Feel free to highlight which aspect of my post was “pure speculation. Was it this?
Seems pretty factual to me. Point made my multiple people in the trade whether sellers or journalists. The data is out there so the point is irrefutably not an opinion.
Was it this? Also factual. They did have first mover advantage.
Could it be this? One look at the rage in some parts of their forum should end that discussion.
That leaves this. This is called “opinion”.
For the record I’m neither evangelical for nor against it. Like @dayjay I heard worse sound with it but even if that weren’t the case it has fundamental flaws which have sown the seeds of its own destruction. Most of what it offers can be found elsewhere.
Those elements which cannot, impressive as they might be, are for a minority audience. Us. The overwhelming majority of people don’t need or want algorithms to recommend new music. They don’t give a damn about meta data or CD booklets. They don’t even want to fine tune their sound. They almost certainly don’t want to read about it. They generally want to find their music and play it. As the world is increasingly full of apps which allow them to do that then the audience for Roon can only shrink. There is no world in which it gets bigger or better than it is right now.
Each app choose its own icing on the cake. It has some of the functionality of Roon but not all. Innuos Sense is unlikely to ever let you tune the sound but they are constantly working on integration rather than using “Connect” and they’re constantly improving search to the point where most who use it look at it and ask why on earth they would pay for Roon. The extras soon enough won’t be enough.
The bit which makes me laugh out loud is the lifetime sub element. There is literally no example in the IT industry of a lifetime sub being a lifetime sub of anything. Never will be. Still the lemmings walk blindly into it convincing themselves of two things:
1 - lifetime membership is a bargain. Absolutely true but only for some early adopters. The closer you are to right now the more you’re going to look like the fool who did indeed part with their money.
2 - because it was a bargain it follows that these are the good guys and lifetime will definitely be lifetime or long enough. It likely won’t be either.
The only way to get the HQPlayer’s ouput to the Linn Klimax DSM/3 is via async USB B (or SPDIF with slightly worse SQ), and the Linn does not support DSD via USB input, only via Ethernet or WIFI input. But WIFI sucks on any Linn streamers.
I found exactly the same, and wondered why nobody else noticed this. The slight volume increase on Naim app gives the immediate impression of a better SQ.
Personally I would not use it with linn, assuming it is the organik version. I think linn does its own upsampling to dsd? HQplayer is great but only with a Dac that benefits from what it does.
IIUC Linn Space Optimisation is supposed to adapt the sound to your room, I assume doing something a bit like room correcting convolution plug-in filters that can be applied with Roon. Does SQ player do that as well? (Or are these filters different reconstruction filters, which is quite another thing?)
Yes, I understood that, but from your mention of SQ Player here I wondered if it also did room correction. If not then it is not comparable to Linn SO or Roon with room convolution filters, not automatically getting closer to reproducing the original sound in the room. However I recognise that its DSP tweaks might hit the spot for some people with some systems if they find one that suits them, or even multiple for different music types, as you allude, which could be beneficial for someone with anon-neutral system, though sounds like a bit of a faff if you swap frequently between different music styles.
I have never recognised the slightest sound difference between my CD player (Gryphon Scorpio) and Roon (via NDX2) which runs through a server, my dealer has built for me and which was much cheaper than the Nucleus. Switched back and forth between the two sources while listening to the same recording. Really no perceptible difference.
Let’s be clear, you asserted that my post was speculation. I broke it down for you and asked you to clarify which bits. You didn’t/couldn’t. Instead, you’re back to the same assertion dressed up in different clothes. Very poor. I won’t be responding further. You’ve made an assertion and it didn’t stick because it can’t. My post was largely factual with an opinion expressed at the end. I do apologise for the fact you have struggled with the intrusion of reality.
Feel free to have the last word. Then come back in five years and let’s see who was right. Bookmark my post above. Doubt you will. It would look terrible embarrassing of my fairly straightforward logic, quietly supported in the industry by those who have long seen it playing out as I described, turned out to be right.
I disagree. Roon is the ultimate niche product - it’s value proposition is that of a musical content aggregator. Yes, not many people have multiple music subscriptions plus their own content libraries - but those that do see the value and appreciate the functionality of Roon.
They’re going in the right direction - consolidation of multiple data sets and intelligent discovery based on the aggregate.
Would you be willing to pay for an app that gave you a consistent UI/UX to aggregate all the messages you receive on your phone? Joining WhatsApp, iMessages, Teams, etc all in one place?
Not opining on the commercials, market size, or pricing here, but the functionality.
It’s a “value proposition” for “not many people”. That is the exact point.
Harmon cannot possibly have bought it to expand what it aggregates as there just isn’t that much demand out there. They likely bought it to either grab what is there for themselves as a niche thing alongside the rest of their offer, or, they intend to integrate the popular bits and then kill it. Anything else would be a major and slightly bonkers departure from sensible business practice.
Yeah. I read the beginning and end of the thread and missed al lot of the in-between. My previous post was off-topic.
I guess the implication I can see is that Harman Int’l now gets access to a shedload of data from a lot of subscribers that tells them what they play (interesting) and what they play it on (way more interesting if you’re an equipment mfg…)