD’s down yet… but then why would I when the latest remaster is available on Qobuz?
Roon offered so much more than just library management, but now I feel those extra are eroding. Qobuz mostly has TiVo metadata for artists and alums now and it’s improving gradually, along with booklets for a good proportion where available. I find Roon still has no clue about many of the artists I have recently found, particularly European new jazz from the likes of ECM or ACT.
My LUMIN streamer in the main system does absolutely bugger all when it comes to extra features, and having been using a WiiM Pro for headphone source this last few months has been an eye opener. I can copy the Roon Muse settings I have for PEQ into that little plastic device, along with channel gain if required, I can reduce the pre-gain just in case of digital clipping, multi-room is obviously standard. I can airplay, Chromecast and soon Qobuz Connect from my Mac, phone or tablet and of course use the reasonably ok WiiM Home app itself.
I would still miss Roon of course, actually for the little things funnily enough, like the ‘played’ counter - that’s really useful when you are half way through box set of Mahler that you last played a few weeks ago and you can’t remember where you go to! Versions is also very useful, but it’s not always comprehensive and a Qobuz search is required, and volume normalisation sometimes works, but I’ve found it very variable. I see that’s a feature in WiiM now for Qobuz and Tidal so…?
When it comes to finding new music Roon has very little idea of what I might want to hear, my fault as I have such eclectic tastes! I make sure I ‘heart’ favourite artists but I often miss their new albums as Roon never tells me there’s a new release.
Neither does Qobuz, but I really love the Qobuz Panarama’s and interviews, features on labels and artists… the magazine layout is great, it feels far more modern than Roon.
Anyway, fun discussion and always good to hear what others find useful or not, but as for that Lifetime subscription… not on your Nelly Furtado!!
The music supply landscape is changing rapidly, I’m with Darko, we should be paying a lot more for streaming as it is wholly unsustainable as it is. Maybe then there will be interest in metadata being applied at source, proper library management features and a whole new music discovery based on AI technology.
Who will win that war is totally up for grabs, but specialist services I think might save the day for classical and jazz lovers like me. Presto music is coming on leaps and bounds, DG’s Stage+ is very swish. We could then leave the playlist generation to whoever is the latest Spotify and get some serious collecting organised!
Roon was magic in the days when people were ripping their CD’s, and ending up with “1. Unknown Track, 2. Unknown Track, etc…” on “Unknown Album” with no cover art. Streaming changed the landscape, Roon fully behind it, almost marooning those CD rippers. Now their strength is in seamless integration. But there are too many “issues” for it to be granny friendly.
Are you a granny, Mike!?
Roon works great for me, so evidently not… but I still wouldn’t recommend it to my mum. I am also 100% local library.
I don’t even recommend it to my friends, if I want to keep them as friends
A number of us Roon Lifers were discussing this the other day, and none of us has recommended Roon to a close friend in a few years.
One of two concerns:
1 : Friend has issues and blames us
2 : Friend has issues and we spend all our time there trying to fix them
That tells me something is wrong in Roonland.
Back in 2019 / 2020 (1.7 and 1.8 timeframe) I recommended Roon to pretty much anyone who was into music that owned a reasonable system. Most didn’t want to have the equipment or network required, but most were impressed when given the controller and allowed to choose music.
As much as I love Roon, I would not recommend it to my friends or family. Nobody I know wants to dive into this hobby as I have. They just want to simply and easily listen to music occasionally.
I don’t either, but I wouldn’t recommend any client-server system to anyone. If it was up to me, I wouldn’t recommend web browsers, smart phones, or computers generally, either.
I think that is 100% correct, it takes a certain type of determined person to want to do this.
Qobuz or more likely Tidal or Spotify for the many that want to listen to “high quality” music on their music systems.
Granny Smith apple.
I must be in the minority, i have reccomended Roon to all of my friends and colleagues. Not all of them are interested, but some are and have started on their journey; i hope that it all works out!
Absolutely you hope it does, in the name of continued friendship
What was interesting was none of us realised the others did not recommend Roon to friends. I cannot imagine it is that widespread in truth, but was an interesting data point if nothing else
Thanks Michael, i’m sure that there will be questions/problems/calls for assistance; but hopefully no threats of violence!
Having read this thread a couple of times, i wonder if there is a little bit of confirmation bias easing its way in?
Well hopefully it doesn’t escalate that quickly
There is always confirmation bias, and if someone doesn’t accept it, then that is their confirmation bias kicking in
Features is how Roon can craft their roadmap. This is part of the User experience, so it’s great they add this feature.
Car manufacturers have a problem these days which is why sales often are an issue. They still do user research to craft changes.
Same here.
I have one friend that could handle it, but he’s not interested in Roon (he just uses the Tidal app).
If you believe streaming through Tidal and Qobuz is better than Roon, please do so. I’ve used Tidal connect with my Naim and I’m not impressed. Roon IMHO, is light years ahead of both.
I would recommend Roon to a friend, but only after assessing their level of computer/network literacy, understanding what their use case was and also what equipment they have. Roon can be a very reliable and enjoyable way to listen to music and discover new music. I have about 10,000 tracks and in the 2 yearly subscriptions I have held with intermittent use of Roon I have never had any significant issues.
It is by far the most comprehensive piece of software in this space with very significant functionality. I like it very much. With this level of complexity (Arc, multiRoom, exceptional level of information about your music etc) it inevitably comes with increased demands in terms of network and computer resources but that is inevitable. It will be a very long time before anyone can match the level of functionality Roon has.
In my case I will be letting my annual subscription go at the renewal next month and will be sticking with a competitors product. this product meets my needs and preferences slightly better with lower overhead. Doesn’t mean there is a problem in Roonland, I will miss some features for sure, just that everyones needs and wants are different. I think anyone who uses this forum can get the impression there are many significant issues with the software, I am sure that the overwhelming majority have, like me, no significant technical issues however those with lesser IT knowledge or those that push its capability to the limits may have a different experience.
I tried Tidal connect, and IMO, it did not sound as good as Roon. I’ve signed up for the Qobuz beta, but haven’t been approved as yet.