I work in the software world and am accustomed to larger companies buying smaller companies, and sort of screwing them up for lack of a better phrase. When Harman announced they were acquiring Roon, despite the very early messaging is almost always positive in these cases, I didn’t expect so much good to happen in such a short period of time.
Offline/no internet mode is back- which is amazing
Numerous improvements to ARC
Speed updates to core/server
Lower and higher-cost nucleus devices
Folder browsing
Significant playlist improvements
This is quite a bit of work to be rolled out in a very short period of time. Some of this may have been in the works already, but these are all still very positive developments IMO.
I agree, when I found out that Harman purchased ROON ( even though I LOVE Harman brands) I was afraid that a niche product with a very active and vocal community would ruin its’ spirit… I am thrilled to say that I was dead-wrong !!
Mike S>
Totally agree. There have been great improvements now that the focus is no longer almost exclusively on streaming. Next I hope to see the ability to put individual titles for box set discs.
Fully agree. These are significant achievements, i.e. benefits for music lovers. Makes me wonder if Roon’s prior issues were basically being under-staffed on the engineering front.
Now, to achieve the kind of growth Roon aspires to, IMO they need to greatly improve their pitch to potential customers and the onboarding process for new subscribers.
They are delivering beautifully on their promise of superior musical fidelity, and cataloging and organizing. The UI is a near-wonder. Keep it up!
Give it time. Nothing here is surprising. It’s not even been much of a year since the acquisition. The things you’re talking about in terms of acquisitions take at least 3 years to fully materialize. It’s not unusual for a company to acquire another and put a lot of resources into it the first year. This is either done in order to boost it up for another sale, or even done to integrate the acquisition into their ecosystem. So one of two things happens there. And while the investment Harmon has made in making Roon better should be lauded, the real judgement should be reserved for how things look in the long run.
I don’t have an angle here but to appeal to more customers it’s going to have to be way cheaper. I would suggest that 99% of the population will not be interested in paying more than a music sub, just for the ability to listen to a music sub.
There seems to have been a mix-up: It was full-screen in the previous Early Access build, but it’s not anymore in the latest one, and it looks like it was unintentional. (Sadly, because it looked fine):
Well that makes more sense, for a second I was worried about my iPad having some sort of issue…I’m glad this tweak is on the schedule though, keep up the good work !