Coming to the end of a free month’s trial and I find myself torn. I’ve invested in a Roon ROCK and that works well. Most of my listening in through Tidal, playing via a Unit Star. And possibly by the end of today on a Muso2 in my office too. One of the USPs for me is being able to control the music through macOS - something that the Naim app doesn’t do.
But all too frequently the stream stops; I either have to sign out of Tidal & back in again (within the Roon app), or the music just stops and I have to press play again. Not relaxing.
At the start of the trial I was planning to buy a lifetime “subscription”, but now I am torn.
Sorry for the mini rant, but I just needed to get that off my chest!
Depending on your Mac, the earlier models have an optical out of the 3.5mm socket that you can connect to your Uniti. Then you can run the Tidal MacOS app and control and stream from there.
Roon tends to just work so I expect other issues are at play here. What device are you running the Roon Core on and what is the network setup. Do you have any issues with Tidal when just using the Naim app and Roon isn’t involved ?
I tend to agree with others comments here, I wouldn’t put the issues down to Roon alone, there may well be other factors influencing the performance issues you describe.
Out of interest, do you have the same playback issues if you are playing Tidal tracks from within the Naim app, and have you also tried playback from the Tidal app itself using Airplay or Chromecast?
My experience is also that Roon simply works. I don’t recall a single instance of the Roon stream stopping or even stuttering in my year and a half of using it.
I did have an annoying metadata issue with Roon Radio that was introduced with release 1.7, but resolved in the most recent software update. However, I have never had issues of the sort you describe with music replay itself, and I do also use Tidal via Roon.
But not quite unique to Roon! Their USPs I think are more their seamless integration of online streaming with your own stored music, and their approach to providing other information and links related to music you play.
Thanks All for your replies. Whilst I couldn’t say my Unit Star / Naim iOS app always behaves impeccably, it rarely annoys. The problem I have now is that with so many links in the chain - Tidal - Roon - iOS - FTTC etc etc, it can be hard to determine where the issue lies. It could be any of these.
For me, where Roon scores over the Naim app, which both merge Tidal, locally ripped music and internet radio, is also offering the macOS app.
For me, Roon has been very reliable, so I wouldn’t let your connection issue put you off. It can be hard to diagnose these problems, but hopefully you will get there.
If you’re still considering a lifetime sub to Roon, I wouldn’t leave it too long. They have given strong hints that they may end this option, probably without prior warning, as they really want those monthly payments.
Very happy with roon, only issue i have is the app on my iPhone sometimes loses the connection to the core( a roon rock on i7 intel nuc) . Really enjoying the new CDROM feature, very easy. Have been dithering on getting the perpetual liscence so might have to pull the trigger on that soon.
Roon suggested I clear out my Roon ROCK’s cache, and so far that seems to have done the trick. Fingers crossed, & a Lifetime Subscription has been paid for.
Hi @Sloop_John_B, basically you plug a usb cdrom drive into your roonRock (NUC in my case), and hopefully it get detected, nime did. Then to rip a cd to your library you just put a cd in and thats it! Roon detects the cd inserted, rips it and then ejects the cd when done. Couldnt be easier!
John
Not exactly cutting edge technology, but it’s good that they add this sort of feature to Roon. It’s not cheap, but as long as they keep developing useful features it’s easier to justify the sub.
