For various reasons , I have not had time to use ROON. I recently read in a few places about the eventual demise of ROON, for a host of valid reasons it sounded like.
So before I spend to much more time getting my ROON system up and running again, new equipment etc, what is the long term future of ROON ?
Where did you read that? What valid reasons?
Torben
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Donât believe half of what you read onlineâŚ
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What an interesting question! Iâm not sure that any of us can answer it in any meaningful way without slipping into philosophical concepts. I will try though: Status is good; Long Term Future (LTF) is as predicted by Arthur Dent.
In relation to âtoo much more timeâ i need more data in order to extrapolate an answer, how much time have you spent already?
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I wonât panic or lose sleep, but a few out-of-interest searches and I canât find any ânewsâ about this impending demise
Some early ish days (old) speculation, what might happen to lifers + subs, and some post-Harmon pondering, but thatâs it
But whatâs at risk? If you invest in a dedicated server that cannot be repurposed (and I expect even I could write another OS onto my Nucleus), that might be a risk, but if youâre worried - just use an existing PC
Components that are Roon capable are not Roon only (AFAIK none?)
If you pay monthly and Roon folds, you stop paying, annual you might lose up to 11 months, lifers are either already quids in, or unlucky
But even if Harmon dropped it, I suspect thereâs enough value and interest for some biz/one to at least keep it going, even if it were frozen in spec and scope
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The simple answer is nobody knows except the inner sanctum of Roon, My approach is keep going until you canât
You donât mention what your equipment is or what you are planning to add.
Should Roon fail in anyway you really have little option but UPnP / DLNA as the signal transport.
Most servers and streamer support this. On new kit is to make sure it supports both Roon AND UPnP
My 2p is that Roon my well change in itâs approach maybe more hardware biased (Nucleus one/Titan maybe a hint) but there is no logic in Harman buying the to close them , they werenât competing with Harman before the acquisition. The most logical thing is in their automotive range.
Just do an annual sub
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Thatâs really it. Just make sure that you can use your hardware no matter what, and it should be fine. When I got a new NAS last year for a variety of reasons, and I just made sure that it checked certain boxes, one of which was that it should have enough power to comfortably run Roon, which I wanted to try out. If Roon ever ceases to function or exist, well, no big deal, I still got the NAS I needed anyway, and I will still be able to use it as a music sever among other things.
Obviously, no one knows the future status of Roon. Itâs quite an expensive piece of software, and while it does what it does quite well, it has a very limited target audience.
As far as I can tell, Roon is most useful if you have a large digital music collection of your own, use at least one higher end streaming service such as Qobuz or Tidal, and use different end points to access your music. The more these things are true for you, the more mileage you may get out of Roon.
But how many people have transferred their own CD collection to a digital hard drive? How many people buy digital downloads? How many people today even start their own music collection? Most younger people just stream music, and thatâs it. And while years ago one could know that with CDs, you got a lot better sound quality than lossy Spotify, that is no longer true, with streaming services such as Qobuz and Tidal offering 16bit/44,1kHz CD quality streaming or even higher.
Roon seems to me a program with a very limited target audience:
People who have their own digital music collection AND who use at least one higher end streaming service. And maybe use different access points.
All these things are certainly true of myself, and probably of most people here in this forum, but itâs still a very limited target audience. And one that I donât think is growing, or at least not by much. On the contrary, it may even be âshrinkingâ. So who knows what the future of Roon will hold.
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Not really. There are plenty of people in here who are all streaming or all local. I myself am all local.
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I would say Roon may still offer a lot if youâre all local, though the returns clearly diminish when you are âall streamingâ⌠personally, I would not see any significant benefit streaming via Roon over just streaming Qobuz or Tidal directly. (Obviously, that doesnât mean there may not be any benefits that others might enjoy.)
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Iâm 99% streaming and find a lot of benefits of Roon and Tidal working together!
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Thatâs cool. What benefits does Roon bring to you over using Tidal on its own?
I hate to wade in to rumors and conspiracy theories, and without a source cited, I see no merit whatsoever to this expressed concern. âEventual demiseâ? Sure, that can be said of everything⌠all things must pass⌠eventually.
WIth the Harmon acquisition, there were certainly questions about whether Harmon would meddle with the future of Roon, but so far, the continued development and support of Roon would lead one to conclude that Roon is doing quite well and continuing to grow its customer base⌠And I have seen no competing products or concepts that come close. In fact, it sems new audio hardware almost mandate Roon Ready compliance these days.
Hey, what do I know? Iâm just an extremely happy and content Roon customer - for nearly a decade now - and hope that continues for years to come. Hmmm, I wonder if Roon would consider applying a fact-checker to these forums (sorry, couldnât help myself ;-).
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This is true. There is synergy between saving files and using them for discovery. And I find it more convenient to run the app off my phone (the âphone zoneâ), though there is a small hit to audio quality.
Roon isnât perfect, but I sure hope it is sustainable. A lot of my interest in music these days is directly traced from the app just being there. And I consider myself an everyman.
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In a few places? One substantiated link, just one link please 
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Things are great @ Roon! 
Hope youâre all well, too! 2024 was an incredible year for us. The support weâve enjoyed from all of you and Harman has been wonderful. Weâre sincerely grateful for your unflagging enthusiasm and support. It means a lot to the entire Roon team.
We released a diverse array of new features for Roon and ARC, plus award-winning new Nucleus hardware last yearâall the details can be found on our Blogâand we have A LOT more in store for you.
And some of it is super exciting stuff that most of us never imagined was possible, like making vinyl Roon Ready.
When worrying about stuff weâve seen on the internet, itâs best to remember what that Seneca dude said: we suffer more in imagination than in reality.
Rather than create things to be worried about, I recommend enjoying some of your favorite music. Thatâs what Roon is for. 
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Synced playback to multiple endpoints simultaneously. Can Tidal or Qobuz apps alone do that?
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You can use your time wisely, or waste it on useless things! Iâve been listening to music, with Roon of course, for 5 years (Lifetime 
)
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I donât know; as that is not really relevant to me, I never tried it.
I know Roon can do that, but itâs not a function I personally use at the moment.
Yes, we all use things differently. I use this synced playing function daily and would not have become a lifetime member without it.
ps I only stream local files on Roon.
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I heard a rumour that the Earth is flat 
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