This is just my experience, had to tell someone who maybe understands where I come from.
I’m a picky person in almost all areas, big electronic nerd, music lover, quality above all! I have avoided costly solutions because I have so little faith in stuff and software, been fooled and disappointed too many times in my life. I have always gone the long routes with everything, always read for ages about every buying decision in forums and such. I have even done courses just so I can know what I’m dealing with. Maybe you understand me in some aspects? I know I’m a bit extreme. Well, Roon was something I believed people was just used to and stuck in their environment, that’s why they loved it. I never even looked in to it myself, only avoided, until now. Unfortunately Roon was kinda my last solution of getting a working music environment after everything else fails, annoys and buggs out. Spent way too much money on getting things working.
So today was the day I was gonna try “that s*it”:
I installed Roon core on my Synology DS920+, was super easy thanks to the awesome guides, took literally minutes to figure out even tho I’m kinda lost in Synology’s OS. Installed the app on my phone, and EVERYTHING showed up, my NAS and the Roon core, pointed it to my local music, signed in to Qobuz, it found my iFi streamer instantly, just wow! Never had this smooth setup experience before! Then I saw the settings, the layout’s, the descriptions, the music info, again, just wow! Started a song, it just works, no hassle, no fiddling, max quality that my stuff can handle without changing anything.
You guys are geniuses! I’m sold, take my money!
The new stuff, getting new furniture after we move to different home.
Marantz SR7015.
Polk Audio R700.
Rel HT Predator 1508.
iFi Zen Stream + iPower X 12v.
Amazing sound!
Oh, and first gen LG OLED with Nvidia Shield.
Sebastian welcome to both Roon and the Roon forum’s.
I hope your journey with Roon is always this positive.
Roon is an amazing product and gives many of us great enjoyment rediscovering our music libraries over and over again.
Nice, it’s good to read once in a while that things go smoothly. It’s probably the vast majority of cases (and was exactly the same for me) but they rarely get written about on the forum. One becomes a bit disillusioned sometimes, only reading about problems on the forum, so an occasional reminder like this is great to read. Enjoy.
Hehe noo don’t scare me off just yet! I know there can be issues from time to time with almost anything, that’s just reality. What I meant was that Roon is well thought out and easy to use, feels like the creators also had enough of poorly developed software and just did it them selves, or magically heard all my complaints and made a software tailored for me.
Sounds like you’re talking about me. Welcome to Roon and the community forum.
Good to hear it worked so well for you from the start. That was my experience as well starting with Roon on a Windows 7 PC built for photo processing then moving to a NUC/ROCK server. 4 years next month and haven’t missed a beat.
Hope you continue to have a good experience and enjoy the music.
Simply put….Roon got me back into hi-fi and listening to music.
Roon got me to re-burn all my 600 CDs in 44/16.
Roon got me to digitize all my 200+ records.
Roon made me actually purchase music again!!! which I haven’t done in ages. (because I think it sounds better and I do like to own it) Bandcamp baby!!!
Roon got me into having my own music library again and I love it.
Sure, I stream, but it’s funny, I open up Apple Music or TIDAL and they’re terrible compared to Roon to me……I’m lost!I just want to use Roon because it’s mine.
And now that they have ARC - I can anywhere!!! I am living in a Roon world. My Roon world.
Welcome and enjoy! Based on how you describe yourself, I think it’s a good fit!
One look at this forum, and you’d be convinced that Roon would be unreliable and unusable.
Nothing could be further from the truth for the vast majority of users. I’ve had my Nucleus for over three-years now, and my Roon experience has been faultless for…just over three-years
It’s only when you’re without Roon, as I am now due to my location, that you realise how much you miss it!
Many moons ago I was whoring around various music players simply trying to play a DSD file on a DSD native DAC. They needed plugins or enabling in obscure menu options. Nothing was simple or straight forward. They utterly relied on the nerd element to capture users and made being able to use their software a badge of honour. Now to be clear, I am a nerd. But to try software that I loaded, selected a file and it simply played in its native format was a first back in 2016. But on the flip side I chose not to go with Roon during that trial. Paying money to play my music wasn’t something I had ever considered back then.
This was me before Roon, out of love with music and buying maybe 10 albums a year. Now thanks to Roon (and this community as well) I buy that most months.
Thank you guys, I had a good laugh at the comments, it feels like I’ve found my type of people and home now. I’ve gone through very similar paths as all of you, buying and burning cd’s for my dj’ing (not a dj anymore tho), building my own server solutions, fiddling with modified plugins, trying music players like a player and so on. I have been poor in my days but never gave up on my passions, kept trying to make magic happen. Then got my economy under control last couple years, and also met my girlfriend. She saw me still struggling with cheap solution’s and said that I shouldn’t cheap out on my passion, long story short, now we/I’m here and very happy! Roon filled the dark annoying hole of tying it all together, I just wish I tried it earlier and not assuming it was like everything else.
“Wijsheid komt met de jaren” as we say here in the Netherlands. → Wisdom comes with the years.
My dad has always been into music. And he has hosted a radio show on the local radio station for nearly 30 years. He was broadcasting illegally before that. He also plays the keyboard.
Now I didn’t inherit his music playing skills, but I did pick up on his love for music.
And like you I’ve went for cheap options. That changed about 3 years ago, when I started to become a bit more serious about it.
This week I’ve completed my setup in the living room, and I now consider it complete. Roon manages my 3 setups like a champ. Also ARC is really nice when at work. Only downside is that it drains my iPhone’s battery pretty quick.
I’ve picked up my first annual Roon subscription 2 years ago. And halfway through the second one, I’ve decided to go for lifetime instead. So I have a lifetime sub for over half a year now. One of the best investments that I’ve made. Just like replacing my nearly 20 year old hifi in the living room with new Dali speakers and a full set of Cambridge hardware (amplifier, streamer and cd transport).
This should hopefully last me for another 20 years. I’ll be near retiring age by then.
And yeah I agree with both your gf and you. Cheap stuff isn’t generally a good idea, and I wish I’ve went with Roon a bit earlier.
Welcome Sebastian, glad you’ve found and are enjoying Roon.
I’ve been using Roon for four years now. I payed annually for the first two years and then took the plunge and got a lifetime subscription.
Started off running my core on a Windows laptop but quickly upgraded to a NUC running Roon Rock. I also replaced my amp with a Roon Ready Nad and i couldn’t be happier.
By the way that was great advice from your girlfriend, she sounds like a keeper
Thank you all again for the nice welcomes, much appreciated!
It’s fun to hear y’all’s journeys and paths taken, and that we all strive for the same in the end. I will be more active in the coming week, had a quick peek at other threads here and going to dive in them asap, be part of the Roon family. I have a wide taste in music and usually have some solutions in software/electronic’s problem solving, and ofc learn from everyone else here too. Can’t wait! Have a great weekend everyone and see ya later!
Now take an old NUC, put in a new SSD and mount it in an Akasa fanless case and you have an excellent core (and another one to act as a roon bridge to your dac)
Another tip is to get the MS Dial and a cheap Pi Z to control your playback.
