Two months trial coming to an end. Roon path On or Off? Countdown in progress

Roon Software Discussion
1

Go for it!:

Software stability and overall UI & SQ are excellent in my setup. Roon Zones concept and management, DSPs, versatility with remotes, Roon bridges, library navigation -find what to listen-… also excellent… and after seven weeks following, reading, all of you, no doubt great and usefull forum comunity. Also support staff seems very responsive, proactive…

:thinking: Ok but wait, think twice:

Radio autoplay selections not very accurate in my case. Also Stream Radio interface too much spartan to my taste and, important for me, two audio Chromecasts waiting for something to play and MQA, you know. Also in my case no local library, just Tidal, no Tidal = Roon useless, wondering about Tidal´s future…and the price, yes, fair for what it offers but not small for the size of my pocket…

Sure but, take into account that:

Better radio algorithms, stream radio funcionality, Chromecast and MQA support… looks like will come sooner or later.

That´s looks good!.. but:

1 month, 1 year, 3 years… is, are, soon or is, are, late? In other words, will my audio chromecasts will be fossilized when their Roon support will come?

Anyway, seven days left to the decision time. Roon path On or Off?

Countdown in progress :wink:

Thanks for reading!

2

As always: get Roon (or not) for what it is, not for what you hope it will become.

While Roon Radio will continue to improve, Internet Radio will be better in due time and MQA is underway, I wouldn’t bet the farm on Chromecast support. There’s quite a few obstacles in that path (most mentioned in the Chromecast thread) and frankly I’d be surprised if it was added to Roon at all – let alone soon.

How much of a problem that is given the possibility of creating better sounding, fully RAAT compliant endpoints (Pi/HAT/Roon Bridge) for <$100 is up to you…

7 Likes
3

Wow, paralysis by analysis.

Spend the $120, stop torturing yourself.:sunglasses:

2 Likes
4

let it lapse, then I’m sure you’ll find



.sjb

5 Likes
5

If I only used streaming sources and not my local library, I wouldn’t use Roon.

1 Like
6

I also was in the same situation but with very different conditions. I have a huge iTunes library on my iMac and I’m using Apple Music only to prelisten Albums I’ll buy later then (or not). With the Roon trial I also started a Tidal trial (without Hires) to see how it integrates.

While testing I found a lot of surprising shortcomings in Roon I don’t like and I’m still discovering new ones. But I’m a hardcore user of iTunes and I use nearly every feature, so it’s not easy for Roon (and any other software) to keep up with my expectations. All in all I like the browsing experience in Roon especially when I use my tablet in the bed to control my iMac which plays the Music. It’s much more enjoyable than Apples Remote App.

I continued the Roon membership for one year because of the good discovery features and the good remote control, even if it feels like a stranger on iOS. I also like to correct metadata from the tablet. I payed this one year to support further development and to see how Roon will evolve. If nothing big happens I’ll quit the subscription. That’s one of the reasons why I continue to manage my music in iTunes. Another reason is, that I can transfer my Music for offline listening to my iPad as Roon forces me to always use the network and have turned on multiple devices.

If Roon will be with me for a longer time, I’ll buy a NUC and setup ROCK to decrease the huge energy consumption of my current listening setup. Well, that setup will still consume more power than I like, but I haven’t found a better solution yet with similar comfort Roon offers.

1 Like
7

Decision taken! Tomorrow I´ll sign for a one year Roon subscription. 12 months to see how the program evolves, also Tidal integration, and of course to keep enjoying all the amazing features that are already working (Roon Zones management and stability, DSP, Raat, Library management, Radio, versatility with Bridges and Remotes…)

Thanks to all your opinions in this thread!

1 Like
8

Well I finally took the plunge and paid for the annual subscription.
I wanted a decent multi-room setup with syncronized audio that supported my own music and tidal with remote control.
Nothing else does it from one interface.

You can get Roon to cast to a chromecast or even a whole chromecast group, or you can even group a chromecast with a Roon Zone. :slightly_smiling_face:

If you have an Android tablet and it supports system wide casting - Simple!
Go to Android Settings > Display > Cast > Select Cast device (can be chromecast audio or a Google Home/Mini or a group of chromecast devices that you’ve setup as a group.) Then fire up Roon on the tablet and you can cast to your chromecast devices. (if you want to change casting end point devices you have to go back into Android display settings and change it)

As an experiment I was even able to get the default Android output in a Roon Zone and get the audio in sync between my Core Roon system and a Google Mini. (I had to add 800ms to Zone delay)
It does drift out of sync over time but a pause/play gets it back in sync. Not really recommended but it does work. The better solution is to have multiple Chromecast compatible devices (such as Chromecast Audio, Google Home or Mini) setup as a chromecast group. I have 6 Google Mini’s around the house and a couple of Chromecast audios plugged into my bigger systems (one via optical in to a decent DAC) to do full house audio in sync from Roon with my own library and Tidal.

When using the Android tablet with Roon and casting to chromecast Audio’s or Google Homes & Minis the audio stays in perfect sync.

So - While native Chromecast support in Roon would be nice - it isnt necessary with this simple work around - AND you maintain your music quality upto 24bit 96k to multiple chromecast compatible devices in perfect sync.

4 Likes
9

Tidal is stopping me abandoning faith . Classical navigation is simply poor compared to “others”; the lack of custom tags , editing and user defined views makes me wonder

Mike