Roon is a solid system, but like all things could be improved. Here is my wishlist:
- Support for Dolby Atmos recordings. Roon supports Auro-3d. Now, let’s bring Dolby into the mix. It is surprising this is unavailable in a music server otherwise as advanced as Roon. The software is out there, but users can’t take advantage of it.
- Additional library sorting capabilities. For classical music, I update artist with the composer in ln, fn, mn, then update album title with work/conductor/soloist if required. (For example “Symphony #9 in D-minor: Shaw” in the album title field and “Beethoven, Ludwig van” in the artist field.) Within reason, I divide multiple works on a single album into separate albums. When I sort by artist, the resulting display does not show their compositions in sequence. If I sort by album title, I have a hodgepodge of composers in no useful order. I can get almost what I want by display by album title and putting composer name in the filter field but only for that composer. I want to sort by artist/album title without using a filter. (Yes, I want to browse the library.) Similarly, for non-classical forms of music, I put performer into the artist field (which it often has already) and album title (which I usually do not change) to display the library in performer/album title sequence. Yes, Roon doesn’t think the same way, but this innately logical wish does not appear to be completely at odds with Roon’s potential.
- Improve the album edit feature. As noted, I typically change the album title to what I want in classical music files. Problem is, the box allowed for that is so tiny that it is difficult to update with long names, and insertion is often next to impossible because you may not have simultaneous access to the entire field. I often have to key the value in Safari on my IPad, then copy and paste.
- Simplify the procedure to separate single albums into multiple albums. It took me quite some time to figure out all the foibles of that process, starting with the system’s inexplicable duplication of tracks while doing it. The more separate albums you create, the more track duplication occurs, so you always have to be careful to delete the redundant tracks. Associated with that are QOBuz library entries where it is sometimes - but not always - impossible to change the album title and have it display consistently, although sometimes it works just fine.
- I would love to see librettos included for classical music with English (or whatever) translations. Translators aren’t just for Star Trek anymore.
- I cannot get consistent results using volume leveling whether using the album, track, or auto setting. I have often started the first music file of the day to a blasting volume increased by 10 db or more, then go back to the same track later and find it set to a much lower and reasonable value. Even during play, I often have to adjust volumes by a fairly significant degree (3 - 5 db) even though in theory it should not be necessary. What am I not getting here?
P.S. For what it’s worth, my Roon is interfacing with a Trinnov Altitude 32 processor.