Is Roon Worth It?

Presently using my Linn Selekt DSM; Edition Hub and a Qobuz subscription. Using the Linn app on my iPad and iPhone. Occasionally listen to Qobuz on my Linux PC

All my music is streaming and I have a large number of albums stored as Favourites on Qobuz, with the sorting options of;

  • Date added
  • Album name
  • Artist name
  • Release date

Also a number of playlists made up of tracks from the above, plus one of imported tracks from Amazon.

Due to the number of albums I have listed as Favourites and the Qobuz sorting options I would like to have more control of how albums are sorted, for example;

  • Genre
  • Artist (folder) with all their albums in
  • Date added

This way, it may make searching easier.

This brings me onto Roon, I’ve searched on this Forum and their website, but still a bit confused, hence, this post. I see from the Roon website that the Linn Selekt DSM; Edition Hub is “Roon Ready" and will work with Qobuz.

Some of the specific questions I have regarding Roon;

  • Will Roon give me greater options for sorting of my Qobuz favourites, even though nothing has actually been downloaded
  • Is Roon just software that’s linked to Qobuz and the Linn app or will I need any additional hardware
  • Will there be any sound quality improvements
  • What else will Roon bring that I don’t know about
  • Is the Roon / Qobuz / Linn app fairly seamless or are there issues I should be aware of
  • Is Roon worth the extra monthly subscription fee on top of Qobuz
  • It’s appreciated that there would be some learning to do, but is the Roon / App fairly intuitive.

Thanks for your help in advance.

DG…

DG, Given you don’t have any local music, I’m not sure Roon is going to provide any advantage for your Qobuz streaming over the Linn app apart from a nicer user interface and enhanced searching / information.

You’d use the Roon Remote app to control things rather than the Linn app. It will also control the volume on your Selekt.

You’d also need additional hardware to run the Roon Core on and a licence fee.

Here’s the user interface running on my iPad

If you’ve got a suitable computer to run the Roon Core on, then you could always download a trial version and see what you think.

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HUUUGE Roon fan here, but I’ll agree with @james_n that, for your use case, I am not sure you will gain very much.

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I’m trying to understand and appreciate that it will probably be not for me.

If you had the Roon Core on a Linux PC, what is the Licence Fee for this? and how does the iPad / iPhone connect to it.

It would be nice to see a demo of this, but I don’t know anyone local that uses Roon.

DG…

You run the Roon Remote app and it connects wirelessly to the Roon Core running on your Linux PC. You enable your Qobuz account and enter the login credentials to connect to your Qobuz account.

Pricing is currently $12.49 a month once the free trial ends.

The ‘How Roon works’ section on the Roon website should provide all the info you need, but if you’ve got all the hardware already then give the free trial a go. It’s really simple to set up and pretty intuitive in operation.

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Do you have any other endpoints in the house other than the Linn Selekt DSM? For me, a great benefit of roon is being able to control many different endpoints (my Meridian system, my Naim Uniti Nova, and a couple of Airplay devices) all from the one user interface.

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I’ve been using Roon for few years now and gradually increased amount of my local files. The best value for me it gives when it’s listing all my local albums and my favourite Qobuz albums together. Next best thing is the metadata.

But, past months I’ve been only using the Linn app and I’m thinking whether I should only use that in future. If I would have lifetime subscription to Roon, I would definitely use that.

There are comments that Roon decreases sound quality a bit and I heard it when I demoed Innuous streamer year back. It did sound better with Innuous own software. Now with my Linn I haven’t done that kind of critical comparison.

So, depends on the needs. Now I feel that I could drop Roon off and continue with Linn app. I could then also shutdown one extra machine from my network.

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Endpoint is a new term for me. If it’s the DSM as referred to, then two iPads, two iPhones, one PC running Linux and five Amazon Echos, if I understand it right.

DG…

By endpoint, I mean other music playback systems, so I guess your Amazon Echos would count (but I’m not sure how well supported by roon they are).

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You can only use the Roon app on Apple devices that support a certain level of iOS so that’s worth checking for your iPads and iPhones particularly if they are old. If supported then you can play your music via those end points too. Roon doesn’t support Echos as such, you have to stream Roon to an iPhone or iPad in your case then bluetooth to the Echo, it’s a pain IMO and not worth the effort.

Roon is really great for searching out new music and creating new playlists and tagging your music. Also you can now sync playlists automatically between Roon and Qobuz.

Thanks for clarifying.

DG…

They are fairly new, but will check.

DG…

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I’ve had and use Roon for many years like others. I was motivated to use it to consolidate multiple device ecosystems, at that time covering Sonos, Linn, Naim, Amazon Alexa.
It was one of the only simple systems that covered all those device types and gave a consolidated view across my local CD rips library, Tidal and Qobuz. It does offer a feature rich discovery and search interface but requires local dedicated server hardware (the Roon Core) which is either a Roon device or can be a laptop, desktop computer running Windows or MacOS and used for multiple purposes. The Core Server runs on a wide range of hardware but to get an optimised experience many users end up running a dedicated server just used for Roon, like their own Nucleus for example.
I find I use it far less now as I mainly just use the native apps, it is a good user experience but unless you have a large CD rips library you want to consolidate/merge in to a single view with your streaming services, you may find the setup and cost unneccessary, I have a perpetual licence, something not available now and only possible to use on a paid monthly basis. You can trial it for a decent period to evaluate its suitability, I used it with my Selekt DSM when I had it and it works fine without any issues.

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Thanks to all for the prompt responses and I now have much more understanding.

As mentioned, based on how I use my system it appears that it may be overkill for my needs, plus of course, the additional expenditure as well.

So on this occasion, I’ll stay with the existing set-up as all is working well.

Been an interesting read researching this and thanks again.

DG…

Love Roon. And to those saying it’s only user interface and user experience. YES! And that is why I happily pay for it every month. Naim app feels like a 1982 Skoda in comparison. I use an old Macmini for like 200GBP for the core software. Works perfect. I’ve pushed myself leaving Roon for Tidal native app, Lindemann app etc but always come back. It’s that good :+1:

They just launched smart playlists. Really good!

And the seamless connect solution between my MacBook and iPhone is same level as Spotify. Very good.

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I don’t have any local music files or downloads. All my music is saved favourite streams from Qobuz.

DG…

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Why not use the 2 week free trial and install it on your PC and download the free iPhone app. Connect your Qobuz account and off you go to see what it’s about? :blush:

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How easy is it to uninstall if I decide not to keep it?

DG…

Roon is a marmite product, you either love it or hate it.

I have a lifetime membership, which must be for almost ten years now. Roon promised continued updates for lifetime memberships. However, since they where took over by Harmon new features will not be added free of charge. I am not sure I would go for a lifetime membership today, other products are available, I am very happy with the product that I paid for.

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It’s an app like all other apps so you do as you normally do. Or just stop the trial period and leave it there.