I’m a relatively new user to Roon and am still in my first few months, however I have really been taken by the way it has re-shaped how I listen to music.
When deciding whether to become a subscriber I began a list of things I liked about the software. The list continued even after I had signed up and included such gems as the ability to “Focus on similar” when looking at a particular album - genius.
Perhaps the key thing though is that, seemingly without trying, I am able to produce a queue of many hours of music within 10 minutes of sitting down for a listening session. Ridiculous I know, as I will never get to the end of the queue, however it’s great that I’m able to discover so much great music that I know I’ll love.
To me, Roon is a way to explore DSP upsampling, bring file formats together, and compare masterings quickly and easily using my own local files with those of a streaming service. It is a tool for exploration both of music I own and music I don’t. To me, Roon is a way to semi-seamlessly allow my house to be connected any time I want it–any room want it. There are many things Roon isn’t to me, but these certainly are the things it is.
For me Roon is a convenient way to play my own rips and music from Qobuz and to read reviews about artists and works. It is less convenient than it ought to be for organising and searching my library however, but I haven’t found anything better.
I came to it looking for a way of combining my streaming service with my library. The metadata and linking is what I like most now and yes I use it to queue up massive playlists in similar fashion. Bonuses have been the ability to turn old Pis and Chromecasts into endpoints and headphone DSP. The latter is the most straightforward way to play with DSP correction (no pesky room measurements) and I’m going to plug this thread as it’s an easy route in.
I like the way it has a mind of its own once the music I have selected has finished. It heads into areas of my music and picks something to play I might have forgotten or never listened to. It’s like rediscovering my music anew!
And also, it plays by track. I never listen to my music that way. On the contrary, I listen by album, so it’s enjoyable and novel to listen to different things by track instead of by album.
Focus has never worked for me as it just returns like my entire CD collection which is weird and not helpful but…
The thing that really sold me was that Roon is kind of like the “opensource” music platform. Same interface across all my devices. Can send output to all my devices. It simply keeps-up with the highest quality endpoint I can throw at it. I can swap-in / out thousands of combinations of gear around Roon but Roon stays the same. In that way I don’t feel like I’m part of any one ecosystem. That’s a solid foundation no matter which direction I take my systems.
3 Likes
kneville
(Sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears)
10
After 5 years of use, that has not been without some frustrations, I can pretty comfortably say that Roon is my music. They are synonymous. If I’m at home or in my office (at home way more than my office these days), and I’m listening to music, I’m listening to Roon. Now if only I can get Roon on the go on my mobile…
To me, Roon is the vehicle that lets me enjoy music far better that any other package. I have a huge library (163k+ and increasing daily) plus more than that via playlists. Roon organizes everything (with a great GUI far better than anything else. Is also let’s me easily set sail, exploring new music in a way nothing else does. For me, and the way MY brain is wired, nothing else comes even vaguely close to allowing me to navigate new and existing music the way Roon does. But, that is all based on MY brain, and how it is programmed. You, or anyone else, may have a totally different experience. So, do not look for advice from anyone else. Just play around it as much as you can, and see how well it functions to accomplish what YOU need it to to. And compare it to as many choices as you can. And settle on whatever will satisfy your needs the best. Good luck, and happy listening, however you choose!
For me it’s a continuation of my lifelong journey of music discovery. Various steps have included:
listening to AM radio in the country town where I grew up and discussing K-Tel greatest hits albums with my primary schoolmates;
exchanging cassette tapes of various albums in secondary school and listening at home over and over and over …;
listening to 3RRR when I came to Melbourne (But Mum, it’s Educational !);
Lounging about on beanbags in the Rowden White Library (the non-academic library) at Melbourne Uni reading various Illustrated Histories of Rock Music and listening to prominent albums on turntables via the headphone channels;
Enrolling in Late Renaissance and Baroque Music History as a spare Arts subject in my degree and attending lectures and tutorials about music (what a lark ! didn’t feel like studying at all). Listening in the Baillieu Music Library to various tapes of classical music.
Roon is just the latest phase in finding and listening to new music. And I feel like I have a huge music library built into my apartment.
Yes, absolutely. I came to Roon after 10 years with Sonos. Not only do I forget that I’m even using Sonos devices in the rooms that still have them, but I’m also seamlessly using other Roon devices and endpoints as well. And it all works just the same. Perfectly.
Its the only software that’s given me a UI I really like, merged streaming services and my own stuff seamlessly and allowed me to easily play music around my house in any room and because of Roon Bridge at a low cost. It aids my music discovery all the time and I love the journeys it can take me on.
I was using LMS for many years which started my multiroom journey but I always hated at the time it’s UI very clunky and that each thing was separated. I tried Roon a few times and liked it but Roon bridge at that time was not a thing so passed on it as I did not want to use my pc to play music. 3rd time was a charm and been here ever since. Now built even more of a multiroom system and it brought me back to hifi again something I had abondend after having kids for a number of years and I have built my systems around Roon, although I could easily slip back to alternatives if the need arises.
Its not perfect but it’s the best of the lot and allows me to enjoy music more than ever on a multitude of differnet devices.
After over a year with Roon, Roon now means ‘Home’ to me.
Like most people in the community, music is a central part of my life. More often than not, I’ll get home, kick off my shoes and kick up Roon.
It’s a pleasure to explore music, new and old, and just relax. And Roon just ‘works’ and is a pleasure to use, rather than those clunky control-point apps that frustrate you (I’m looking at you, Linn!!)
Roon gives me back some of the joy I had when collecting music physically. Something that was totally lost when I began using streaming services like Spotify (which I still use for casual or playlist listening) … with Roon, I have my own music again, I’m collecting music again. And it’s very welcome I can do this in combination with some nice discovery and organisation features I never had before.
Going slightly OT … in the UK we had Top of the Pops complilation albums–playlists of the day that mean’t you had 30 minutes of listening before flipping the vinyl.
These didn’t include original artists although those doing the covers did sometimes go on to bigger things. I read that a certain Reginald Dwight performed on early albums.
BTW, nothing to do with the BBC TV series Top of the Pops.
This is one of the least offensive–by today’s standards–TOTPs covers …
