I’m glad my original post elicited so many comments. My use of the word “fabulous” undoubtedly contributed to that. Even if that is a little over the top, I really do appreciate the bios and information about artists and albums, and none of the other streaming services have anything close. As well as the lyrics, and other features. I enjoy these features everyday, and that basic point appeared to be lacking in the long thread about Tidal. But clearly there are some legitimate criticisms of Roon, so maybe I should have said “almost fabulous.”
And in some areas, as many have noted, the record of fixing problems is not only less than fabulous, it is abysmal.
To add to some of the other posts:
I strongly agree that this feature – the ability to look at your listening history and make recommendations just for you, that match your personal tastes – is of critical importance, and I should have mentioned it in my original post. Also curated playlists. (Tidal has some curated playlists.)
Tidal falls down in the this regard, and Roon is even worse. Someone mentioned using Roon “focus” for this, but that doesn’t appear to be quite what it is for.
To repeat an earlier question, I’ve heard that Apple Music is even better in this regard – offering recommendations for you that match what you’re listening to – than is Spotify. Does anyone have any personal experience on that, one way or the other?
In light of how many depend on Tidal, it would be nice if Roon fully integrated the features of Tidal. Then Roon can truly be “one stop shopping.” That is not the case today.
In the area of music recommendations, Tidal is superior, as it offers “classic” or “essential” albums in most genres, as well as playlists that are “guest curated” and “essentials.” (I discussed in my original post why the Tidal Collections offered by Roon are not the the same thing.)
Roon does offer “exclusive” playlists, and that appears to be what Tidal calls “featured” playlists.
But the separate playlists, as well as the lists of “classic” or “essential” albums that are found under each genre are missing. That is a critical omission on the part of Roon.
Can Roon do a better job of duplicating Tidal so all of it is under one roof, so to speak?
On lyrics – I found a thread on lyrics in the “suggestions” forum and added my viewpoint there. However, in that thread I also noted that iRoon promised to add that specific improvement to lyrics, or something similar, and made that promise in January 2016. Almost two years have passed, and nothing has happened. However, to give credit where credit is due, my posting from today was responded to the same day, although the response was a bit unclear in terms of whether the change can be made, and if not, why not.
Agreed. Although I often have transport failures and the system collapses when playing through my Sonos system. That does not happen when using Sonos to play through their own system. Sonos can handle their own system just fine and 100% of the time. 20% of the time I have transport failure problems with Sonos using the same system. I need to email Roon tech support, and in their defense I haven’t done that yet, but first want to narrow it down as to whether it is a bad ethernet connector, etc. But one thing is clear – Sonos will play through my system consistently, when Roon will not.
Again, less than fabulous.
My own experience is the opposite. I’m not an expert on tagging, and J River does not show my boxed sets as boxed sets and probably due to some small error in how I tagged them. Roon, by contrast, consistently shows my boxed sets, despite any possible tagging errors on my part.
I’d assume that Roon could fix this for you and others. Why haven’t they?
I completely agree, and made that point in my original post. It is the bios of new artists and new albums – that are not in my library - that are the most interesting for me. So if Tidal goes under, we all agree that Roon must join forces with another streaming service, Preferably Deezer, if only because it is already FLAC quality. But they do need to integrate with someone if Tidal should fail.
In conclusion, I still really love using Roon. It offers many features lacking in J River, and I am not away of any software or app to play our libraries with these features. I make use of the bios and info on artists everyday, and Roon allows me to listen through my whole house (when it doesn’t collapse and fail with my Sonos system), while showing me what is playing on different iPads in different rooms.
All of that is pretty awesome. Maybe not quite fabulous – but definitely the best that there is.
, yes, I hope they will fix it someday!
