On a wider note, I am on Legacy; really don’t see the point of Arc. If Roon is primarily for critical listening then surely you do that at home. Outside there are plenty of straightforward alternatives. Seems to be R+D gone crazy.
I use ARC all the time because I’m not always at home.
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But it gives you your whole library and Roons suggestions, the main plus point for me in the car is ARC is more responsive than Tidal which is very slow.
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Maybe people want to listen to their library of music when away from home. That’s the obvious point.
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Listening to ARC while walking the dog or driving or at the office and having my personally curated playlists (which are based on play counts and date last played) update in real-time is amazing. No more managing multiple music apps. I couldn’t love ARC more, and I know this is only the beginning.
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Firstly, this was one of the most requested features by customers.
Personally, I was sceptical as I had other alternatives to listening to music on the move, but since it has happened I am addicted! Having all my music arranged in the way I want (both my own and my “favourites” from Qobuz), along with extensive metadata is amazing.
I feel sorry for Roon developers, every time they lift the bar in terms of features, people demand more! I am indeed and one of them, who not seeing the point of a service such as ARC, now want bit perfect delivery via my Android phone. There were problems initially, but they were fixed and then in the same release we got integration with Wikipedia - something I never expected but find extremely useful.
Now of course, Roon has already overdelivered, I am now expecting more - access to PDFs through ARC and access to more information sources in addition to the ones that are already available.
This is not R & D gone crazy, but R & D reacting to consumer demands and technological opportunities.
This is what leading companies do.
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yeah, was totally passé on ARC before it was released, and even during the beta testing. I even told roon I wasn’t the target market, and so they could take me off the beta testing group. Plenty of alternatives outside my house. Tidal/Qobuz, CD’s, podcasts, satellite radio, silence. Plus i have an SD card slot in my car, so as long as I kept it updated, i had my entire library available.
But I absolutely love it. Love being able to use roon everywhere. Car, work, cabin, hotel, friends’ houses. Play to headphones, bluetooth speakers or connect to a DAC and get lossless quality sound.
And I don’t have to update the damned SD card every time I buy a new batch of CDs.
Anyway, I was skeptical. Now, not so much. 
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Yeah. This. I actually end up listening at home on headphones more than I did before because of Arc. My wife was asking me to turn the music down when I was writing and listening to string quartets too loudly for her. Now I’ve got my phone, ARC, a Btr3k and my IEMs, and I love it. No argument. Wasn’t expecting to dig ARC, still annoyed at some things, love it. Not everyone has to love every feature. It’s fine with me if you think it’s dumb, or worse. You’re not alone, guessing you’re also not in the majority.
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And maybe it isn’t just for that? Even at home I typically listen to music, not “critically” to my hifi system. And sometimes I am not home but still want my personal library and meticulously edited credits.
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Arc is excellent when it works but I’ve had a problem since day one. I’m not gonna repeat myself as I’ve talked about the issue im having, along with other users, in another thread. Obviously it’s still early days so hopefully a future update will correct the issue.
Fortunately i have a Plex account so use Plexamp when I’m out and about but in an ideal world I’d be using Arc.
ARC has changed my experience for the better. I haven’t used the Qobuz and Tidal apps since I’ve got ARC running.
And listening to my own collection when I’m at work or driving in my car is a big bonus.
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To be clear - I have zero interest in ARC , I listen in the car on an old iPod or BT via my phone
That said it is the answer to the (many) naysayers of Roon. They listened to their Customer Requests and acted on it . What more can you ask for . Yes the dev work must have been intensive and other feature request must have gone on the back burner to achieve it , including I am sure some I would have preferred to have seen getting higher priority
But simply you can’t moan Roon don’t listen and act and then moan when they do - Make your mind up
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The term ‘critical’ when applied to listening to music always puts me in mind of Alan’s pertinent words.
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Yeah. To be fair, it’s perfectly possible to listen critically to the music as such, but certainly Roon isn’t “primarily” for that either. The listener’s intent and mood decide the listening mode, and Roon does not explode when listening for fun
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That made me chuckle.
Happy Christmas everyone.
.sjb
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Wha on earth is critical listening, I just listen to music not the Hifi.
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I’m occasionally critical of new music, sometimes I call it crap.
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That’s more polite than I would be.
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My first longer trip after the release of ARC, Berlin-Vienna to visit my old home for Christmas, with German Rail, 8 hours on the train at the best of times, which is never with German Rail.
As expected it has been a complete nightmare until 5 minutes ago. First the train broke down before it even took off, and they cancelled it without a replacement. The next regular one was so full that people had panic attacks in the crowd, so I left it and waited for the next one, which however was going to Munich instead - at least southwards.
On that train I found a seat and proceeded to put on my headphones, just to see that the phone had started to eat battery for no reason, so I restarted it. After reboot I realized that I had forgotten to change the PIN on my new SIM, so I couldn’t get in 
Tried to log into my Vodafone website on the laptop to get the PIN, which failed (“server error”) with my new account for the first 4 hours of the trip up to the train change in Nuremberg, to get to Vienna. On a whim I tried my old account and it worked, so I had the brilliant idea of choosing the “unify accounts” option and pull the new contracts into my old account. Couldn’t believe it when that worked and I could unlock my phone!
So now I am listening to my music via ARC, flawlessly, on the noise cancelling headphones for the first time on this trip, 7 hours after leaving the house, sitting on the train floor with other people stumbling over me every 15 seconds (still completely overcrowded), and it’s utter bliss.
Glad to have learned from the OP that ROON IS NOT FOR THAT, though!!!
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Roon is for whatever you want it to be music wise for we and others. Sounds like a trip up North for me by Avanti trains and it’s only a 2hr journey. Good to know that trains are crap outside of the UK as well but not for you on this occasion. Have a good seasonal break hope you get there in the end.
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