I agree with all of these points. And I am using an iPad as the interface.
Everyone said Roon was “amazing”… it’s more like “meh” in my view. I design apps for a living, and Roon has a lot of “roon” [couldn’t resist!] for improvement.
For example, it’s convoluted and not at all easy to play files by resolution. If I just want to play lossless files on my ultra high-end system, it’s not intuitive or easy.
Well at least the Roon forum was a good place for you to declare how amazing your equipment is.
If you want to find files by resolution, try Focus. This will help you find the lossless files in your collection.
Thanks for the snide comment. Actually, it would take a lot more time and space to describe my system. All I said was it was ‘high end’ - why did that rub you the wrong way?! 
I tried that and it leaves a lot to be desired. For example, you can only specify search by file type. I can’t for example say ‘play all lossless files and files with a bit rate above [a certain value]’ — it’s not intuitive and convoluted.
And where is the rich artwork experience that is claimed? I’m on an iPad and can’t see much else beyond the cover art, and even some of those are missing.
It also stops streaming and interrupts after a few hours…
thanks - appreciated.
There is nothing wrong with referring to your system as “high end”, Sergio. I have encountered a range of folks on these forums in the week I have had Roon. Most are very helpful, and some are just plain snide and rude.
When I originally gave my critique, you would think I had insulted their first born. Roon is very good, but not great yet. I would rate it a 6.5-7/10. I will be buying the year, and will see where they take it in the next 12 months, but they need to be careful and watch their 6.
Plex Pass recently added Tidal implementation, and the Plex server + Tidal it is about half the price of Roon + Tidal. They are a very mature system and will hopefully drive Roon to be even better in the future.
I should have waited until the coffee set in! I think it was just the term “ultra high end” that set me off. My own pet bugaboo.
Anyway, you are not wrong about much of your commentary. I think Roon oversells itself from a graphical / rich artwork experience. I do believe that Roon’s interface is attractive and they do a pretty good job of displaying the artwork and images that are in the database, but they could do a lot more, both in terms of providing back covers, liner notes and inserts, more artist photos, and allowing users to program their own slideshows for content. The potential is there once they get to it.
As for the streaming, I would file a bug report for that. Definitely not how it’s supposed to work.
Now, on your lossless file comment, there are Roon functions to select preferred versions of albums but also if you use Focus, Format, you have exactly what you are requesting I think. You can select each format, each bitrate, etc. that you want to play. You can set a bookmark for that selection so you only have to configure it once.
Great, thank you! Will try what you described.
(Yeah, I don’t normally use words like “ultra high-end”, does sound a bit lame… but I wanted to make the point that a use-case is sending all the high-res files to one system with a simple instruction…
Vs. Sending any files to a kitchen system, for example (where you don’t care about file quality).
I’m on year two and wondering if I’ll make it to year three. It took me a while to learn about Focus, and I agree it seems like a separate UI element poorly integrated into the UI.
With the exception of the Windows PC that functions as the server, all my control points are Android devices (tablet and LG phones). So wrinkles particular to Android app will impact my regular enjoyment more than folks on Apple hardware.
Lastly, I have recently learned that UAPP will deliver better results than Roon when using the LG devices as endpoints. That means that all my casual listening has fallen back to DLNA delivered audio through the UAPP interface, further reducing the case for Roon.
I can promise you won’t be using Tidal with Plex with Roon around, not at home anyway. Plex integration is quite rudimentary compared to what all is going on with Roon.
I don’t know that I have ever found any powerful software to be intuitive or easy. They take time to learn or maybe I’m just slow, or a combination of both. Roon has some very deep stuff going on. I’ve been using it only 2 weeks but the, “oh that’s how that works”, moments are coming fast and furious. At the same time I’m looking for that other software that even tries to do what these guys are trying to do. Nothing seems to come up. It must be pretty hard.
Roon’s artist write ups and links are nothing more than a link to the AllMusic web site. One reason I signed up was for the feature of being able to read about the album, artist and links connected to the music I was listening to, so when I discovered it was nothing more than a seamless connection to AllMusic I was disappointed. I could always listen to music with my tablet in hand and surf the AllMusic web site for free, oh well, maybe in the future this feature will be enriched. One can only hope. The radio streaming has also been a two edged sword for me. I do not subscribe to streaming services so the radio streaming feature is going into my large collection. The good, I am re-discovering music I had no idea I even owned the bad is it goes and plays the same artist a little too frequently and I know my selection is large enough that this should not happen. I have over three thousand albums. Maybe I need to classify my music styles more closely. Still Roon works seamlessly and it is very flexible in setting up and showing me my music along with searching and then playing it so I am happy but it certainly is not 100% there yet and not worth a hundred dollars a year but there really isn’t an alternative that is as good as Roon, so I pay my money and maybe next year bite the bullet and pay the full $500 for a lifetime and be done with it.
I have to say, that if I didn’t subscribe to any streaming services, then I probably wouldn’t have subscribed to Roon.
The ‘power’ of Roon IMO is integrating your library with other online content to produce a comprehensive library.
If I didn’t subscribe to any streaming services, I would have just used the Lumin control app to stream content from my NAS.
IMO, the best part of Roon is Discovery. The biggest payback comes from actively exploring as AndersVinberg explained. A recent but pretty typical experience for me:
Found an interesting playlist on Qobuz “Funky Horns: best of brass sections”. One track by Maceo Parker “Pass the Peas” really stood out. I’d never heard of Maceo Parker. Looked up his bio, and below were a ton of albums made while he was with James Brown. Below, 71 other albums he was part of including 10,000 Maniacs, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Prince (plus a ton of P-funk artists). The bio also mentioned work with The Rolling Stones and Keith Richard (also hyperlinked). I followed that link and found three albums by Richards that I loved. I probably never would have even noticed them.
To me, the AH HA moment about how Roon took digital to the next level was a database of linked records that is attractively searchable. Roon is easily the best money I’ve spent on ‘stereo equipment’ in a long, long time.
Also, the community is great. Check this out: Now playing some sweet Soul, R&B and Funk
Two years of musical discovery in Soul, R&B, and Funk
Ouch, that might hurt
Roon is definitely very uniquely structured and designed software. Not that that’s bad.
I can say for sure I wouldn’t have. There are several, what I will call stand alone music apps, available. The integration of the online with my own collection is phenomenal. When Plex did it I was overcome with joy and Roon takes it to a whole other level. The very idea that it will get even better is really,really,really awesome.
I agree that for my use since I am not subscribing to any music streaming services the Roon app maybe a little overkill, however I use an Android phone and tablet and Roon works really well with Android products and many of the other choices do not. I looked into the Lumen App and it does not receive high marks for integrating well with the Android line of products. I already have a NAS drive set up and run the Roon program from my Windows PC (Core i7 with 12 Gigs of RAM). All seems to integrate really well (cat 6) through my router to the DAC which is located in a remote room. My DAC is the TEAC NT-505 which I like a lot, beautiful sound and great features however their App is a total disaster so at this point Roon seems to be my best choice and I am very happy with it all though it does cost a lot. I appreciate your suggestion and if I am not understanding it well enough please explain further if you still think just adding the Lumen APP to my Android Tablet will give me something close to what Roon does.
Roon is great as a whole home solution, sounds good, etc. It’s just that without Tidal or Qobuz you are paying for a lot of stuff in Roon that you can’t use.
That would be true on any product… Have you noticed how many sockets on the rear of a piece of Hi Fi hardware that don’t get used? Options options…
The Lumin app is very, very good IMO. It works perfectly, and you have integration of both Qobuz & Tidal, plus Spotify if you want it. It’s very intuitive, and easy to use too.
Roon just provides a better GUI, and full integration of streaming services. Albeit at a cost. I suppose it’s the old adage, ‘You pays your money, you takes your choice’!