Yep and I’m giving a view as to why your view on the number one priority for development, won’t be Classical and boxsets.
Just trying to set development in context.
I think there is scope for improvement across the board. Classical users may feel it more than others. But I don’t think Roon is a particularly great experience - it’s just better than others.
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I also doubt the #1 priroty is delivering to classical music listeners what Roon set out to deliver in the beginning - like I said, the priorities seem to have changed. In that context I can understand the OP labouring over a renewal.
Let’s take Crestron integration as an example - I reckon there are more classical music listeners than customers for that capability, so it doesn’t seem to be about minorities or majorities at all.
I think it’s beginning to show it’s age interface wise. Still pretty decent, but some of the UI elements are not very good at all - for example the horrible ‘featured artist’ and ‘featured composers’ monstrosities on the overview page and large grey header spaces…and the android app is best not discussed. 
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I totally agree with this. I am a lifetime subscriber and Roon’s difficulties with box sets is my greatest complaint. The only classical music I buy these days is box sets, since they are such great value and they are a good way to fill in holes in my collection. However, Roon’s difficulties with cover art with box sets really annoy me, as well as the limited identification data in their data base.
The “classical” problem I see is really almost exclusively with re-issue boxsets. I buy a lot of new classical downloads that are almost always fully identified. There are more problems with new albums from very small jazz/alternative labels, who often do not provide any metadata to the usual metadata databases. Roon is most of all focused on a fully digital experience – streaming or downloads. That’s my main use case, for both classical and jazz, which is why Roon works on the whole well for me. Once I got my old CD collection as well identified as I could get it, most new acquisitions just work. The long tail of rare/old/reissued titles will always be a problem.
this would solve a lot of issues. Personal, searchable, notes on any individual disc or combination of discs would open up massive possibilities for tracking and re-finding gems in a collection and would apply well to all genres. It’s a major problem for me in all genres. Tags are good, but don’t allow enough detail.
I don’t think the issue is only with Boxsets. I have an issue with compositions (works) especially those that have 2 names. Think “Le Sacre du Printemps” and “The Rite of Spring”.
No matter what I do, I cannot get all my various copies of such a work to come up in one search. Yes, I know about the “compositions” view, but that doesn’t seem to do the trick either. There should be some way to tag such albums that a single search will bring them all up.
Is someone knows a method that actually works, let me know.
I have a very similar problem. I’ll be managing two library music files. I don’t have CA, I have the Naim Uniti Core. It is a ripper with internal SSD storage for my ripped music CDs and it’s a music player. It is not Roon ready. It has no browser access. It does not do Internet Radio. It has no subscription music capabilities. Naim is known for good sound so it does make the music in my living room stereo system sound beautiful and it has managed my metadata reasonably well, especially since it allows editing via its iOS app. I have nearly 550 CDs ripped, 90% of which are classical and opera.
But I have four stereo systems and Roon can manage to make them all play music simultaneously or independently so much better than Naim. They are all Roon ready, so I have decided to turn to Roon. I bought a Sonic Transporter and LPS and a second pricey SSD, so that decision will force me to manage two Music libraries, one in the Naim Uniti Core and one in the Sonic Transporter. I will use the Naim to rip and attach metadata and I will use the Naim app to massage the metadata to my conventions. And I have a future use planned for the Naim, so I will continue to use it as a ripper for now at least. Then I’ll copy those new files to the SSD in the Sonic Transporter and turn to Roon to manage playing to one or more of my stereo systems.
When I turn my library over to Roon I am going to force Roon to use my metadata and I hope that will overcome some of Roon’s limitations with classical music. If your metadata is well managed by JRiver, perhaps you could do the same. I got a lot of feedback help from the forum on this issue. Perhaps you will find it helpful too.
How to preserve MY metadata when moving to Roon - #3 by Echolane.
P.S. I am counting on Roon and Qobuz to partner so I can subscribe to it. I think I will prefer it to Tidal.
If metadata is the problem and the online sources are no good, then perhaps the answer is to manually tag at file level before it gets indexed by any player application?
If there are online source that are usable, but not used by Roon (maybe niche or whatever), then maybe another option is to use another application just to apply metadata to the files. Back in my DJ days I was always having to rely on manual tagging or specialist tagging applications to handle metadata as quite simple the main sources just didn’t cover the specific tracks in my collection. It sounds like you may have a similar issue.
Once everything is tagged correctly, then Roon may need to be told to prefer the file metadata for those albums.
The real problem is publishing of metadata - I even have metadata issue with albums recently purchase online direct from label as FLAC - the embedded metadata is perfectly good, but Roon cannot find an identical release in its sources.
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I have my boxsets divided up into playlists. Works for me
Hum… In my setup, “Compositions” shows all the versions of “Le Sacre.” My guess (FWIW) is that one or more of the performances of “Le Sacre” in your collection were not identified by Roon. THat could happen for very old releases, or some boxsets as we have been discussing. In my experience, if the WORK tags exactly match the Rovi/AllMusic names, and there is at least one other performance of the same work in an identified disc, all of the performances will be linked in “Compositions.”
That’s often a label or download store problem. The Swedish label BIS puts out many wonderful classical releases, which I buy on the eClassical download store. Unfortunately, it’s almost never the case that the track ID3 tags agree with the Rovi/AllMusic metadata which presumably gets to Rovi from BIS. For example, the recent Kalevi Aho BIS 2196 has really messed up ID3 tags (like two YEAR tags set respectively to 0101 and 1970), while the AllMusic record has just partial credits and no track/work list. If the labels and download stores cannot do the minimum diligence, it is hard to see how Roon could correct their laxity.
Like BIS/eClassical, I could list many others, not just in classical but also in jazz (I’m looking at you, Intakt!)
I don’t have the Das Alte Werk box but it looks like an original jackets type where the individual discs follow the original releases. The resulting layout isn’t as well sorted as yours but it is possible to do something similar in roon if you by-pass the default boxset functionality. What do you do in MusicBee with boxes where the running order is different from the original releases?
Well I just did cancel a couple of days ago after a trial period and two years paid subscription. My subscription expires in 5 days, but I have removed Roon from my computers. Last year, at this time, I had the same considerations and stayed.
It was a difficult decision and I might very well return.
I had to cut down somewhere:
I had Roon for the last couple of years (On everything so to speak).
I had Audirvana on the Mac Mini for about three years, then on iPad and now also for the Mac.
I had JRiver on the PC for many years, iPad some years and now also the Mac .
And I have Plex, now with Tidal integration.
I have Spotify for the family
Tidal HiFi for me
And now HighResAudio - I am in the trial period, but will give it a shot.
I have been a collector for software and streaming services as well as for LPs, CDs and files, - and tubes for my two tube amplifiers.
For usability, I think Roon beats anything, with Audirvana 2nd and and JRiver 3rd. I don’t really play music on Plex.
But for sound, I think Audirvana is the winner, in particular with my HiFi system, maybe not so much the PC/Headset combination. I am not sure what they are doing, but it makes the music become very “real” in my living room.
I loved Roon for the integration everywhere, both with Tidal combined with my own music, and the way I can go from the living room to the kitchen or bedroom and transfer the music to the Sonos speakers in those rooms.
I had a few issues as well, one of them is strange: very often, when I add a new album to my collection (purchased or scan of a new CD), I don’t get the first track in Roon. Sometimes it appears after a few weeks. Some times it will appear as a new album with the same name and cover and that track only.
Another issue is that my favourite music is the local (Danish) jazz scene. I go and listen to the local jazz bands and buy their CDs. These CDs are often not identified in Roon.
Now I will see how it goes. HighResAudio.com say they are coming to Roon, but cannot say when. I find they are a bit like Qobuz, but much smaller. They are available where I live however, opposite Qobuz, that I have been waiting for for years. They are also integrated in Audirvana, as well as Tidal and Qobuz (if I could get an account).
When they come to Roon I may join again and skip Tidal. (Then I can use Spotify for the occasional pop-song 
)
Long comment with little content maybe, but anyways - I will stay tuned in here.
Understand your logic. If and when you come back to Roon seriously consider a Lifetime subscription as so you will not have to face this senario again.
I am setting up my son with a Roon server and a 1 year sub only to see if he will get into it.
If he likes it and also understands it’s thought process I will convert it to a lifetime before they do away with it.
–MD
I just bought a life time when I could because I could. I trusted the philosophy and knew things would grow and change. I have not been disappointed in this. Is Roon perfect? No, but it is superb for me now. I am enjoying the journey.
I also no longer have to agonise annually on this.
The other side of the bet was, I have lost far more on traditional Hi Fi equipment before now. Nothing to lose really.
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As i already dipped my toe in the deep end of the Rooniverse, i’m not in the conundrum of the OP.
But like many of the previous posters i am fully satisfied with what i"ve got right now. Yes, there are things i’d like to see improved/changed, and right now the development team seem not to be improving those parts.
What i really am looking forward to are this;
Mobility solution in some form
Enhanced “focus on similar” and Radio function (which should mean a good discoveryfunction)
Easier editing of track ordering and other metadata
Crowd sourced metadata
Decent handling of box sets
Possibility to use other sources (analog, other digital sources) Until then all these DSP doo-dats are rather pointles, to me.
Hi-
No, I’m talking about having one search where all my versions of both “Le Sacre” and of “Rite of Spring” show up. Some albums have name it one way some another. I haven’t figured out a way to do it so I can get all of them to display at once, even under “compositions”.
The “official” Rovi name for the composition is
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), ballet in 2 parts for orchestra
If every performance is properly identified, searching for ether French or English name will work to find all performances.