The Elephant in the Roon: Tidal Connect

Audio Gear Talk Bowers & Wilkins
1

I’m sure we all know how this could impact Roon adoption. I have a few questions I am pondering in light of this announcement. Perhaps we can discuss it quietly in our little B&W corner without it turning into a snake pit the moderators have to lock down.

My questions are:

  1. Will B&W quickly add Tidal Connect to the Formation series?
  2. Will Roon offer some incentive to stay with Roon?
  3. How much benefit do I get from Roon and at what cost?

I have 41 days left in my 60 day trial. Plenty of time to see how things play out. Please add your thoughts and if at all possible avoid fruitless debates and flaming.

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Well, if you just use only Tidal then maybe Tidal connect is all you need.
I use Tidal and I have local media files that I also play with Roon. + I also use the Roon DSP convolution to EQ my headphones etc.

Tidal Connect is just Tidal and limited to that.

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If you only use Tidal and your system is compatible with Tidal Connect, then maybe that’s all you need.

4

I primarily use Tidal now, but I do have a local library with albums and tracks that aren’t available on Tidal (or Spotify and Amazon Music HD either). Before signing up for the Roon trial I was switching between Tidal and Double Twist to play everything. I have a lot of playlists that I have imported from Spotify and Amazon as well as a few I have created in Roon that contain both local and streamed tracks. That is really nice. To lose those would put me back in a seriously gapped playback world for those three Roon playlists.

Roon radio and the Discover tab are also factors for me. I’ve really enjoyed their recommendation engine.

My particular use case has a unique twist. I work in the media management software industry on the video side. Roon is quite interesting to me from a media user experience standpoint. I’ll probably subscribe just to see how they continue to develop the software.

5

Sounds to me like you should subscribe to Roon for one year for $120. That’s the cost and the incentive price. There is no other price unless you do lifetime for $700 (if still available).

When I purchased Roon last October, I paid $120 for one year. A month later I upgraded to lifetime and bought a Nucleus. I don’t have any music files and stream from Tidal and Qobuz.

6

That’s the conclusion I’m coming to. It’s worth $10 a month for the reasons I mentioned.

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I don’t know if you have any interest in lifetime, but if you purchase a one year subscription, you can upgrade to lifetime within the first 30 and get full credit for your $120 payment. After 30 days, if you upgrade, you pay the full $700 price with no credit.

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Good to know. By the time I get to that cutoff date I will have used the software for 90 days. I’ll know if lifetime is the way to go by then.

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And, just so you know, Roon sometimes hints that lifetime may not be available sometime in the future??

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I’ve seen those hints. I really think I will be ready for lifetime next month when I’m over the holiday expense hump.

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11

Helps me with my quandary, time to cancel Tidal subscription

12

Why would Tital Connect be an incentive to cancel your Tidal subscription?

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13

I’ve got a little over 28,000 tracks on my hard drive collected over many years and use Tidal to check new tracks before buying (usually from HD tracks) I only use Roon to listen to my music so use Tidal through Roon and not that often anymore (I originally got Tidal to use on my A&K). to check out new music I will continue with Apple Music on my way to work and then add to my collection if I like it.

14

Makes sense. Very differebt than my use case. I am doing the same thing with Spotify and Amazon. I listen there then add in Tidal and stream via Tidal when mobile and through Roon at home.

15

I’m still not understanding why Tidal introducing Tidal Connect would be incentive to cancel your Tidal subscription. What am I missing?

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  1. I only use Roon to listen to music (I have a lifetime subscription), unless I’m driving then I use Apple Music as Tidal doesn’t seem to work well in my car over apple car play
  2. Reading this link I understand Tidal may no longer work with Roon
  3. I had already been thinking about cancelling tidal
  4. I’ve decided I don’t want to use Tidal anymore.
  5. I have other ways than Tidal to listen to the new music I might want to buy.

Given the current state of the world, perhaps not the most important thing right now, but that is why I decided to cancel tidal

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17

Sounds like this just got him thinking about what he subscribed to. I’m fairly certain Roon will still work with Tidal. Tidal doesn’t gain anything by killing the Roon integration. Roon just may have some Tidal iexclusive listeners who use Connect instead.

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Where did anybody suggest that Tidal would no longer work with Roon? Tidal Connect is just a way to use Tidal directly with certain hardware if you have that hardware and don’t want to use Roon for some reason.

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19

No 2 in the earlier response. I think we are all clear on what it does.

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No. Someone other that the person I am responding to in this thread. Who and where did anyone say or imply that Tidal would stop working with Roon because of Tidal Connect?

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