Tablets have smaller screens, but (usually) higher DPI and you hold them closer to your face. This makes up for some of the disparity in inches. On a 10" tablet, there really isn’t much in the way of compromise–at least, not to the point where I would let it impact this decision.
That said, our tablet functionality will be rolling out over the coming weeks. It’s the same UI as on PC/Mac, so you don’t lose any capabilities. You should definitely try it for yourself and make up your mind.
Fair enough. I will certainly try it if I get the opportunity. I don’t see how a tablet could be preferred to a full size screen experience however!
Given the above, will the PC version of Roon continue to be developed, or will this be phased out in favour of a tablet interface?
Fully agree - there is a reason that the likes of Linn / Meridian etc have rooms dedicated to detecting EM & RF.
Not that you can’t make a PC which sounds pretty damd good - just that it’s somewhat difficult.
Linn went to to extend of writing their own OS* (Not a Linux’alike) so that the interupt latency on their DS range was up-to the mustard.
Rik
@extracampine They literally are built from the same code–it’s not like we’re maintaining separate user interfaces for each platform. The tablet + PC software will continue to be developed in parallel for the foreseeable future.
I’m glad to hear this – many of us are desk-bound, and so the PC software is a critical component.
I bought a Surface Pro for a client yesterday and managed to find time to test Roon on it before handing it on this morning. The experience was still very good. The big advantage is of course that you aren’t restricted by the placement of the device and can use it from multiple locations and seating positions. There is no reason why you couldn’t use a monitor but it would require having a PC in the room too. Would you have a touch screen or a mouse driven screen in your large monitor scenario?
Cheers
Tom
My media server is a synology nas… Will there be a Roon build for it to serve the music to a “bridge” solution?
And where do you place the Rapberry Pi and a tablet in the noise spectrum of a PC and audiophoile bridges?
Synology 213+
@fritzg, the CPU in the Synology 213+ is a dual core 1ghz Freescale ARM, which is pretty slow for Roon, but the real killer is that it only has 512MB RAM – I doubt that after the OS and NAS overhead, that you’d have much RAM left for Roon to even start up. That thing has no real legroom to do anything but be a simple file server.
Yeah, I know it is underpowered, and that is my point. A music server use to mean a simple file server, now with Roon it means a dedicated powerful computer that serves the music to a simple renderer. The equation has flipped. Unless we want to have a multitude of gear, i.e. the Roon supercomputer, the file server where the music is actually stored, and the renderer.
It would be helpful to have suggestions on simple, low noise renderers, to minimize the gear needed to use Roon without having a noisy supercomputer near our DAC. Thus my question about where the Raspberry Pi and audiophile bridges fit in the noise spectrum.
I would also be interested in the answer to the above.
Also, I have a Synology 1812+ NAS - how would this fare as a Roon server? I presume that the browsing experience wouldn’t be fluid?
That must have been a long time back. The Logitech squeezebox server benefited from higher spec hardware and was more than a simple file server.
I’ve a great idea - why not design some kind of all in one solution? It could be a touchscreen, sitting on a base that was the computer which also held the data? You could call it a Sooloos or something 
That could work! 
I think the vast majority of Sooloos users prefer a tablet though!
It’s your preference that counts so you don’t need to go with Roon’s recommendation’s if you don’t want to.
I would prefer a smaller portable tablet to a large fixed PC in my listening room because of it’s flexibility. I’m surprised that you can’t envisage this being a preference for people other than yourself.
Cheers
Of course I can envisage it being a preference, not sure what you mean by that. As long as the software has the flexibility to cater for everyone’s tastes.
It was a follow up to:
Cheers
Indeed - I don’t personally see how a small tablet screen could be preferred to a large screen detailed and immersive experience - but I am sure that there are others out there that prefer the convenience of a tablet or phone browser - perhaps yourself included!
If the problem is electro-magnetic and radio-frequency noise, and a “bridge” component is a potential solution to this - then wouldn’t placing the PC outside of the listening room and using a longer cable to connect the PC to the DAC have the same beneficial effect?
Partially yes. But in the case of USB DAC’s there is a 5V powerline being injected into the DAC. Even if the DAC is self powered this can case problems.