Is Roon Worth It?

Many thanks for all the replies, which I have read and reviewed.

After consideration, I don’t think that Roon is for me. There does seem to be some issues regarding working with Linn and Qobuz, so perhaps left well alone.

Given the current concerns, good or bad, with the Naim firmware upgrade, adding another layer of process and software means, three systems, which may or may not work well together, three upgrades, etc.

Is this introducing potential issues which could be avoided by keeping with the Linn /Qobuz system, that has not caused me any issues to date.

Adding another level could cause conflict for very little benefit.

I did join the Roon Forum with the same question and got similar feedback. One good thing I did find there, was the “Now Playing Some Jazz [2024]” thread which again was a good thread for find new Jazz albums that I wasn’t aware of, which have subsequently been added as Qobuz Favourites.

So, I’m going to keep it simple and stay just with Linn / Qobuz. I’ve had no drop outs or other issues. I’ve found the Linn Customer Service to be very good and very responsive, when I have had occasion to contact them.

Thanks again.

DG…

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DG, I am not trying to be a wise ass here, but in my opinion you should just trust your ears. Roon has the option to trial. You don’t need a lot to test. Just a PC or laptop that has enough working memory and free space to perform the tasks.

So why don’t you just do that, and make up your mind based on your own experience.

And I don’t know if you know them, but Audirvãna might be an option as well. They offer a trial as well, and doesn’t need as much power as Roon.

Quite a few people out there have stated that sound with Audirvãna is definitely better in their set up than the sound of Roon (I am one of those).

It comes with some more flaws than Roon, things just aren’t perfect, especially regarding the local files and the meta data, but integration of Qobuz is fine. Stability is also not on the level of Roon. But if SQ is your main driver, than it certainly could be an option. The sound is very much more natural than the current Naim FW in my set up, so this may be a temporary solution for that issue as well. For me it is.

I use a 10 year old Dell laptop for it, and it works perfectly.

And bear in my mind that the native Linn app, or whichever app you use can exist perfectly next to Roon and/or Audirvãna.

It’s just a different way in the device that operates as the starting point for streaming.

So my advice would be to just test Roon (and Audirvãna).

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Many thanks for the post, appreciated.

Hadn’t heard of Audirvāna, so I’ll do a search for them and do some research.

DG…

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Hi @Amarok

I’ve had a good read of the Audirvāna website and found it interesting.

A couple of things I noted were;

  • Linn are not listed as a “Plays with Partner”
  • Did a search for Linn on their Community Forum, but most of the posts seem to be related to issues.

Thanks again for the heads up, but as mentioned above, I’ll leave things as they are.

DG…

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The partner program is relatively new. Please note that also Naim is not a partner as of yet, but the nature of the sound that I get is very welcome to my ears.
Ofcourse I don’t know what the results would be when paired with a Linn streamer, but as you state that it’s fine as it is then that’s not relevant anymore.

And of course there’s always the possibility to look at it another time!

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Thanks for this. Great thread

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Another +++ for Audirvana. Sounds way more natural than the Naim app.

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One thing about Audirvana UPnP compatibility with respect to the Linn UPnP (extensions included in the OpenHome UPnP stack): The last time I tried it, it produced some sort of loud, terrible shrieking sound which nearly destroyed my Harbeth 40.3 XD speakers.

So, I fully stopped playing Audirvana since then, but it may be different now, they may have fixed this issue, but I would never touch it again.

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I might be about to eat my words; in search of best UPnP options to setup on a NAS I just ordered I note that the NAS it is apparently just powerful enough to be setup as a Roon Server*. Will give the free trial a go and see how it stacks up against Bubblesoft etc.

*Roon server on NAS: https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/articles/roon-server-on-nas

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