It seems you probably are Mike.
It’s fine, it’s quite clear you aren’t a fan for the many reasons you state.
On the other hand, I really like it.
Back to the thread title though, what do we think the implications are?
Harman have bought it for a reason and can obviously see areas within their business that will be able to exploit the Roon IP and technology.
Time will tell what aspects these will be and where it will appear.
For the current user base I can’t imagine it playing out positively in the long term, again time will tell.
In the meantime Roon will continue to be my music UI throughout the house on my various diverse hardware, including the main system in the lounge, at least until it’s not!
I’m really not. I just think it’s screamingly obvious what happens next as it’s happened so many times before in so many similar contexts. Add in the hilarity of some people genuinely thinking lifetime means lifetime…
It always astonishes me how vocal these anti-Roon sectarians become at any opportunity — almost as if they don’t want us to enjoy Roon… Why care so much for those who have chosen Roon? It’s not that something bad is waiting for us at the judgement day — it’s just a user interface between us and our music…
And now I am back to Renee Fleming and Christmas in New York. I rather like advent — well, not quite there but I have already made extensive use of the “Christmas” tag in Roon…
I don’t think people are necessarily anti-Roon, I had it for at least 3 years if not longer, just that eventually I was barely using it and along with a few other non-essential extras it got the chop from a vfm viewpoint, but I may go back if my listening habits revert to what they were a few years ago.
Still interesting to keep abreast of updates/changes though.
I really wanted to find utility for it. Took three different trials in different circumstances but it didn’t work for me. That doesn’t make me anti-Roon any more than I’m anti Mac as I have no use case or anti cricket because I don’t watch it. I see why people like it. I simply don’t need the things they adore and very obviously that remains the case for most people streaming music. Even if I’d been an early adopter and lifetime subscriber I simply couldn’t ignore the reality of the niche and shrinking space they occupy.
The thread is here for anyone to comment on. My comments on what has just happened have zero relationship with my not being a Roon user. The reality is that I would look at this scenario in the way I’ve described even if I was a Roon user. If you’re commenting defensively because you’re a Roon user then you need to step back a little. How useful you personally find Roon and Nucleus or otherwise is not the issue. The issue is whether Harman can do what their PR says. Given the record of previous such scenarios; given the facts about the market and given what their own advisers have said, publicly but quietly discrediting the intent, I don’t see that they can.
If you’re a user, lifetime sub or not, then obviously you’ve skin in the game and you’d want all this to be otherwise. I understand that. I’d feel the same if I was a user. It isn’t going to make it so though.
Interestingly I’ve yet to read one post on this thread which goes beyond the Harman BS PR and says “Roon will survive and thrive in the face of mass imitation and expansion from other apps because…”. When I read that I’ll be happy to change my mind.
Having tried pretty much all the solutions out there unfortunatley non hold a torch to Roon for usability and how I can organise my library with in it and have a whole house multiroom without having to resort to buying from one manufacturer and that have WAF. Which is a conundrum. For every person saying it sounds worse there are equal amounts saying it sounds better or they dont hear any difference. I cant say I ever heard it sound any different in all my use cases when properly level matched to any UPnP or Squeezelte. That said I am going to try out Innuos in the new year to see what it can give me and if it can sway me. I wont hold my breath.
Problem there is that it’s vendor specific. 80% of phones are Android, but Android Auto excludes the lucrative iPhone market. Is there perhaps room for a vendor agnostic option?
I think issue is that it’s music only, Carplay and Android Auto offer more. The majority of the public mainly want the convenience, (audio) quality being only a bonus.
All I can say about the Naim app is this, everyone in my family uses it every single day, without any intervention from me.
All I can say about the Innuos Sense app is this, everyone in my family uses it every single day, without any intervention from me.
Might it be that the functionality they’re using is “find artist/album/track and play”? As glowing recommendations for the future of Roon go that’s a total fail.
Had your statement read “All i can say about roon is this, everyone in my family uses the convolution every single day, without any intervention from me.” then there may have been a point to be made… as it is…
I posted above. Kirkland and Ellis advised on the sale. Several far more informative articles both by them and about them, which make it clear is that the intent is to rebadge the hardware and absorb the engineering skills. No mention there of Roon surviving as a product at all. A very different take from the PR fluff.
All I’m coming up with is the following, regurgitated on several sites
Kirkland & Ellis advised HARMAN, the premier connected technologies company for automotive, consumer and enterprise solutions, with leading brands including JBL, Harman Kardon, AKG, Infinity, Lexicon, Mark Levinson and Revel, and wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, on the acquisition of Roon, a founder-led and owned music management, discovery and streaming platform for audiophiles. The acquisition, announced on November 27, 2023, will bolster HARMAN’s robust engineering capabilities and complement its comprehensive personalized audio experience across products and platforms. The financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
Is there something else my googling capabilities are missing?
Exactly. It would be unheard of for a law firm to comment on the intentions of their client with respect to an acquisition, absent the client directing them to do so.
Interesting some of the things posted here to the effect that Roon’s days of survival may be numbered as it is not mass market product. Hifi in general, and higher fi in particular, is not and never has been a mass market, so maybe Harman is helping consolidate Roon as a hifi product and not just a smartphone app.
Roon is opposite to your perception, but that may explain why Roon has never taken off the ground because it has never explained clearly what it is to a layman.
We have at the last count, coincidentally, seven devices on our network. They use one cohesive, easy to use app called Innuos Sense.
That’s the thing Roon users arguably miss. A cohesive easy to use app wasn’t really the norm when Roon first appeared unless you count stuff like the Sonos app. Nowadays very few apps fail to meet the threshold so in itself it’s ceased to be a selling point.
