Always good to see updates.
I don’t use qobuz, don’t tend to use Roon radio, and don’t really use the “now playing” screen that much. I tend to browse my music, hit play and listen. I do understand however that the Roon team will be going for the “biggest bang for the buck” updates and improvements.
My main feedback is therefore the same as usual - I’m sure these new additions are pleasing many users, though I remain keen on improvements to the basic Roon interface, organisation and categorisation. My main requests are still better box set handling/the ability to combine albums into groups, the ability to group albums on an artist’s page (by albums, singles & EPs, bootlegs, anthologies, compilations, etc), better album art handling (move or delete images, label images, improved overview of the available images) and the ability to add reviews or extra reviews to albums.
So from my perspective, the only practical thing I can say about this update is that I don’t like the new waveform seekbar - it’s now a big grey block which doesn’t fit nicely with the rest of the interface (at least in dark mode, which is what I use), and I don’t like the waveform itself being cut in half, showing only the top half. I would rather see the whole thing, even if it is symmetrical. Indeed, one of my requests has been an improvement to the current rather low-res waveform seekbar to something more detailed (as seen with Foobar, for example). Oh, there is one good thing - the screen real estate on the iPad app is now optimised for iPad pro and it supports portrait mode! However - it doesn’t seem to do the “upside down” view like most iOS apps do?
I don’t mean to sound negative - Roon remains the best app of its kind out there - it’s just that there has been update after update with various improvements in terms of third party features (qobuz, various endpoints supports, etc) though with little of the promised “UI overhaul” that we had heard about and no implementation of the features requested above, which have been hot topics on the forums for some years now (the box set/group handling and album categorisation in particular).
I remain hopeful however, and am encouraged by the Roon team’s statement that All of these changes are just the start of what we expect to be Roon’s biggest year yet. It’s going to be a great year for music lovers, and we’re just getting started.