Each to their own. I’ve used Volumio in the past and it’s okay. The problem for me is that it lacks a whole host of features that Roon has. A 25 % increase is still only the price of a take away coffee, and a cheap one at that. I’m going lifetime but, if I wasn’t, I’d still pay the increase.
Limiting and restricting are by design. What do you find clunky? It should be invisible, not clunky.
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Yes, lovely invisible…
Clunky in the way the ROCK works…
Copying music from one harddrive to another has to go via an external computer. Slow as h… as my laptop computer only can do WiFi.
No backup option included in the ROCK. I would love this option…
I can’t connect the ROCK to an UPS.
Thats hardly a ROCK problem, is it? For me file transfer to my Roon OS based computers average about 120MB/sec, perfectly acceptable on a 1Gbps wired network.
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I can’t tell for sure for now. In my experience filetransfer to and from ROCK is slow (<12Mbps).
I don’t experience slow transfer with my other components in the house.
To be fair to Roonlabs/ROCK I will perform an all wired speed transfer performance test later today.
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Very good!
Regarding your other points, there are way to mitigate issues one might see in each of them.
But they all need to be seen in the context of Roon OS/ROCK being an appliance-like device with as little maintenance as possible. And i that light i think Roon has succeded in creating an excellent application.
Backup as an example, is not a problem if you initiate a backup process on another host, pulling data from the Roon OS shares to your backup. Or as i do it, use the Roon OS device as a backup.
Regarding the UPS thought, of course you can connect your ROCK device to a UPS, which will protect it from surges and shorter power outages. No, it is not possible to configure a shutdown sequence but the ROCK is also built to be resilient to those, so your media backup and database backup should see you through most possible failures.
One might always desire further functionality such as user management to protect the shares, system surveillance tools etc but everything which complicates comes at some “cost” too…
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I’ve just plumped for lifetime after much deliberation. I previously had a yearly subscription which finished earlier this year. I’ve now had a house rearrangement which means I will be using Roon more.
I requested splitting cost over four months via PayPal but currency conversion is poor.
Way I look at it? I spend a lot more on equipment and nothing beats Roon in the sphere it operates in.
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Just bought the lifetime after days of deliberation… hopefully not decision I will regret !
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Shut down the roon server in the GUI while doing transfers as otherwise it’s constantly trying to import new music while copying and this is not the way to be doing it.
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Thank you Mikael_Ollars for your great respons! 
You’re right on all points!
I wish I could add an external USB harddrive and just dump a backup of the music using the ROCK web interface…
I really like the simplicity of ROCK and ‘it just works’ (as Steve Jobs said about the Apple products) so I’ve decided to buy a life-time license… life goes on and let’s keep it as simple as possible! 
BTW… I made the wired speed test and I got up to 332 Mbps average speed for a single hires file. Good enough for me. 
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Seven days and 473 posts. All about a price increase.
Dogs and their bones can’t compete with this thread.
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I know it’s very difficult to digest paying for service like this that costs more than an actual streaming service. I did do lots of research and found that roon is way way ahead of audirvana and others…
Also as someone who is IT and into Cloud have to acknowledge the service that Roon provides needs lots of server components like valence… Which means there is hosting costs as well.
But that’s not why I bought lifetime… The sheer design thinking that has gone into this product is amazing… It’s inspireing and made me want to be a part of this Ecosystem.
And ofcourse the killer feature for me Room Correction…
Not everything is perfect though - I wish more effort is put on Quality and more importantly timely response - else I am afraid this is a brutal industry and it won’t take long for do one like Audirvana to catch up.
That’s my only feedback - innovation and quality of support has to go hand in hand.
Otherwise I am thoroughly enjoying Roon - with Dsp my system sounds amazing
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I’m finally a lifer, paid over Paypal. It’s a great way to split it up over a few payments interest free to make the 699 easier to swallow. Just waiting on either @danny or @beka to make it official.
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Purchased lifetime 4 years ago at the end of my 2 month trial (came with my streaming DAC). Didn’t even think about annual. As a percentage of the total cost of my audio habit it was in the noise. I’m actually surprised it still exists.
If my lifetime license ceases to exist, sure I’ll be miffed. Not because I feel cheated, but because Roon likely no longer exists.
If Roon is purchased by another company that breaks the promise of a lifetime license, I’ll make my decision based on the then available options.
Life is too short to hold a grudge, and besides, I’m already past break even at today’s annual price
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And the best one in my eyes. I hate monthly payments. Less book keeping too when you pay all at once. 
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@danny I sincerely respect the spirit of Roon in dealing with its clients, around the same passion for music. I am already a lifetimer since 2 years, and planning to buy a second lifetime licence for a second location - before the price increase 
. I am not rich enough to consider this as peanuts, but I still consider that Roon is my best hifi investment ever.
And my 2 cts: in the current crazy world we live in, Roon employees deserve a pay raise for the great work they do!
A super happy client!!!
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