A great majority would be something over 80-90 percent. But 57 percent is a very low majority.
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If millions of people agree with something it doesn’t necessarily make it right.
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Would be interesting to get comprehensive percentages here but I don’t know how…
Which is the main problem with roon: one step forward two steps back. 1.9 will be about repairing 1.8
Recommended albums used to be in plain sight at the top of every album page. That was great, because they change every time the album changes.
Now, I only see a massive “magazine-like” album title and part of a review at the top of the page. I have to scroll to see the songs. Then scroll some more to see the recommended albums.
It’s not that it’s hard to do. It’s more that I used to see recommended albums even when I wasn’t thinking about looking for them. Sometimes the look of the thumbnail would catch my eye or I’d see them just as a matter or looking at the screen.
Like a lot of things in 1.8, it’s a change they didn’t need to make, that makes the software harder to use or less functional, with no appreciable benefit. One such change is not good and they have made many, many such changes in this release.
The poll is closed already? Isn’t this too early for most users to give a comprehensive answer?
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The only way in software to create a more personal GUI is customization. Unfortunately, customization is not one of roon’s strongest points of views.
You don’t even need to be part time to know that a 48 pt album title juxtaposed with an 18 pt artist title is wrong, or that because of giant headers one has to scroll just to get to info that should fill their screen on landing. Or that purple and orange for highlights isn’t going to be the most popular option. Or that large bodies of text that are heavily justified or not broken up with breaks against a bright white or deep black background isn’t going to be very readable. These are some basic usability decisions that really have little to do with users wanting or not wanting a different design.
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the reasons for this are obvious
You mean fishing for compliments before having the time to explore the downsides?
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43% (non positive/very positive) is quite some minority. I think you’ve drawn the wrong conclusion from that poll…
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I would not see this short first impression quick shot poll as really relevant and useful for what we are talking about here, either way.
Why does anything change? To remain current and relevant?
Given the recent interest and impact on Roon’s servers etc. I’d say that these changes are attracting a new cohort of customers. Customers that want a different way to access music. Something very different from traditional players.
I’m with you 100%. I just spent 20 minutes trying to figure out why one of my Roon bridge endpoints stopped playing mid-song and the only path to recovery was a full reboot of McIntosh DAC and Mac Mini Roon bridge. Everything wired over CAT6.
Now that music is finally playing again, Roon Radio has just kicked in because I reached the end of a playlist. The tracks it is suggesting based off of “Right Place, Wrong Time” by Dr. John are pure HOT, FIRE, GARBAGE.
I just want to be able to stream Tidal artist and track radio to a couple of HiFi systems I have in my house and my $700 investment in Roon still won’t allow me to do that. The UI handles my personal library that mostly consists of live concert recordings from a handful of bands (500+ concerts for each band) exceptionally poorly to the point that I listen to that music less just because of the cumbersome nature of finding the recording I want to play. May just end up going back to a dedicated Mac or PC running iTunes at each location.
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But is this change really something total new compared to 1.7 in the eyes of prospective customers?
I suspect Roon noticed the continuous comments on this forum complaining of the outdated UI. Also constant requests to get rid of horizontal scrolling. Also constant requests to improve classical music management. This may have been a case of be careful what you wish for. 
How so? Should be dead easy, especially with 1.8.
These points make sense to me and are valid, obviously.
Thanks for this feedback!
It’s just like the old days with even/odd numbered Star Trek movies and Microsoft Windows releases, except opposite.