I agree. Coming from the Squeezebox universe I often wondered how all these audiophile music streamers with their simple mobile control apps were able to deal with large music collections. Say what you will but Logitech Media Server did a decent job of handling large music libraries, I know because I have a rather large collection.
Anyway the short answer to the question posed above is that the mobile control apps and reliance on DNLA did not do the job and so Roon stepped up to fill the void. And Roon does a great job in that respect. And itâs got a mobile app too!
A&K will be Roon capable soon, but Iâm sure will be limited to wifi.
1 Like
James_I
(The truth is out there but not necessarily here)
124
A reasonable thought on its face. However, to my understanding, much of Roonâs recurring costs relate to licensed third-party content/metadata and if it were âjust softwareâ then Roon could control its pricing better.
Itâs a separate topic, but I wonder if Roon is really getting its (our) moneyâs worth for this content and metadata. The first 1000 times I read a Roon liner note I thought so. But lately Iâve started to have a âbeen there, read thatâ kind of feeling and I would like to see content refresh more.
As an analogy, presumably most of us had a magazine or newspaper subscription at some point in our pre-web life. You happily pay for that periodic content. But you wouldnât continue to pay for it if the publisher sent you the same magazine or newspaper as each issue. Thatâs a little like what Iâve been sensing with Roon lately. Not entirely, and Iâm still a happy user, but definitely a creeping feeling. Perhaps this is more a comment on the universe of music than it is the universe of Roon content.
What MIGHT work would be a cheaper version of Roon that didnât include the content. Static rules for indexing a library based on file structure and embedded metadata, limited automatic anything. I donât think that would be such a great product, but maybe after a few yearsâ more development on the software side it would be robust enough to stand on its own without the licensed content. Dunno, and not really saying I want that productâŠjust completing the thought.
With the AK 15 you now have the ability to do offline storage for Tidal - however the only exception is MQA files - the latter can only be streamed via WiFi (make sure you have a good router as it uses 2.4g for streaming) - however the offline storage is brilliant for traveling.
Can someone at Roon please tell me how they feel about a âstream what you hearâ type function baked into Roon.
Be honest now. If it will hurt your relationship or is not allowed in your deal with Tidal just say so. My guess is Tidal has a lot more to fear from Quboz introduction into the US market.
If Roon wants to survive in a modern world they need to cater to modern music lovers whose music does not get recorded and distributed via the record label formula.
No data needs to show up in Roon. Just take whatever music Iâm streaming and cast via RAAT to a Roon endpoint. My guess is this will make %90 of the people on this thread happy. This would require no licencing deal from Soundcloud, Deezer, Youtube etc. Roon could collect additional metadata on what their customers are listening to when they arent listening to Hires audio. My guess is they are, like myself, wishing everything could be HiRes but live in the real world where everything simply isnât.
Until this feature is included in Roon I cannot justify paying for this service.
Who agrees?
2 Likes
James_I
(The truth is out there but not necessarily here)
127
Iâd love that. I have recently found a number of websites that have really excellent streaming playlists and I would love to just listen to them through my same Roon audio config. Itâs been discussed a lot before. There is just a lot of more foundational work for Roon to do before they get to that sort of feature.
Disagree with that, but itâs a personal choice. Roon is still a marvelous experience for what it does now.
I would love that for Soundcloud, mixcloud, 8 tracks, and other services.
I think the poster is saying something a little different â where any sound you are playing on your Roon Core can be played out to your endpoints (so-called âvirtual sound cardâ). I think Roonâs position is this does not work from a user experience point of view.
I support the request, but donât think it is in the plans.
I get Roons standpoint on user experience however as someone who streams %90 of the time and would like what Roon has to offer anyways the visual integration experience is secondary to the digital software/hardware integration miasma that one is required to do to switch between services and end point configurations.
@James_I@RobOK@stephen_carlson
I agree, have suggested this.
But it is a little tricky, because of Roonâs universalist ambitions.
Because when I stream, I never stream on the computer where the Core is running. It doesnât even have a user interface. And which streaming apps are available on RoonOS? (Note that Roon doesnât want third party apps on the box, the wipe the machine every update. Same with my dishwasher.)
So streaming into Roon, and out to endpoints, with DSP, requires first streaming back from the control you are on (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux) to the core (Windows, Mac, Linux, ROCK, Nucleus, Synology, QNAP) in any combination. Supporting any streaming app available on those controls. Because you wouldnât want to deprive the Linus folks, would you?
And probably, going back to the psychology of what people get used to, the friend probably smiled and nodded politely at any âimprovementsâ, secretly logging what they were and vowing to change them back as soon as his guest leaves
I donât know Jriver.
But my point is, what if I am not on the PC?
What if the PC running Roon Core is a closet in the basement, and Iâm holding my iPad?
This is not a hypothetical situation, itâs actually my situation right now, except that the Roon âPCâ is running RoonOS.
I am also running Roon on a headless Nuc, coming from LMS I had to choose. The ability to listen to nearly everything on all my endpoints via LMS and integrated Airplay (Shairtunes) versus Roon (with all its abilities) and only Tidal.
It would be so easy to give users the best of all possible worlds, if Roon Core integrated Airplay or Chromecast into the core. That way you could play everything on all your endpoints by choosing on your mobile device or PC, yes minus the Roon experience - but there are many cases where it is not needed. I used to listen to audible audiobooks via my endpoints, that is not possible now I have joined the Roon universe, also BBC iPlayer and so many other things that I really loved listening to. Donât get me wrong, I am happy with my choice for Roon, yet it would be great if the Core had the option to stream everything you want to listen to, to all endpoints as an extra. Always better to have options.
Fair comment, I was looking for a similar setup to stream Idagio to my main system, the best I managed was iPad>Cambridge Audio CXN via Airplay, hardly ideal
Another angle that could be exploited to drive interest in Roon - although itâs not clear to me that Roon management is doing much on this at present - is privacy.
Renting music from streaming services hands over a lot of data about who you are to those services. Indeed, itâs not clear to me that users are actually getting a good deal with streaming (free or paid) given how valuable data about our personalities, interests, etc. is worth these days.
However, when you own your own music and play it off your own server, rather than stream it from the cloud, there is at least the possibility with the right software setup of protecting your privacy.
A few years ago I wouldâve been more doubtful about how big the privacy oriented market could be, but in the wake of Cambridge Analytica, etc it seems people are becoming increasingly educated on this topic.
