I have become wholly dependent on Roon for discovering Music (old and new) that fits my tastes. I love listening to an album I enjoy and exploring the Recommended albums. I find so many great artists and albums I never knew existed and some of these have become my favorite.
I love the Roon UX and find all other streaming platforms just can’t compete. Either they are obnoxious about how they present new music and make recommendations or they are just cluttered, sluggish or have non-sensical layouts.
There are really 2x things that are just killing me at this point though.
No mobile solution. I know, some folks have successfully worked around this using VPN but that’s not something I want to have to implement and manage.
iOS/iPadOS issues. These are documented all over the community in various threads but the lack of mouse support, the poor background/memory management, the way the app needs to be re-launched after bluetooth headphones (AirPods primarily) are disconnected/reconnected, etc. It’s time to get the app quality up to snuff.
If these two things were addressed, Roon would be the only music app on my various devices. All others would be toast and I could have the same amazing experience in my home and on the go. As a lifetime subscriber I’m hopeful that we’ll get there.
I thought I’d expand a bit about my 2x main gripes.
Because Roon has not rolled out a mobile solution yet I keep Qobuz and/or Apple Music on my iPhone and iPad for when I’m out of the house. I go on a walk every evening and must rely on these other apps for listening while on my walks. I’d prefer to have access to my entire library in Roon and have the ability to add artists/albums I discover along the way. It’s simple enough to set a reminder to do it later or jot things down in my Notes but it’s just an additional step outside the core user experience.
When I’m at my desk, I listen via a Dac/Amp and wired headphones BUT when I’m fiddling around throughout the house I generally use my AirPods Pro or AirPods Max. Pausing playback and then trying to resume playback is a pain in the butt almost every time. If playback is paused for more than a second or two, resume doesn’t work until I force quit the Roon app and re-launch it. Also, switching the playback device (from AirPods Pro to AirPods Max for example) often causes the App to stop working, again requiring me to force quit and relaunch. This is a constant, daily irritation that sours the overall experience.
Hey Rob! Thanks for sharing and being candid with your feedback, we really appreciate that.
The best way to show your support for new features is to vote in the Feature Requests section, here are the two that you mentioned:
Regarding background/memory management on iOS, I recommend checking out Danny’s post about that here. Don’t hesitate to continue the discussion in that thread if you’ve got more to add!
Yikes, I’m not an iOS user but that doesn’t sound right. Can you create a new thread in #support? Make sure to fill out the support template when you create your post and we’ll have a look.