I’m monogamy with Roon for playback except for Internet Radio, where I use Lightning DS and an Aries. If the Aries was a wireless NAA then it would stay but as it is, I’ll probably try and sell it after Roon supports Internet Radio. I really don’t understand Auralic’s thinking these days.
I use dbPoweramp to rip and MP3Tag to tag and would prefer Roon not try and re-invent the wheel in those areas. Those are mature solutions that work well and that can be accessed easily using a multi-tasking operating system on a desktop. The development and support costs for Roon in trying match them would displace so much other planned good stuff that only Roon can do.
@RBM, to be honest I think lots of us would also like to follow your example, Im a bit jealous
Out of interest how do you deal with getting new music onto your server, or CD’s ripped, and do you have any idevices? If so, how do you get music onto them? I guess what I’m saying is, I want to be a monogamist, but can’t quite see how to do it.
It’s hard to disagree with this as a principle, but I also think while ‘power users’ are happy to use lots of different pieces of software and understand how it all goes together, an average family person who wants to replace something like a Sonos or whatever (their old hifi maybe) might be a bit more intimidated. By leaving out key aspects of the ‘music system’ puzzle, Roon limit their audience IMO. I’m not saying they need to rival things like dbpoweramp, or mp3tag, but perhaps having basic versions within Roon would satisfy users with simpler needs and would allow them to use Roon as a ‘one stop shop’. All swings and roundabouts and a balance - I’d prefer Roon do more, so I don’t need any other tools (I dont really do tagging anyway), but I can fully see why others disagree.
It’s hard to disagree with this as a principle, but I also think while ‘power users’ are happy to use lots of different pieces of software and understand how it all goes together, an average family person who wants to replace something like a Sonos or whatever (their old hifi maybe) might be a bit more intimidated. By leaving out key aspects of the ‘music system’ puzzle, Roon limit their audience IMO. I’m not saying they need to rival things like dbpoweramp, or mp3tag, but perhaps having basic versions within Roon would satisfy users with simpler needs and would allow them to use Roon as a ‘one stop shop’. All swings and roundabouts and a balance - I’d prefer Roon do more, so I don’t need any other tools[/quote]
Yes, I can see this, And indeed perhaps the balance is not quite there yet. But equally, I wouldn’t want Roon to bite off more than it can chew.
I’m currently still evaluating a replacement for Windows Media Center for movies & TV media; and the candidates are Plex and Emby. I ruled out JRiver quite early on the grounds that it has grown over the years like Topsy and now contains too many bells and whistles that I would never use. It’s not my style of product. It’s for the hard-core enthusiast who delights in tweaking everything. I want something simpler that just works for our household.
Too much string and sealing wax involved. Plus third party packages such as My Movies. The whole thing starts to get too much like a house of cards for my liking. It’s a pity, because WMC was way ahead of its time; but then Microsoft killed it…
Mac mini running Roon & HQP in the storage room. MacBook Pro for work, leisure and pleasure. Music: digital downloads only – I don’t think I even have a CD reader/player in the house. iPad mini 4 for remote control. iPhone 6S for everything else (brilliant phone – I could run my entire workday on it if I needed to). I rarely listen to music on-the-go – I catch up on podcasts during car/commute.
It probably helps I run a smallish library (~1200 albums) – I’m more of a listener than a hoarder and I only collect what I actually listen to, with Tidal covering the rest. But hey – simple man, simple tastes…
Not to say I wouldn’t welcome extra features – I’d love phone app, syncing & remote streaming (even if only for those rare moments) and I’d very much like to tweak the metadata of my collection a trifle further. But for now it appears all my basic needs are met.
@hifi_swlon I do use other software but with minimal attention.
I pop in a CD; dBPoweramp automatically pops up; 99% of the time it does a reasonably good identification, good enough for Roon, so I just click Rip; it saves it into a folder that Roon watches; Roon then automatically does a better job of identification, getting higher resolution cover art, etc. That’s why I consider myself monogamous, because I pay no more attention to dBPoweramp than I do to Windows.
It seems that the most common tasks outside of Roon are:
Metadata management, which is probably an issue only for people who have brought in large libraries from a legacy system
Ripping for those who still build libraries around physical media: CD, BD, vinyl
Playlists - both for Roon and for mobile devices
Mobile devices for managing partial libraries
No one mentions multi-user, multi-library as a reason for using other software.
Where Roon consistently scores points is Tidal integration. Then you just use Roon for its attractive and intuitive interface. We will see how Tidal survives and whether Roon integrates other high-quality streamers.
@PNCD All good points - the only thing I’d add to point 1 is that much metadata for classical music is sadly inadequate at the moment. I’m happy to use a dedicated tag editor for most editing with final tweaking in Roon though.
I am outspoken for thinking that Roon is a poor source of metadata but I appreciate that I feel that way because I invested an inordinate amount of time to manage my library’s metadata before Roon came along. That is especially true with Classical and Opera music. It just does not seem to be an issue for most people who use Roon, which is why it is so clumsy to select user metadata preference. Managing personal metadata in Roon is to manage the metadata then manage Roon!
Pretty sure you will find that it is Roon’s sources and not Roon themselves responsible for the metadata. And if it is all so terrible why do you bother?
Sure @NickB, Roon is gathering metadata and content from many providers - more than any of us could access and for a very manageable cost. I think the point is that for any one user (me) and only one library (mine) and over time (many years) I have honed a core metadata set that reflects exactly how I classify my library at the track level. It seems that some other Roon clients are in a similar situation and therefore choose to continue to use and maintain their own metadata. But we are in a minority while the majority is more sensible and takes Roon as it comes. If you do try to retain your own metadata and you do continue to use Roon, then it is awkward and clumsy. Personally, I appreciate Roon for the exciting and novel approach it has taken to music playback - three licenses and counting. I also understand that I am in a minority in trying to keep both my metadata and Roon and that it will take time before Roon priorities make that easier to do. In my summary I was commenting that external metadata tools are often referenced in this topic chain, but probably only for those who have a sizeable library that was already managed before Roon. Other, saner, people have no desire to get into file format tag structures! Perhaps this makes no sense to you and you think I am too harsh about a service you love?
I think I understand, but not sure I could be bothered to do that much work sort out my music metadata. I was under the impression that if you selected all your albums and clicked prefer my data it would use yours instead. But I am a simple soul and spend most of my time listening to Radio Paradise and now tend to just add new albums from Tidal. The only stuff I buy now is on vinyl and mainly from local artists to me.
@NickB Yes, you can select all albums then go into the data preferences and say whether or not certain fields should be taken from Roon or file tags. Only certain fields. You select what you want and then it seems to work. Now you do the same thing for every new album or track you put into the library because there is no way to make the behavior general. Then you realise that Album Artist and Artist seem to mean different things and there is nowhere to determine how Roon uses Album Artist or Artist. There is almost nothing for classical music, and I am not a classical expert but the distinction of composer, conductor, soloist, orchestra - none of that is controllable. This is arcane stuff that only matters if you have built it before Roon came along. Anyone else will be happy and never question why albums by the same artist appear in multiple genres for no great reason. If you have built it, then you care and maybe after a few years of Roon you stop caring and become a normal human being who is not obsessed with the details of a music library, or a garden or albums of family photographs. You are just happy that it is there! I look forward to letting go.
