I think you missed out on two of Roon’s biggest features, the ability to play to various equipment in different rooms, and switch what you are playing in one to another, etc. Also the ability to conglomerate your local library and your Tidal or Qobuz library. If you are only playing to one endpoint and only have local ripped files, then no, there are other options and it most likely wouldn’t be for you.
2 Likes
“Biggest” features? Well they’re features. I’ll give you that.
They’re hardly exclusive though. I don’t need Roon for my 15 year old to play ripped CDs off the Innuos on his Muso QB upstairs whilst we listen to something completely different from the same box downstairs.
The ability to switch music from one room to another is interesting but hardly life changing or essential. My understanding was that it was a feature which they would have dropped as it’s used by so few people were it not for the need to keep up appearances i.e. you have to offer at minimum what key competitors offer even if it’s actually inessential.
As for the so-called “integration” I’m fairly confident I dealt with that under UI. Easily replicable and will soon be everywhere.
I think “big features” may vary from user to user 
Well that’s been made obvious to me. 
1 Like
Not trying to argue. Just wanted to point out those features (be they big, small, or medium) and that they may be useful to others. I used to use iPeng pre-Roon/streaming and enjoyed it. Roon has got its issues, that’s for sure, esp with the new update. Glad you have found a solution in the Innuos.
They are big features for those that use them and their are a lot of us who use multizone playback all the time. Roon is way ahead of any other system here by a long way. I too used to use LMS for many years but Roon just delivered a much better user experience and on more dedicated hifi kit. It also allowed my to keep using my Squeezboxes and continue to build low cost listening stations.
Using one app to control an ecosystem made of may disparate hardware to me is worth the price alone.
1 Like
I would rephrase it as “… currently way ahead”. That’s not going to last. It doesn’t especially take much foresight to see why.
I do however disagree on the prevalence of the use of zoning. I had the privilege of a conversation with one of their staff some time back and they were very clear it’s use is low.
I use it often. Sometimes one with one thing playing in the main system in the living room and something else playing iny son’s room through his Chromecast, sometimes I take music to bed with me with the press of a button. Each device is set up easily and each zone can be configured. It’s a powerful feature.
2 Likes
I’m not disputing anyone here uses it. That doesn’t take away from it being a low use feature.
I really don’t know how you can know that Mike. On the Room forum it gets loads of attention
Only in the sense of having spoken to their staff about where the demand is.
Not sure numbers on a forum tell you much. Most Naim users probably aren’t on the Naim forum. The single biggest discussions on here are, I would guess, about upgrades. It would be interesting to see how many discussions turn into actual purchases. Glancing at the Roon forum I got a sense that the numbers talking about that specific feature were barely double figures. Posters rather than posts.
Something of a disconnect here I believe. If one has more than one Roon endpoint, you will be using this ‘feature.’ Perhaps they were discussing ‘grouping’ zones which would be less used as one needs to have the same devices in order to group zones. I can’t imagine why I’d ever want Roon to play to both the kitchen Sonos and the bathroom Sonos upstairs simultaneously, which are the only two endpoints I could actually create a grouped zone out of. But I do play Roon to them all the time, and the Roon server is located in a closet in the basement office, and I can do so using any number of ‘remotes’ - MacBook Air, iPad Pro, Pixel 3 phone, etc.
1 Like
Ive started a poll on the Roon forum to see if the zone thing is true. Most of the people I interact with on it all have multiple zones. Whilst it won’t be a full insight into all Roon users and lots won’t bother adding their input it will give some idea. The forum has users from all backgrounds and systems so will be interesting to see. So far mulitple zones is leading but it’s early days leaving it running for a week and see what results it gives. I agree with what Charles says that this is likely to be zone grouping for Multiroom playback rather than not using more than one zone. I have only used it for parties when everyone’s spread about the house. But I listen to several different zones a day myself as does my partner.
2 Likes
Eh, nobody at war here. We like our kit and are discussing it. All pretty civil.
1 Like
Question , so if Innuos pull of this and give Roon a good run for its money with their new 2.0 server software , is this application going to be limited to local playback via the Innuos as it currently is for iPeng or other Squeezelite endpoints or open it up so it can playback over the network to other devices using the same interface and software?
iPeng already covers most streaming services, but not multi room, but I never use that sort of function.
Dunno. I’m not expecting to give Roon any kind of run for its money at this stage. I am hoping for integration with MyInnuous; a UI which integrates sources as per Roon (which is so basic as to not be beyond most manufacturers) and after that… who knows.
Multiroom is what I was asking. Unifyiing the control interface for all your systems is what makes Roon more appealing as its so flexible in this regards.
If your a one system house then fine it will be a worth while addition to Innuos customers such as yourself but will leave big gaps for those that have more than one, here is where Roon fills the gap.
About 10yrs ago I dabbled using Samsung level portable speakers in each room for the multi room and then with Alexa more recently, can see the benefit but for me multiroom was not any use.