Using Qobuz it is but for that specifically it opens a web browser link within qobuz. That’s if it’s there for that particular album
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Thanks. Now I understand, Roon has advantages if you use Qobuz or similar.
My own collection is fairly well tagged on my Music Server (essentially a Mac mini running JRiver MC26). My Mac is from 2012 and I thought of replacing it with a Chord 2yu-2go with music on SD so I asked Chord if this was a good plan.
Chords asked me: Do you use Roon, Do you use Qobuz? Do you use Tidal? When I answered No to all three, the advice was to stay with the Mac. The man from Chord couldn’t understand why I didn’t fancy this brave new world of Internet streaming. All I could say was People Say I’m Not a Streamer, But I’m Not The Only One.
Like all these things, there are will be those they like the interface and dudes like me. I do like the voice interface. “Siri, please play that one that starts Da Di Di Dee Dum Dum, Da Deeee Deee” and instantly https://youtu.be/3028oDEKZo4
And here is a review by Jeff Dreadnought
I run Roon on a dedicated Mac Mini which is exclusively used for Roon and occasional CD ripping.
This sits in another room from my main system and is hardwired directly in to my main LAN switch.
I’ve also got a Chord Hugo2 connected to the Mac over USB then on to my AV amp in that room which I use from time to time.
Most of the other clients including my NDX2 connect to it over Wi-Fi with the main AP in the same room also hardwired and with 2 additional daisychain meshed AP’s to cover the rest of the house/floors.
I seem to recall Roon advise whatever you run the server on that it is connected over a wired Ethernet connection and I’ve certainly always run it that way.
The LAN cabling is all Chord Company C-Stream which includes the Mac server, Wi-Fi main AP, switch to Router and Router to modem. Seems to be stable and sounding ok anyway!
I did upgrade the Mac server with 2x Samsung EVO 2TB SSD drives to add space and reliability and this is my main music store and serving device for all my endpoints.
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I do not agree - It’s the user experience, even you have 1 end-point.
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Another good example of where Roon is helpful is that it brings a number of music sources and playback devices in to one place of control and discovery.
In my case I use it with a mix between local files on my Mac server, Tidal and Qobuz and I can control Naim, Chord and Sonos endpoints all in the same app and can move back and forth between rooms/devices fairly easily.
The curation and discovery process is an enjoyable enhancement to finding new, relevant material to listen to.
Having just re-ripped around 600 CD’s to go on the Mac server I’ve also found it’s database and metadata handling to be consistent and with minimal call to jump in and manually edit.
Adding new material is pretty quick within the local library and you’re quickly off again discovering new material.
I also like how it will carry on playing similar material after a selected album ends and I’ve found some useful things this way too.
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my MM is in the other room, so I cannot use Audirvana because its UPnP functionality is very flaky.
Conversely I play direct from MM to DAC (with added advantage of zero concern with network cables, switches, or their power supplies!).
That was one area where I could see it bringing benefit, for people who do use multiple source - when I trialed it appeared to be trying to make a seemless invisible blending of local store and Tidal, which of course was of no value at all to me, indeed distracting because i needed no references to Tidal at all.
Those of you that use Roon, do you run annually or have lifetime subscriptions?
Do you think it’s worth it?
lifetime subscription here, the Roon software cost is just a tiny part of my system, even less than a pair of ICs, and it saves me a lot of hassles of playback, organizing the music library, meta data management, multi sources integration, internet radios, UI experiences, etc, so it is definitely worth it.
PS: Where I live, I cannot simply access UK-based (and other parts of the world) internet radios via direct URLs, Roon somehow works around this issue.
Tried it for about a week on my Zen Mini 111, loved it, bought lifetime licence before it increased (cost about 450 euro) and am a primarily single hifi user.
I always liked reading about artists, album reviews and background details and it integrates all this for me so I was happy to go all in.
Peter
Lifetime. I’d still be happy to pay it even with the price increase.
The aggregation of music sources with the seamless transition between local files and streaming services. The intuitive GUI and the multitude of devices I can send music to makes it a winner for me.
I went lifetime, and that was after the increase.
It did seem (and was!) a lot of money to stump up, just seemed to make sense to do it based on how much I liked it.
Time will tell whether I get my money’s worth!
This is it, my concern is that with ever evolving digital tech, there will become other competitors or similar things done by the streaming providers directly and roon won’t be needed unless you have multiple sources and different streaming providers.
And with added concern over USB or coax SPDIF or toslink, which cables even you have decided the cable type. Some even pay $XXX,XXX over a silly 1-m USB cable. I have been there, so I decide on wired ethernet cable to simplify the connectivity matter.
We’ll have to see I guess @popeye.
With one streaming service plus my local collection, all aggregated, all accessed via one app whether outputting on my NDS, my couple of phones, my PC, or a future non Naim wireless speaker, it’s fully worth it to me.
There may well be competitors at some point in the future though, that will be interesting to see.
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Depends on the album
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Annually, figured I’d give it a year, maybe two and if it remains consistantly benficial may well get a perpetual account.
I was very skeptical before I gave it a serious evaluation but having used it for a while now (almost 2 years) I use it the most of any player/library tool which includes the usual suspects like Audirvana which I do also rate but I only really use that away from home or at work.
The Naim iOS app has caught up but I’m not listening in a Naim only ecosystem so the wider unified end point support mentioned earlier is also factored for.
I do still use the Naim app, i do find it works well enough but it’s not as intuitive or integrated as Roon is but that is by design of course and acceptable, If I had to pick one only I’d choose Roon for multiple reasons, also probably why I never ended up with a costly music server or a Naim Core and just put the budget in to putting better storage in the Mac server I already had.
I’ve not used any of the advanced DSP features in Roon and still remain somewhat mystified as to what RAAT is actually doing, comparing it to playback from like for like source against the Naim app, no winner/standout preference but maybe down to not wanting to overanalyse these aspects of my listening experience or perhaps based on my system not being revealing enough to let it bother me. I find it works well from a Stereo pair Sonos speaker to the SN3 + NDX2 certainly from an ease of use and flexibility point of view.
Only one endpoint here, but I love Roon and so does everyone who comes to visit or stay. It works very well with Quobuz and using the Roon Nucleus+ improved the SQ for local and streamed music over the QNAP NAS I had before. Roon Radio gets on my nerves sometimes, but it has also helped my find some fantastic stuff I would never have had the time to discover on my own.
Agreed you can fall down one of multiple rabbit holes but having a USB DAC hanging off my Mac Mini server and handling multiple end points elsewhere I’ve not found it lacking. I’ve used various USB cables in the mix, currently using a mix of iFi stuff between Mac and DAC and it’s stayed that way for ages so must be ok!