Roon 1.3 : Top Priorities

@Christoph_Eichenseer
In my system, Roon shows a slider for some devices (Geek) and +/- buttons for others (Meridian). I hate both.

I have encouraged an expanding roller like the time and date controls in iOS.

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This is why I like this product and love the community. Smart people all around. Search is the way to go.

My kids refuse to use Roon: ā€˜No way Iā€™ll unlock my phone and wait for Roon to respond, every time I want to skip a songā€™. Point taken I guess?

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You bet. The problems that Roon has finding itself are very irritating.

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My daughter (wildly) prefers the Sonos app; she skips around a lot and the extra taps required are a non-starter for her.

Hudson my butler is the same, canā€™t abide the wait for Roon to wake up. However Sally and Mary our 2 scullery maids have been totally won over and think all the added information and links make the perceived annoyances of Hudson seem a small price to pay.

Of course maybe if I used Roon myself rather than get Hudson to do it for me, he might not have so many issues with it.

.sjb

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Probably not the place for it, but I do think there is still a real issue around non-geek usability here. Iā€™m having an uphill struggle getting my wife to adopt Roon as a replacement to our Squeezeboxen. Just stuff like multiple presses required to play a track, and how playing a track in an album doesnā€™t then continue through the album (that one still baffles me to be honest).

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I think itā€™s not so much an issue around ā€˜non-geek usabilityā€™ as the fact that the UI is different in some key areas from what people are used to. You certainly can play a track in an album and then continue through the album - itā€™s just not the default, as it is in most other players. Use right-click instead of left click on the track. Yes, itā€™s different, and yes it takes a little getting used to for many people, but once youā€™re there, you may not want to go back, and the Roon way becomes the new default.

Interestingā€¦ While I thought iPeng for LMS was a very good product, The vast metadata and interlinking of Roon gave me no pause to switch to Roon. My wife truly disliked iPeng but thoroughly enjoys Roon.

There are usability quirks with all software but overall, I really like Roon and the fact that the Roon devs really do listen.

Iā€™ve been back on the Tidal App for a couple of weeks while at work. While there arenā€™t many things I donā€™t like about Roon, these are definitely on my list. It also crops up when other people come round and interact with Roon for the first time (I donā€™t know anyone who has ever used Sooloos).

I dont particularly like Tidal, or the desktop App to be honest, but going back to a system where if you want to play something you just hover over it and press play and then sound comes out just feels ā€˜rightā€™ to me. When going back to Roon, things seem long winded in comparison - its always more clicks, and playback not continuing by default is annoying again. I think Iā€™ve acclimatised to the Roon interface, so when Im using it extensively I just accept it and get used to it, but I still think its ā€˜wrongā€™. Even right click or long click still needs more clicks subsequently. Anyway, there are other topics where this is already under discussion, and it seems very unlikely it will change.

I dont find this to be ā€˜geekā€™ related really though, more just a unique UI. I imagine the server/core side of things and initial setup might be considered a bit geeky compared to simpler systems. Iā€™ve never used LMS, but from what I remember looking at it, it was equally complex, or even more complex to setup. It felt ā€˜geekierā€™ to me anyway.

Iā€™ve gotten comfortable enough with the way Roon does things, that when I am in the Tidal app on my desktop or on my phone I have to hesitate before I tap/click something to give myself time to think, ā€œIs this going to screw up my queue?ā€. Many times when listening to a track in Tidal I get an itch to look up information on another artist or album, and I have to think very carefully before I go do that so as not to accidentally start playing the music instead of just reading about it.

So from a standpoint of Enjoy This, Look At That (ETLAT), I appreciate the way Roon does things.

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I agreeā€¦ Iā€™ve sort of gotten over it now, but Iā€™d love to see something in Settings that enabled single-click play from here.

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With the release of Roon 1.3 today, the wait is over :slight_smile:

Itā€™s a wrap :wink:

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Yeah as promised in blood :wink:

And signed :wink:

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I was thinking the ā€˜promiseā€™ was more binding than merely signing
More like cuts to the forearm and agreeing blood brother style!

Top Roon 1.3 priority: release it! :stuck_out_tongue:

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Please, release it!!

Was that Tom Jones singing? Pleeeeease Release meā€¦:notes:

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