Yeah but I think the point was that you can’t then search from that data. People who have that functionality drool over it and use it as a stick to beat other apps with but in reality it’s a minority interest.
I’d rather listen to music. There are easier ways to do that than drilling down through meta data.
Yep.
Sure. On the other hand, the Naim app.
I obviously don’t get it. Your “My point was that they found a gap in the market which lasts exactly as long as it takes several manufacturers to close in on them” would exactly mean that, e.g., Naim or others close in on them and take away their lifeline. Naim, for one, is not, and that’s most interesting to me as I have a Naim streamer and without Roon that’s what I would be stuck with.
Nor does Innuous, according to your “At this point you do not but then not everyone wants what others want and given Innuos progress inside 2 years I’m already aware that some of what you want will be available this year and the rest next”. (At which point Roon will have new features, they are not going to sleep during that time). You have not told me either why the 30-strong Innous is in a better position than the 30-strong Roon.
That said, I don’t see it as a question of one or the other either. You were the one who wrote about “the market which lasts exactly as long as it takes several manufacturers to close in on them” and seem to have made it an either-or. My point was all along that it is sensible that hardware companies have their own ecosystem, possibly (likely) more basic, and an interface to Roon on top of that.
IMHO that’s part of the question of where digital reproduction goes. As long as streamers have a semi-open interface like Roon-ready, I can choose whatever streamer I want as long as Roon exists. It also isolates the streamer hardware from any unforeseen future technological changes - responding to those would become Roon’s job. This is quite an advantage and some security in the digital space, obviously depending on Roon’s health.
Guys, can we agree to disagree?
Roon user happy with Roon, Innous user happy with Innuos - neither of you are going to change the other’s mind.
For the OP I’d be inclined to think that as said above the second generation streamers will be with us for some time. I think the Uniti styling will stand the test of time as well so there will be very little reason to change anything.
Power supplies well their days surely must be limited? I doubt very much if you could convince anyone under 30 to add a power hungry (and possibly noisy) toroidal transformer to their amplifier. Naim will really have to go greener here and they must know that - at the very least the new power supplies will have a low power standby function.
.sjb
I haven’t been going around wishing Innous to die on their users, but hey, I am done.
Back to the super-exciting and completely new topic of “will Naim continue with big PSes and toroidal transformers” 
I’d imagine it will be some time before tech changes enough to make it worth while introducing a new product. I’d rather see something like the Naim HE but with a digital out.
Two points regarding my reason for Roon.
I like the Naim app. Yes it could be better but it does what it needs to do and if I know what I want to listen to, I still give it a whirl every now and again.
I have never seen anything about Roon that would tempt me to spend £10 a month. The Naim app is flawed but it is free and does what I need. Roon seems like 21st Century Snake Oil for gullible audiophiles to me, unless I am totally missing something.
You’re missing something. It’s ok though. It’s ok to not like something or, prefer something else that meets your needs but I do find it odd that you need to belittle those who have a different opinion to you.
Yes you are. You may not need its features, but I’m not sure you know them. That’s fine, but please don’t believe that I am so stupid to spend more if it didn’t provide features that I need.
I’ll stick to my opinion that if Naim (or Linn, Innous, whatever) had come up with Roon, all the ridiculous Roon hate would turn into sky-high praise by the respective owners of said devices
Maybe the discussion should concern now other points than Roon or non Roon apps.
The future is also a questioning if Naim will continue to adopt big power supplies in 5, 10 years . And if Naim will use a different dac as the Nos TDA actually used. And which ones, AKN, ESS Sabre…others ?
I think it’s a gimme that they’ll continue with Roon so the question, as you said, should be how they progress in other areas.
I love what they’ve done with the Atom HE. Sounds great, usability features that just make it a pleasure to use. The only two things that jump to mind are digital outs and maybe glass instead of plastic front. It’s just a great network streamer for headphone users.
I know the volume control on the top can put people off because it means you have to place it on the top shelf to make use of it but, it’s just great to use.
What am I missing that could be useful that I couldn’t get for free elsewhere?
It may or may not be useful to you, but here is a small part of what is useful to me
https://community.naimaudio.com/t/confused-re-qobus-connect/20443/88?u=suedkiez
Multi Zone control of all Roon Approved hardware that can’t work together because its from different manufactures or uses different protocols. Roon radio that will find new music based on your last track. Plus, integration of all NAS Media, Qobuz and Tidal streaming libraries under one app without the need to go from one app to the other. And that’s before we come to ease of use compared to others.
Have you ever actually trialled Roon?
You seem to have some very strong opinions about it.
.sjb
I don’t need any of this as I don’t belong to Qobuz or Tidal. My NAS drive and naim storage can be easily accessed from my Naim app, maybe it is not seamless but then neither was my LP and CD collection. For me, I can see no benefit to having it. However, for those that do have multiple streaming accounts, I can see it being useful. However, it still seems very expensive to me but if users are happy with it, I accept I am wrong in my opinions.
All of the stuff I referenced above, like the detailed metadata and its filter/search facilities, works with local files just as well. As for the price, a lifetime Roon license and a fancy fanless Roon Core server cost me 1K less than, e.g., a Naim Core. And it could have been done with cheaper hardware as well. It’s not prohibitive.
you call out a piece of software as snake oil when you don’t stream and one of its main features is streaming integration with NAS files.
Rather than call those who do stream and use Roon to combine remote and local libraries as gullible, all you had to say is it has minimal benefits to me as I don’t stream or require multi room zones.
Edit. About cost. I pay £85 a year approx. Take a look at how much is spent on cables to hardware here and it probably accounts for 0.05% of annual audio spend 
I wonder sometimes if a nice App with a lot of information is the most important thing for most of people, vs sound quality…
I think that’s very much not a gimme. It’s as much up in the air as all the other questions here. Optical drives on PCs were a gimme until… Extra storage on smartphones a gimme until…
The world changes. By the time the next generation of streamers are out it will have changed again. The idea that anyone here knows what that looks like is nothing more than guessing. I see trends. I don’t know the outcome. Some manufacturers will see it one way and some another. I doubt anyone at Naim saw streamers, screens and turntables coming.