I like Plex (I have a lifetime subscription) but I don’t really see this as a Roon competitor. Roon, at least to me, is all about two things:
Really good metadata that allows you to explore your library and expand it naturally.
The ability to send that music to all sorts of places locally within your home very easily.
To me this is just another Tidal platform. Useful for certain scenarios, but anyone using Roon already I’d be shocked if they didn’t have a Roon client hooked up to whatever they’re using with Plex. To add a Roon client is far easier than adding a Plex client – it’s literally a cheap raspberry pi for anything supporting USB audio or a slightly more expensive hifi berry to output spdif. For analog, god knows I would never use the DAC in anything running Plex.
I’ve been a PLEX Pass member since it was first offered and I’m a bit of a PLEX fan boy for video - really like their DVR implementation.
However, I experimented with PLEX’s Premium Music Library feature recently and its handling of my huge classical collection was a disaster so I have a bad taste in my mouth regarding PLEX and music. I imagine the TIDAL integration will only improve but I love Roon for music.
They’ve been doing that live TV crap with Plex and getting those features right (I have zero interest in it). Music has always been an afterthought and, like others here, I don’t see it as a competitor to Roon.
Plex is good at serving video, really good. Roon is good at serving music, really good.
WIll Plex be a better server of music faster than Roon can serve music outside your home? That’s the question really.
I beg to differ that Plex listen to feedback. They may well do in their core area of video, but their handling of photo media is woeful. We’ve been asking for decent handling of photo metadata for years, and still nothing has changed. I use Plex for TV and Film, and don’t bother with anything else.
I am a Plex Pass holder but haven’t used Plex in ages due to them being in the dark ages when it comes to video. They still don’t seem to know about 4k, HDR etc. I have no faith in them being able to compete with Roon.
We’ve made pretty large strides for 4K/HDR recently, especially on iOS/tvOS where we’re bringing a brand new player stack which plays most formats and codecs w/o converting. And I play 4K/HDR stuff on the SHIELD w/o issues.
I just can’t stomach the price of Roon anymore. Tried it for the past year and when renewal time comes up I’m out. Sorry Roon but the benefits aren’t worth the cost. Also, maybe not your fault, but Roon doesn’t work with my three Aurender devices.
I put in the time over the weekend to add all my artists to Plex to take advantage of Plex’s Artist Radio function. I knew the audio quality would not match Roon’s but I wanted to get it working to evaluate it as an outside the house option including a possible replacement for Sirius XM which I have in my car.
My initial results were positive but now I’m not so sure. I was playing Artist Radio for Manfred Mann last night and to my surprise tracks from Kanye West, Hot Karl and Mr Hudson were played.I know who Kanye West is but I don’t listen to his music and I have no idea who the other two artists are.
I’ll continue to test it out and may even reinstall Android Auto on my phone and see if I can make it work in the car.
I’m a lifetime subscriber to both Roon and Plex. I’m not the least bit excited about Plex and Tidal. For me, Roon’s metadata and its use as a music discovery and information tool are what makes it great. It doesn’t look like Plex is a competitor there. And because I live in Brazil but don’t always like Tidal’s “native” Brazilian music recommendations (or those for other countries and languages), Roon neatly removes that obstacle and provides me with a Tidal front end that I enjoy much more. Plex has its uses, but for me Tidal isn’t likely to be one of them. I also have quite a few useful ways to play my non-Tidal music flac files, including Roon, so I’m not all that keen on Plex for that, either. There always seem to be shortcomings in Plex music. But for video, I’m a big Plex fan.
You can use chromecast audio pucks and drive a DAC optically (I do this to drive my KEF LS50W) or if you want to drive a DAC via USB, simply use a Raspberry Pi and run RasPlex headless, it will appear as an output device…you can then use Plexamp as well as all the full Plex suite to drive them so there are a few options for audio only.
Are you able to sync players (zones) together with Plexamp? I’m currently using Raspberry Pi’s with LMS loaded on them to distribute audio to my whole home audio system, but it’s archaic and not supported anymore. I already use Plex for my Live TV and DVR and this would allow me to bring it all into the fold together. But I must be able to sync zones together. Also I tried streaming Tidal on Plex to a Google Home and it wouldn’t allow it. Can anyone confirm it does work to Plexamp?
Hi Brad, I am not sure. You can create zones with the Google Home app so it might be as easy as creating the zone there and then casting to it in the app. I am not home at the moment but will test this and report back. BTW at the moment Tidal doesn’t cast to Chromecast via Plex, I think somewhere on this thread someone mentioned it’s in the pipeline so only a matter of time.
Yes the CCA isn’t working… but I was hoping I could select players with RasPlex headless as you had suggested. I just didn’t know if RasPlex allowed grouping.
After a few days with Plex+Tidal I’m pretty happy with the combo as a mobile solution for music. I’ve used Plex since OSXMBC days and been a lifetime PlexPass holder since they offered it. Plex isn’t perfect by any means but it doesn’t pretend to be. It’s ability to stream local content outside the LAN is fantastic and syncing of content is also great for mobility. Because this new integration I’ve happily cancelled my iTunes Match subscription. @Elan_Feingold - what do you think of the Roon way of doing music?