Design by popular vote. Design by committee?
Agree with @Geoff_Coupe’s point.
Seamless integration …hmmm…
Maybe under certain conditions and for some users. I mention this because while I love what Roon does for my use case (multiroom / manual sync tweaking / DSP / Sound quality), integration has not been seamless for me. The problem for me can be summarised as follows:
- Almost 35-40% of my local library (total of 9000 tracks) is unidentified by Roon (these are mostly AIFF and AAC itunes tracks, no idea why they remain unidentified). This affects Roon radio as well as No 2 below.
- There is no way that I have found to identify if a Tidal track already exists in my local library version. I browse Tidal and add tracks to my library only to later find out that I have the same track in my local library. I understand why this happens (slightly different version of the same track + unidentified tracks) but the end result is that I end up with masses of duplicates (Tidal - Local library) with no easy way to sort / clean. Back when I was using iTunes, I was able to have my local tracks ‘matched’ with cloud versions so when i was browsing the iTunes store I could easily see the tracks already in my library. iTunes was able to identify everything in my library.
As a result of the above, I have not found a seamless way to integrate my local library with Tidal unfortunately.
Mods are volunteer users, not Roon staff so this was not a response by Roon. It was my view as to why Roon has not responded to previous mentions of issues by the OP. If the tone of those previous mentions was the same as the first post in this thread then that may be another reason why he has not received a response.
They must be in deep sleep most of the time - assuming they really exist. Time to shift ‚em.
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Very well said. Far too many ‘bolt-ons’ in the UI. For example, I really like the new recently played/added function on the overview screen, but many times now I’ve used it, thought of something else in my collection I’d rather play, saw that there’s a funnel on the screen to use - but then it only funnels down the recently added/played. So I have to back out, go to the menu, go to albums, and then filter down. Why not a universal filter!!! Why do so many things involve backing out, going to a menu (and sub menu after that), etc etc? Just think, for one example, if for metadata fixing one could have a pop up panel over the album/track to enter the info? No drilling down in a sub menu each time. Or a side panel(s) one could tab/un-tab in order to do that.
I’m a heavy Lightroom user, which uses a one screen module, tab and panel approach. I think there is an “old fashioned” approach, like Roon, that maybe makes one feel they are getting more value because of all the screens, menus, excessive clicking etc. But that’s a false value - value lies in simplicity and saving time and brain power. Why does Roon take three or four clicks to get anywhere when others can do it in one to two?
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And btw, just so I don’t come off as a complete hater, I love what Roon has done for me for music discovery and the ability to play music to different sources. I’m a lifetime subscriber.
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Thought several times before responding to this. When I come across posts like this I usually just pass on by and stay out of it. This is on the basis that whatever you have to say is never going to be accepted at face value (unless you agree with them), or perhaps the person concerned was just having a ‘moment’ or a bad day and (hopefully) all that anger has passed already.
However, perhaps against my better judgement, all I wanted to say was that, after 2 months of an extended Trial of Roon (after buying a Chord Mojo) I have been so impressed that I not only decided to ditch using Sonos once and for all (and will use Roon to serve my devices instead), I even stumped up $699 for a Lifetime subscription! So, why would I do this if it were really as bad as you make out @MatthewS2077 ? (Note: just in case you were wondering - that was a rhetorical question. I honestly don’t need any answers from you)
Personally I would like to applaud Roon and all it’s staff (including @danny ) for not only making a 1st class product that has the love of listening to music at its heart, which has helped put the joy back into listening to my collection and discovering new music again, but also for providing super fast and helpful advice and responses whenever I have needed it, and for making available a huge resource of information on all sorts of levels (technical and none technical).
Fortunately I haven’t come across many similar ‘rants’ from other users on here, but I applaud the moderators for allowing @MatthewS2077 to express his opinion, however poorly judged or angry his tone. That said, I do hope you calm down and regret the way you approached this, or you can instead find happiness elsewhere (as you have cancelled your subscription). I’m sure listening to your favourite music will make you feel much better than venting your spleen at a forum for a service that you no longer use.
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+1 Stephen… +1
5 years later and the look and feel of the GUI hasn’t improved, despite of all the wishes and requests of the users. There are clear areas where it could be improved. its just not ‘slick’.
I’ve been roon lifetimer for 3 ish years now.
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I think Roon is extremely good value for money and has a fantastic UI. Sure, it’s not perfect but it is constantly evolving and improving. I’m very happy with my experience with it.
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Where has the UI developed/evolved ?
It’s not “ridiculous” that software can be evaluated in 10 minutes. I installed it, it found and identified the subset of music I pointed it to, complete with full metadata, I was able to play back smoothly, etc.
i.e., it did everything I wanted it to do, it looked good, so I bought it. It’s not like buying a car, I didn’t need days / weeks of research to make my decision.
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I get the feeling that if users have never used another heavy duty DAM (digital asset management) program such as Lightroom, then the UI of Roon is “fantastic.” For those of us who have/do, it certainly leaves a lot to be desired, esp in the navigation dept. Of course, as I said above, it’s the only game in town for what its purpose is, and they’ve done a great job of convincing manufacturers of that, so they are fortunate (for now) in that aspect.
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I hear you and I understand that it is not perfect and that you are not satisfied. I also appreciate that you were able to express your opinion in a reasonable and respectful way - which was principally the point I was making and that it helps no one to to approach it in any other way.
Only time will tell whether I also become dissatisfied with Roon - but I certainly hope not. I stuck with Sonos since their very beginning and was one of the many, many loyal users who bought their products and enabled them to grow from obscurity into a household name. Their product was a never perfect either. Everyone will always have issues and will always want new features adding or things changing.
It was not their failure to address those issues that drove me and many, many others away but it’s disgraceful attitude to loyal customers by pretending that the hardware they had sold us many years ago had become ‘obsolete’ when that was completely untrue and yet, even their latest ‘replacement’ models have moved on very little (and certainly nothing in the networking hardware to make them high res capable. I mean, can you believe the latest model still only has Fast Ethernet and 802.11 a/b wifi ??? )
But let’s not get into that. Provided Roon continues to deliver the best sound quality it can and makes finding and listening to music a real pleasure again, then it has my loyalty. I’m sure they have their processes for evaluating and responding to user feature requests and improvements, and no doubt that can never keep everyone 100% happy. Communication is the key to managing people’s expectations (in all walks of life). If they have not managed your expectations, or others then hopefully everyone can learn from that. Hopefully too Roon will never become so, so big that the desire for ever greater profits will make them make decisions which are not in the best interests of their loyal customers (like Sonos did, over and over)
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Er, I’m a Lightroom user, but I still prefer the design of Roon’s UI… 
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Fine you were lucky. Probably no classical albums?
Who would expect anything else from you 
My largest genre is classical. Almost every album identified.
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SNAP! No issues, but I can’t work out to just list MQA albums? DSD? etc
I am a heavy Plex and Lightroom user (other database management programs), and I find Roon’s UI “acceptable”. The only thing that kills me is the horrible accuracy of a particular Artist’s “top tracks”. This causes me to have to open Tidal when exploring new artists. How frustrating to find out it’s been an unresolved issue for years. How do you guys work around this? Or is it just not a feature everyone uses?