For me there is not one standout killer feature unique to Roon, rather it is the overall experience of having a single unified app that can control my PC, Chromecast Audio, the DAC connected to my main hifi, my phones etc coupled with the fact that my local music library, Qobuz and Tidal are treated as one seamless entity.
Add in the ability to use R Pi’s as bridges, hook into things like HQ player etc and there isn’t really anything else as compelling.
I also like that roon just does music. No video, podcasts, audio books etc etc. It’s a blade not a Swiss army penknife.
Yes, just yesterday I was listening to a live album I’ve heard so many times before. I found myself anticipating the background vocalist’s parts - she’s has so many great parts sprinkled throughout the concert. So I clicked through some links and then discovered she has a bunch of solo records. Now her stuff is part of my library. Before Roon, I would still research, but it was a pain, involving Wikipedia and other sources.
For me Roon (plus Tidal) has been absolutely brilliant for exploring music and discovering people and their music I was ignorant about. My latest excursion began with playing an Allman Brothers track, being drawn in by a brief bio that described Duane Allmans two year window of work between recognition and his untimely death. Then listening to everything he was involved with in that time. I was able to do my reading and searching in Roon. A near ideal experience in my opinion, and an over all experience not replicated elsewhere.
The DSP functions. Since I don’t have a perfect system in a perfect room, the Parametric Equalizer is especially useful to optimize the sound and to make non-optimal recordings as bearable as possible (given their excellent musical value). The only function Roon lacks that I could really use is a search by specific tags.
I have had Roon for over a year. It works. I have my Core on my iMac, my music on my NAS, my DAC/Streamer is a MSB Analog DAC with volume control and a Renderer II in a dedicated music room, all hard-wired to my router with CAT6 cable. I control my music in my dedicated music room with an iPad.
First, the Roon interface is great and I love the info about my albums and artists. Even on classic rock and jazz that I have listened to for years, I find the info interesting.
I like all of the displayed information and I like how I can input info for the many bootlegs that I have.
I like the album art that is either automatically picked up or can be customized.
I can also control my system from my listening chair using the iPad and volume control in the Roon Interface.
I really enjoy listening to an album that I have selected, and after its over, Roon keeps playing other music that really goes with it, often playing music that I haven’t listened to in a while, so the feature helps me explore my extensive collection.
It also sounds better than the competition. Using Roon, music sounds better than when I used Naim’s native (and free) app when I was using a Naim NDX DAC/streamer. Naim’s app was great and sounded great. But Roon sounded better. Not “blow me away” better, but definitely audibly better. At the level of my system, everything is an incremental improvement anyway, for the most part.
My only regret is that I didn’t sign up for the $499 lifetime, and ended up due to my misunderstanding of the policy, with the $699 lifetime plan. However, now I am hooked on Roon and don’t look back. The only thing I DON’T like about Roon is the lack of tech support. Providing forum tech support is a cop-out and, especially when there is a malfunction and you are in the middle of a listening session. When you pay for an app, especially annually, you should be able to speak with a live person. Now I haven’t had any really major problems so forum support has been fine (and pretty prompt), but it is no substitute. However, other than that, I have only positive things to say. Highly recommended.
Don’t think twice it’s more than alright. Roon. There’s nothing like it. You don’t know it until you come to appreciate how well it know you and how comprehensive its data base is. Don’t think twice. Do it
Thanks for this tip. I had no idea!
The Bluesound app also supports this, but only (AFAIK) with Bluesound gear.
If you consider Roon feature by feature, I suspect you’ll find other applications/systems that replicate most of them. More or less, better or worse. There is no single killer feature in Roon that keeps me paying the annual subscription system. It’s more a matter of holistic integration similar to the advantages many people have found in the Apple ecosystem. Roon integrates hardware, software, OS, and data in a way that (on its best days) hides most details of the individual components, so that people can focus on the intended application (namely, playing music). Yet, if you’re so inclined, you can still tweak and twiddle to your heart’s content with the integrated technology (HQ player filters, convolution, multi-room zoning, etc.) – with an excellent support forum to help you along the way.
I love Roons Tag feature.
I’m surprised the “Focus” feature hasn’t been mentioned. I find it to be a very intuitive and effective way to filter through the library as well as see macro usage patterns.