I have tried Roon and it is great, especially for those of us who do not like spending too much time to attend to the metadata of their music collections and for folks that like system that recommend contents.
But it is not for me and all the time I was using Roon I was missing the flexibility and the customizability of MinimServer. For users who do not take advantage of these features Roon is certainly a valid proposition, though.
Just chipping in, absolutely plus one recommendation for Roon if you appreciate and listen to classical music. It has many ways of organising browsing and ordering based on composer, conductor, musicians, opus date, recording date and many others as well as grouping recordings under well known works along with a background and hyper text links about the work.
The only thing it doesn’t have yet is real time libretto for opera… that would be fab, albeit has real-time lyrics for pop music.
I’ve had the idle thought, from time to time, about Roon, and I hasten to add I’ve never tried it, I really wonder what it brings to the party. I understand it’s superb at consolidating your music collection from multiple sources into a single point of access. So if you use Tidal, PC’s, and NAS etc… then it can merge the whole lot into a single control interface. BUT if you use just a single UPnP/NAS for your music source then does it really offer any more than the standard control apps supplied by the likes of NAIM?
You may still prefer the way it allows you to explore your collection, but you are right, it really comes into its own when you also have a Tidal or Qobuz sub.
If you have a computer to run it on, it costs nothing to do the free trial.
I don’t agree - my collection has a lot of missing/inconsistent metadata and Roon simply didn’t find or display the affected tracks, effectively ignoring them as if they didn’t exist.
How do Asset and Minimserver cope in this sort of scenario? Do either have an option of displaying simply by stored file structure/naming? When I had an ND5XS and used first Twonky, then Logitech Media Server, and then Serviio as UPnP servers the Naim app displayed everything simply and correctly by my file structure, allowing very easy finding or browsing - it is the one thing I miss…
I listened to the Twonky against the Minim Server on a Melco Box where both options were installed. At the time Melco came with Twonky as default but my Dealer had installed Minim and Melco were beginning to support it as it was very popular.
I had presumed I would prefer it over Twonky - but I didn’t. Minim all worked fine - the ‘discovery’ Minim-search thing I hated, but it worked. The main thing as always for me is sound quality and functionality.
Both Minim and Twonky offered the needed functionality I wanted - I needed to store specific versions of ripped CDs as I wanted them - but the Minim and Twonky sounded different.
All this was accessing the same data on the Melco device - I had presumed no difference in SQ and it would just be features - wrong.
I greatly preferred the Twonky music server over Minim - it was far clearer in articulation of note-structure top to bottom and Minim by comparison sounded grainy and warm. The Twonky also had better dynamic range rendition, so I use Twonky.
I’m open to try Minim again if those problems are fixed. Last time I was at my Dealer I asked what music server they were presently using and the told me it was Twonky as it sounded clearer.
I know Melco have done a more recent development with Minim and perhaps the later one does not have the problems I heard, but I’m presently very happy with Twonky as it renders my old full dynamic range rips cleanly whereas the Minim was making them sound like modern slightly compressed remasters.
Why - no idea.
I also at the time got a Roon demo at my Dealers - it is not for me. Functionality is pretty but it is not really geared to how I wanted to use it - and more importantly I did not experience a great musical result with it and it only sounded acceptable with as many of its features disabled as possible - and even then the Twonky had the easy naturalness no fuss sound I was preferring - the Roon just sounded over-processed.
I’m sure both Roon and Minim could be made better than I heard them - but I have to hear it myself and not just presume it.
DB.
If you have a single NAS of well curated media and don’t use cloud based on demand Qobuz or Tidal music services I suspect Roon doesn’t add too much more over the Naim app and a configurable UPnP media server.
Roon does include some optional DSP functions such as IIR and FIR filtering, level management, up/over sampling routines etc… but probably not something you would get Roon solely for.
The feature of Minim I find most useful for classical is the “Group” tag. The way it works is that if I have, say, a CD with a four movement symphony, a three movement concerto and an overture, I can apply the the same group tag to each of the symphony movements (the title of the symphony is the obvious choice) and similarly for the concerto. Then, when I open the album in the Naim app the symphony, concerto and overture will appear as three choices. If I click on, say, the concerto it will open with its three movements shown and one press starts it playing.
There are obviously other ways of getting to that point, but I have found none as neat and elegant, although it does require a little more effort in getting the tagging right initially.
Roger
Hi IB. MinimServer has a folder view available which allows me to explore the folders and files on my NAS. I rarely use it as I have tried to get my metadata consistent, but it’s certainly available. Asset has a similar feature (called "Folders and Filename browsing). I am surprised that Roon doesn’t offer something similar.
Roger
I have spent a lot of time trying to make both Roon and Minim sound as good as Twonky. I cant explain the difference technically which bugs me but at the moment I just prefer listening to music rather than tweaking the system.
Asset handle metadata errors better than Minim (IME) plus as PeakMan says in his post Asset has a browsing option of “Folders and Filename”, that lists everything as it appears in your music folder tree. But maybe best to knuckle down & edit the problem albums, dBpoweramp is a good edit tool if you have it, or my preference is Mp3tag & is an open source program.
I like to sort albums by Year within Album Artist. Recently I downloaded Abbey Road with a missing Year tag and I noticed that the album was not showing up in Asset via the Artist\Album by Release view. Turns out that if the Year tag is missing, Asset just dumps the album and it’s missing in the by-Release view. Minimserver on the other hand includes all the albums. I like some features of Asset but this is an area where I think Minimserver wins. Perhaps the Asset folks will fix this in v7.
With MinimServer you certianly can browse your music collection by navigating the folder structure. I would expect this to be the same with Asset but I haven’t tried it.
Too bad Roon does not support browsing the folder structure, this is unacceptable in my view.
Such a feature is invaluable. Thanks for info.
Thanks for info re Asset. As for fixing metadata, I‘ve tried several tools, including ones supposedly able to semi-automate, and it is very time-consuming. With several hundred albums to fix (I hadn’t a clue about metadata when I ripped my LPs and CDs and started buying downloads), its never going to happen - I simply haven’t the time, and even if I did I’d lose the will to live in the process. File structure browsing is so simple, universally usable and customisable, and very quick to add new content, or decide to revise, just like any library.
Indeed - and nor does Audirvana, though it has a partial mode, though only seems to wrk controlling the Mac with VNC, not with the Audirvana app. I will one day move away from it unless the feature is added in full.
I like Minimserver, but mainly use JRiver Media Centre. I prefer both to Roon.
Have you tried MP3 Tag Editor? It’s really simple and free
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