I saw some potential during my first Roon trial in that it was the first software I used that delivered DSD to my DAC without dicking around with codecs in obscure menus. But it took two trials and another 8 or 9 months of an annual sub to make it permanent for me. I can’t explain why other than to say that going back was no longer an option. But I’ll also add that software doesn’t upset or frustrate me. I get it or I don’t. If I don’t I uninstall and move on. As it was, what I didn’t get that first time was the need to hand over $119 for software.
For me the strengths are :
- Multi room
- my collection and tidal’s in one interface
- the price
The flaws :
- Took me 6 months to know what I had to know
- Music recognition is done on time. Sometimes the time is different and the music is not recognized.
OP; you state that you already have Tidal. Had you signed into your Tidal account from within Roon, you would then have discovered literally millions of undiscovered music titles - apart from the music that you already own - and by associated genres that you’re interested in. Tidal cannot offer such a facility on it its own.
The OP deems to have disengaged, but for me the 14 day trial was plenty for me to discover some of what Roon offered, and that I wanted it. To abandon after 1 day is ludicrous.
What does Roon do for me that makes it worth it?;
1 Integrates various music sources into a single library using a common GUI
2 Enables me to play my music using multiple controllers
3 Enables different music from my library to play in different rooms at the same time
4 Finds me lots of new music and artists to listen to that I absolutly love and would not have discovered without Roon.
There are others, but the above is sufficient.
2 Likes
I think the OP lacked the attention span required to properly explore what Roon has to offer in the program, knowledge base and forum. He just wants to be spoon fed and as such, qualifies himself out.
That’s a shame as the attitude will mean he/she will miss so much. Choices choices…
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For me it is the rabbit hole that I get dragged down when reading artist bio’s and finding other bands they were. I have bought so many new CD’s since I purchased room. I have a large (ish) music collection and I feel that Room brings it all together so much better.
Lots of little things make the experience enjoyable.
I also use Plex, but now I only use that when out of the house.
Room is not for everybody, but if you get a workings test then you will know quite quickly.
That’s some of it, eh? Some folks want things to come as easy as a free phone app. Personally, I relish something that rewards me for learning more about it.
1 Like
I think OP just plugged in Harddrive and think ROON will import everything, simply not yet setup the storage to point ROON scan your drive for music!!! so that’s why OP only see the mirror of his TIDAL screen and nothing more happened.
Hi Again!
First of all……for some reason, this forum wouldn’t let me post anymore as a new user, and I had to take a 18 hour brake before I could post anything again. :-/
Second of all……I found a code for a new 30 day trial, so I thought I give it another try.
I searched the web, and I looked at some Youtube videos on how to ad my hard drive with flac music that is connected to the back of my router, but nothing worked with the ”add network share”, so I had to find it with ”add folder” under ”volumes” And for some reson the program highly recommended me not to do that, but I didn’t have any other choice, so I did it anyway.
I think it took like 4 hours for the program to scan my hard drive and Tidal for songs. And under that time the program freezed 2 times, so I had to force shutdown the program….and after that I could not start it back up again, but had to restart my computer. And this has happened like 5 times now.
I have now been using it for several hours, and I do like it better than the first time around. Switching to ”dark mode” made it look much better.
But……the only advantage I can see with using roon is that room has lyrics to some songs. Even though Im not that interested, I looked at Tidal and found a lot of metadata there as well……just like in roon. There were just as much info about the artist, about the album and so on.
I were out for a little while and wanted to play some music in my car……and to my surprise I wasn’t able to use roon on the go……really? :-/ I can only use it when Im at home? Hmmmm….
Another thing that bugged me, except for the program crashes from time to time……is that every time I start it up, after restarting my computer……roon is researching my hard drive. And for some reason it’s very hard on the computer……the fan is spinning like crazy, and it gets very hot.
Another thing that bugged me was the fact that you scroll through your library horizontally and not vertically.
Another thing is that I usually play some music when I go to bed at night. And last night I turned of my computer….went to bed……tried to open roon on my phone……but it seems that for some reason my phone has to be connected with my computer to be able to play music……and I have no idea why :-/
I really don’t understand why I shouldn’t be able to use roon on the go, and why I have to have my computer on and roon running on it to be able to stream music to my Blusound using my phone or tablet.
One more thing is that i can’t add a song to any of my playlists in Tidal. When I choose ”Add to playlist” it’s all empty. So I guess it only suports playlists that have been created in roon itself :-/ On the other hand, if I go to playlists via the menu, I can see all the playlists that I have created in Tidal. EDIT; I found out that i can save my Tidal playlist as local copy, and sure….that would work inside roon. But when Im on the go, I can’t use roon, and adding songs to the local copy, doesn’t update the playlist on Tidal. Just this thing alone makes the entire program worthless!
Another thing that was annoying was the fact that you couldn’t tell If a song in Tidal was CD quality or MQA. You first have to start playing it, and then look at the output signal.
Today when I woke up and started roon, it says that the directories on my hard drive is empty or has been moved, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t make it work. But then I shut off my computer and were outside for a little while……when I got home and started everything up again, it worked once again… :-/
I haven’t had any of these problems using Tidal on its own, or the Bluos app.
As of right now I don’t see any advantages with using roon, except for the lyrics part. All the metadata, music suggestions, radio channels and so on are also available on Tidal, but without any crashes……and I can use it at home, on the go….I don’t have to have my computer running etc.
Non of the above problems are an issue when using Tidal combined with Bluos.
Roon is marketed as a high premium service that offers more than others. But that’s not the case at all……at least not for me. It’s more the other way around I would say.
Please excuse my some what bad English, it’s not my spoken language.
The ability to play gapless, bit-perfect audio (both Qobuz and my own vast library) on my various devices is what sold me on Roon. Everything else is gravy.
You also have to have your car on to drive somewhere.
Annoying, but that’s how it is.
2 Likes
Deal maker for me was the tight integration of Qobuz and my own music into one library, with a decent remote control app. Artist/album/composer info and hyperlinks was a great bonus.
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I suggest you just move on. I don’t think Roon is for you.
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What a stupid comment! Im comparing roon to Tidal + Bluos. With Tidal and Bluos I can stream directly to my Bluesound, with no need of a computer. I can also listen to it wherever I am, and not just at home. It took Bluos 5 seconds to find my network hard-drive, and all was working right from the start. I can add songs and have them displayed on both platforms. I can right away see if a song is MQA or CD quality. I have never had a single crash of either Tidal or Bluos. And almost every feature that people here claim that roon is superior of, is also available in Tidal and Bluos.
I have been sitting here browsing roon today…and as soon as I come across some song that I like, I have to open my Tidal app on my phone…search for that song, and then ad it to my playlist. Seriously… :-/
I have now spent several hours with roon, and given it a chance. But all I come across is bugs and hinders, so it’s obviously not for me.
Happy New Year Everybody!
Blusound is a computer.
Anyway, what is it about Blusound that has you looking at roon? Seems like Bluos already does everything you want?
As I have said before, I had no idea what roon was…and I was curious to try it out. As it was marketing as something beyond everything else, I maybe expected some more features, easier to use, faster etc. But now I know that it doesn’t even do the basic things that I already can do with the software I have.
You obviously don’t want to take the time or ask the questions to figure out how to use Roon and make it work for you. It is a great piece of software, but not simple to set up in some cases. If you want to use it, there are people here who can help you figure it out. If all you want to do is bash it without knowing anything about it, please go away.
1 Like
I don’t use Roon for Multi room but to access my whole and huge library without booting up my energy sucking iMac. So I also invested in a NUC. Solutions I found for the RasPi didn’t fit my needs, were much more ugly or more complex to setup than Roon. I like how Roon links the metadata and also how easy it is to get the correct Metadata for most of my albums. I also wanted my Family to use Roon, but they hate the UX. So they stay with their energy consumpting YouTube.
You are more than welcome to tell me how I can play my music through roon when Im on the go.
And how I can ad songs to my Tidal playlists
Or if there is a way to put the roon core on my Bluesound, so I dont have to run my computer, and roon to be able to play songs from my phone or tablet.
And is there a setting so I can scroll my library vertically? And is there a way to see the audio quality of a song without having to play it and look at the output signal?