I’ve been using Roon for about a year. And I came to the conclusion that this is a much worse product than Foobar2000. For me, the main disadvantages of the product are: 1. the absence of a file manager mode (folders, files), 2. the inability to completely disable the media library and any recommendations. I am an adult and do not need any pictures from books like comics and any of your recommendations. Foobar2000 lacks all these disadvantages: it can work as a file client-server. Your persistent position not to provide such functionality is not acceptable. All that is required of you is the support of a file client-server and a normal network.Therefore, without regret, I will simply leave your product with cluttered and unnecessary functionality on Foobar2000. Keep on losing users, good luck in your business with this position.
P.S All this vividly characterizes OKKAM’s statement: do not multiply entities beyond necessity.
Amazingly, you will find opposite views.
Users who stay precisely for the features that you disdain. That’s why different products exist to meet different needs.
Because a product is opposite to another in its aims and target audience doesn’t actually mean one is worse than the other; rather that each is successful in its target niche.
Also if you post, as you have, without selecting a topic then it won’t be seen by very may people, would you like it moved to the Roon Software topic?
It took you a year to work out that Roon won’t ever do folder browsing? Odd since it’s been all over this forum forever with multiple statements from the Roon team making it clear.
This OP probably made you feel better, got things off your chest. There is a subtext here though; and it is not a million miles away from the game console ‘wars’. Eulogising for one product over another to make you feel better in your choices. I hope foobar continues to give you what you want.
Roon’s SUCCESS seems to be because it does so much that people can use it how they want. Sorry, I might want to go through folders when looking for work files, but usually do keyword searches. For music? Very 1990s.
Yesterday I used Roon to listen to ambient music for most of the day through three zones of ceiling speakers using AirPlay and Roon Groups. My wife was using Roon through a Devialet Reactor in her massage clinic. In the evening I did some serious listening on a 2-channel Roon RAAT system.
Enjoy Foobar2000. As it is effectively a Windows product and I have not used a Windows PC since 2004, I don’t think I will have the pleasure.
p.s. My ceiling system also has Amazon HD and Alexa built in, so I normally just tell it what to play and it obeys. Apps are becoming a bit old fashioned around here.
I’m not tied to Roon, we also use Amazon HD, Alexa, Spotify and Innuos Sense, still have Devialet Air capability. Roon is used the most here and my wife loves it. That’s the acid test for me.
I’ve never come across a thread on an auto forum bemoaning the excessive amount of features in a specific automobile when in reality all that is needed is a bicycle.
FooBar by all accounts is a wonderful piece of software and fair play them. Roon is different. Why does this annoy people so? I could understand it if Roon had a monopoly but it doesn’t.
.sjb
The main thing that annoys me about Roon is the lack of direct access to folders and files. If your collection is 8-12TB of music, then finding the right album on the screen of a small phone is a very serious problem. Since pictures take up a lot of space on the phone screen, unlike the file/folder line. I can find the right album in Foobar2000 using only 3-4 taps on the screen. In principle, I don’t need to distribute 10 streams from the Roon server to 10 different users. All I want is quick access to albums at the file system level, not the media library. I am also not interested in any recommendations, radio, etc. Is it so difficult to turn off the library altogether (with its continuous scanning of files) and leave direct access to files and folders? I think that disabling unnecessary functionality of the program should be solved by simple settings in the program menu. It seems to me that this is an elementary thing. But the persistence of Roon, not adding such a simple function to the program settings is absolutely incomprehensible to me! A lot of people have already written about the demand for this functionality. And user requests are deliberately not solved. All this is very sad and pushes many users away from the Roon product.
That isn’t what roon is about, use the right tool for the job.
Sounds like (your current) Foobar or even LMS with material skin is a better option for you than Roon.
Yes, I also came to the conclusion that Foobar200 is better for direct access to the file system. But Foobar2000 has a very big drawback - it does not support Roon compatible devices over the network. I.e., Roon is much better for this, but Foobar2000 is much better for remote program management and quick access to a large amount of data. This is the main problem. That’s why I want the developers of Roon to understand this problem.
They do understand - and they don’t see it as a problem. Their design goals are different, and they are not going to change them to make Roon more like Foobar2000. They’ve posted about this multiple times in the forum since Roon first appeared on the market.
You are entitled to your opinion. Roon’s exec are quite clear on 2 subjects where they will NEVER go and have said so repeatedly
DLNA support
Folder / file browsing
If you have been using Roon for a year and browsing this forum you must have come across threads
To me FooBar is primitive, I grew out of Excel when I developed databases in SQL
Somebody said it folder browsing is 90’s. Let the software do the work.
BTW I use a 12.9 iPad Pro not a phone , does that tell you anything
Best of luck listening n😎
It is understandable, but such a position is very upsetting and annoying, and also deliberately pushes away a fairly large number of potential users. That’s the end of it. Thank you all.
I return without any regret to Foobar2000.
Iggie, what is the point of your thread?
Do you think Roon is going to change because you don’t like it or are you simply acting on a impulse to impotently vent your frustrations?
I am an adult and don’t need an engine to do the pedaling for me! 
Igor, you will be back! A lot of folks walk away from Roon only to discover they miss the things it does well in their view. I admit on my first trial I struggled with the notion that I couldn’t scan the folders and play from there. But we humans are top of the food chain because we are adaptable.
Some people think cucumbers taste better pickled.
Even, the Foobar UI is way too much for me when I just want to find something and play it. For local content I often just browse the windows explorer folders and rightclick to play in foobar. Unfortunately, Microsoft have managed to complicate things with windows 11 which forces you to go through several menu layers now before you can right click and play. So I installed Explorer++ which works like an old school windows 10 explorer. So far, it works great.
I understand there will never be a right click and play option for roon in explorer. Doesn’t stop me wishing it was there though.
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Moderator edit: see this linked topic further discussion on Windows 11 file browsing …
I agree with you on some level; I could care less about Valence (recommendations) or Art Director (fixing the artist forehead problem). I’ve disconnected from streaming services, I know what’s in my collection, so I search on ‘Money’, click on Pink Floyd, and listen to Dark Side of the Moon. Or, I browse recently added/played albums and go from there. That’s all I need.
But I think you are missing a crucial design accomplishment of Roon: ubiquity. I can use Roon to stream audio to a wide variety of devices, knowing it will sound as good as that playback system is capable of sounding. In 2022, I doubt you can find a commercial streaming end-point that doesn’t work with Roon. I can buy what I want and mix-and-match endpoints, even for simultaneous playback, without worrying about using their sad user interfaces (yes, I am talking to you: Bryston and Bel Canto).
But, I also have a dedicated Mac Mini that I use to host Roon + audio files for streaming to my seven endpoints throughout my house (a mix of Sonos and the endpoints from Bryston and Bel Canto). You are happy with a Windows PC directly connected to a DAC with a USB cable, so it sounds like you have everything you need with Foobar2000.
I had a t shirt “pickles are cucumbers soaked in evil”
Well than just play your music in a command line tool… what ever floats your boat 
I like Roon and it’s features and the superb usability.
I use Roon, HQPlayer, Aurdirvana and Apple Music. All serve a different use case… just pick what suits your needs. If you don’t like Roon, fine theres plenty of alternatives.
Mark Levinson 5101
Buchardt Platin Streaming Hub
That’s two that are not roon certified that I personally own. I must be coming up to 5 years now with roon and roon certification has never really been a purchasing consideration. I do have a bunch of Chromecast audios as a fall back though.
I think you will find non-compliance is quite common. Even where there is planned to be compliance, the certification process can take years for niche manufacturers without the resources (Hegel) or other larger manufacturers are evolving their own eco-systems and are not necessarily interested (BluOS). Of course roon bridge can provide some glue to a certain extent. But I think “ubiquity” overstates.