Understanding Roon design choices and limitations

[andybob (Andrew Cox)]

Hi Gary,

Can’t answer all of them, this is what I know:

@Gary_Rancourt

How do I switch to Now Playing on iPad remote view?

Tap the bottom footer bar to access the Queue, square icon mid far right.

@Gary_Rancourt

I do I force the iPad view to conform to view on my Mac?

This is not supported. Remotes don’t share states.

@Gary_Rancourt

How do I go to the focus menu from any screen?

Focus menus are available only in Menu/Collection screens

@Gary_Rancourt

• The music lyrics feature is amazing and very useful but what would take it the next level is to be able to see classical music lyrics, e.g, Bach Cantatas; Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde, opera librettos, etc. Any plans for this in future releases?

This was recently the subject of a feature request thread. No plans have been announced.

@Gary_Rancourt

Is any Mac system optimization used? e.g., shut down Spotlight. This is done in Amarra and Audirvana so that all CPU cycles can be dedicated to music playback. Useful for hi-res streaming to avoid occasional dropouts.

Don’t know.

@Gary_Rancourt

When should I use the other optimization choices offered in the audio setup menu?

Click the little info icons next to each option.

@Gary_Rancourt

It seems that when scanning music folders Roon just ignores mch files (as they are not playable) as none of mine show up. Is that correct?

Mch files are not in the list of supported formats. Roon is currently stereo only, but multichannel support is contemplated as a possibility.

@Gary_Rancourt

Why can’t I see a list of tunes Up Next in the Queue - which is empty? For example, if I pick a work, click Focus, narrow the focus by selecting, for example DSD64, and click queue, I would expect to see a list of all the upcoming tracks that will played (shuffled) that meet the focus criteria. But all I get is an empty queue and of the right of the screen and a view of the next work up.

You can see songs that you add to the Queue, but not songs that Radio will play. Once you have focused on tracks you need to select all (ctrl-a or long press, menu at top left option), Play or add to Queue. The empty queue and up next mean that Radio is playing rather than any Queue the user has selected.

@Gary_Rancourt

Is there a way of changing the size of the cover art so I can display more (or less) than the default?

Settings/General/Allow for More Covers and Photos will increase the display to 6x3. Otherwise, no.

@Gary_Rancourt

I was happy that Roon was able to import my iTunes playlists but it seems that it can only display the contents of the playlist in track list view. This is suboptimal as I usually want to see album (cover art) view to quickly see the contents of the playlist (e.g., all hi-res jazz) and easily click and play any work with one click. This is because many of my playlists contain whole works and not just individual tracks.

Playlists I have made in Roon have clickable Artist and Album items for each track, but not cover art. I haven’t imported any iTunes playlists so can’t say what happens there. Adding cover art to the queue or playlist sounds like an interesting option, but it would probably reduce the viewable size of the onscreen list.

@Gary_Rancourt

Some Roon screens scroll horizontally and some vertically. Why?

Lists and Browse screens are vertical, screens and sub-screens of albums are horizontal. I don’t know why but suspect it’s an aesthetic choice in UI design; the devs think the UI looks and works better that way. An option to enable vertical scrolling throughout has been requested but no announcement has been made. I quite like the horizontal scrolling, particularly on a tablet, but am happy for others to have the option. I think there are plenty of other things with greater priority.

Hope that helps !