Who switches between Roon and JRiver and why

I see in many posts that amongst Roon users JRiver is still in use.

My streamer is not Roon Ready so the best I can get is airplay (Cambridge Audio CXN) so for any hi res I would revert to JRiver. A major hardware change is not on the horizon yet.

Also I use JRiver as a tag manager

Mike

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I use J River still to TAG and also to convert files to mp3 for putting onto mobile device. Also occasionally to stream “hi res” files over network to Hegel HD30 DAC which is not Roon endpoint.

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Also using JRiver, using the scheduler to record web-radio stations. Which is a pain that this is not supported in Roon as I have switched to Rock and cannot run JRiver on the nuc but need to turn on the big-box for this purpose.

Please Roon add the function to record web-radio according to a schedule!

An inexpensive option would be to use a Raspberry Pi running RoonBridge to feed in to Cambridge CXN. That way you would avoid the limitations of airplay.

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Thanks Mike

Thats been on plan, either Pi or a NUC

To be honest at 67 I suspect Airplay is too challenging for my ears , let alone constructing a Raspberry Pie

Anyway I am not allows Pi any more :star_struck:

Mike

I use JRiver to play surround sound DVDs and Blu-Rays with my Out of Your Head headphone software.

JRiver can also stream over the internet from your home…something that one day very soon I hope Roon will be able to do so when I travel I have my library available to me. With broadband speeds available today this should be doable…or at least one should be able to downsample to a workable speed/bitrate

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Totally agree, also the reason for me to keep JRiver running: stream to my iPhone when I’m travelling to work.

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it seems I’m right on track with others in my use of both. JRiver gets used frequently by me for tag management, ripping and remote streaming. My files all have embedded artwork and JRiver is good at performing that task as well. JRiver also gets used for some video playback as well.

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yes thats another function…plus it also handles movies and pictures but then so does my Synology and the Synology also manages to do all that remotely streaming too - the interface is quite bad…still it does get the job done.

SACD ISO format support in JRiver but not in Roon makes me very reluctant to buy Roon. Sure, the tracks can be extracted and converted to uncompressed format, but the extra disk size needed with the SACD part of the library being close to 1000 albums, and the suspicion that gapless will not work when playing separate tracks, it may not be worth the sacrifice. (I think both JRiver and Foobar couldn’t do gapless DSD files, but neither had any problems with the ISO file.)

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Just converted one sacd ISO to .dsf tracks both stereo and multichannel. Size of tracks is 3.4 GB for stereo + 8.8 GB for 5.1 - 12.2 GB total. ISO is 3.6 GB That’s over three times as much disk space… Not all my SACDs are multichannel, but say at least 70% are. Very rough estimate then shows the SACD part of my collection would expand from 4.5 TB to 12,5 TB or 17 TB if I keep the ISOs while waiting for Roon to implement ISO support.

Tag management. It will take a lot of time to update tags to work well with Roon (hybrid SACDs, DVD & BD audio discs, Deluxe Editions).

Theater mode for one handed remote control

photo management and some video (although I use Emby for video primarily)

Transcoding, playlist making and CDR making.

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I used JRiver for about 4 years after I dropped Foobar2000 which I used maybe for 8 years or so… as I do not have need for any video, conversion or tagging from the software I want to play my music I just tried Roon and it was way superior as player, so switched.

I do use “Metadatics” for tagging in case someone wants a good easy and similar to “Mp3tag” software for OSX.

Two reasons that I still use JRiver:

  1. I still frequently want to browse my music based on my folder structure. (I have a large number of classical music files that, frankly, Roon doesn’t scrape all that effectively.)

  2. Because I had A LOT of music before I purchased Roon, my files apparently have tags that Roon can’t/doesn’t process, so a fair number of my music files don’t seem to appear in Roon.

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Roon for music (local and Qobuz) and for internet radio.

JRiver for podcasts.

I use jriver for movies and also as a bridge between roon and Audiolense Convolver, since the latter is not working if I streamer directly from roon, stereo sound is detected as 32 channels and convover’s filter doesn’t work

Same here. I have used JRiver for several versions. I now find it bloated and its interface increasingly and unnecessarily complicated. I use it now on my NAS as a podcast catcher for which it works very well. At home I use ROON and on the road Plexamp and Plex.

I use Jriver for multichannel SACD’s and Blu-ray. I send it over DLNA to a Sennheiser SB01 AMBEO 5.1.4 soundbar. I now use it to read SACD ISO’s directly vs DSF which uses ~1/3 the storage space and requires no preparation time.

I use Roon for stereo distribution throughout my home and to my headphones:-).

It still has its uses. I use for DLNA to power. My Samsung HW950 soundbar and satellite speakers. I still use DLNA on my Cambridge CXN

Thats not tomention the Tagging and Conversion duties

It still covers all my local video needs