Hey, I understand backward compatibility is a difficult issue technically. And I am aware of temperature and pressure difference, also humidity, although for domestic listening room (not halls) the high frequency attenuation variation is truly small and away from the most sensitive octaves for our ears.
There are differences in the implementation of convolutional filters between 1.5 and 1.6, says Roon. They are supposedly better in 1.6. But what about compatibility with HQplayer with some large tap count filters ?
My point is: OK, but when a release induces changes that are irreversible, vendor should make it VERY CLEAR. Not in some remote documentation, but directly in the upgrading process. Like I wrote tentatively “ This upgrade cannot be reversed, and former database backups cannot be used. Are you sure you want to continue ?". So at least, by pressing “CONTINUE” users make a fully informed decision.
I wish that warning would have been there for 1.6, as then I would have patiently waited a few weeks, monitoring the most accurate comments from users having done the change. I already have at least one clearly identified a posteriori reason for such cautiousness (the loss of precision in parametric Q filters in the DSP menu of 1.6).
I, for one, welcome the changes to the Now Playing screen and the bottom scrubber/play buttons. I don’t often listen to music with lyrics, but look forward to seeing that working out well.
For those of us that have large local collections (and thus little desire or need to use a streaming service to access content) it makes sense to have have Radio make selections from the cloud and simply skip ahead on picks not in the local library till it finds the next pick that does exist in local content. If this can be accomplished without compromising the Radio experience of users that do make use of a streaming service then I can’t see why it wouldn’t be an acceptable compromise.
I also get @brian’s explanation above re why it would not work well for users with small local collections.
My ask to Roon would be to leave things as they are whereby the presence of an account on a streaming service (with or without ability to play content) triggers 1.6’s Radio algorithms. Let the individual user decide what works best for them, and live with the occasional dropout if they choose to.
I question this idea. I wrote:
Wrt using the cloud-scale learning on smaller-scale data, yes, in some cases that works (like in my Haitian Creole example). How well that could work in this case is an interesting question: since your library is three or four orders of magnitude smaller than the cloud services’ I think that just running the engine, trying to play a result and finding it’s not available, trying the next one, would lead to a pretty bad experience given the latency of a cloud play attempt (999 failures per success). Some have suggested that, obviously not practical.
If it were leveraging cloud without you having an account I’d agree. As things stand you’d have to make an active decision to opt in (and have a potentially inferior experience (dependent on lib size)) and if it doesn’t work you make an active decision to opt out. FWIW I’ve let it run for days using an active streaming account with Qobuz and I’d say >95% of picks are present and played from my library. So given a sufficient library my experience would be bloody good with a Tidal or Qobuz account that can’t serve content. If I had only a few thousand albums my experience would likely be worse, in which case I would just remove my Qobuz and Tidal credentials from Roon and enjoy the 1.5 radio algorithm.
In my opinion, the problem is not in the artwork itself but in the different principle of alignment in the artist page and in the now playing screen – by top or bottom edge. I meant it should be the same everywhere – by top edge, for instance, like in the artist page.
There’s a lot of comparing going on between the sound of Tidal versus Qobuz being done these days Some time ago I did it with the BluOs app (I had a Nad M50 during these period), I found Qobuz sound better, better balance, but the catalogue of Tidal was better.
Roon did a nice upgrade with Qobuz but it would be better if the layout not have been changed, it was good as it was.
It might be a detail, but if you are just bought a €500 amplifier with the volume control button in the fronts middle and the next day it has changed to the left side, I don’t think you would find it pleased … … I mean, layout option would be nice option
Upgrades like adding Qobuz ore a better way to have internet radio stations are always welcome but changing the manner of using a purchased app is a ‘not done’ for me.
Well that’s saved me a long post! Exactly what you said, now if the devs can apply those clean, uncluttered ideas to the other screens (the library screens have very old fashioned column headers and big buttons, very old hat!) that will be grand! And like you I don’t get the dark theme idea, reading white on black negative is difficult and when you look away your eyes take ages to stop seeing everythjng through a Venetian blond effect! If people want it that’s fine, but it should effect all areas if you don’t.
Now Playing nit: to move between different content up front, I prefer buttons that recycle to the front/rear when they reach the rear/front, a la a circle instead of a line.
