I suppose that this benefit will not be widely used by members of this forum for obvious reasons. However, I find it invaluable as I am sure will some others. I can stream music to my Linn Klimax DS/1, Sonore microRendu and Marantz NA7004 using the same Roon app. This is particularly a bonus in the case of my Marantz NA7004 based bedroom system. The Marantz app was extremely basic and clunky, and the option to use Roon (via a Google Chromecast) has made the system so much more enjoyable to use.
We donāt subscribe to a streaming service - no Tidal or Qobuz, etc. - so the cost of Roon doesnāt compete with the cost of a streaming service.
The UI is āworth itā for us. That, and the fact that (a) it runs on my Macbook (Naim app does not) and (b) multiple instances of Roon do not clash with each other (Naim app can really only be run on one device at a time) seal it as a good product for us. I particularly like that I can run the client on my Macbook. And the UI is really good.
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Hi @Mike_S, remind me how you get to that view again please?
I remember getting that view in the past but Iām not seeing it any more, not in iOS or in Android.
Thanks!
Or even the DIY approach, where you can totally rely on the meta data because you had control over it. This is Emperorās New Clothes territory. But if there is market for selling your opinion and view of the world to other people who will take it as gospel, then why not? I prefer to think for myself.
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Thatās on my iPad, select server, then an album.
The best multiroom, worth the price of entry for me. So many different manufacturers all under one eco system, all gapless, switch playback seamlessly between all zones group certain zones all with no hassles
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Can Roon also be used from the iPad? Can anyone recommend the nas that works well with roon?
Yes it can be used as remote and an endpoint. If you connect a DAC to it via the camera adaptor thingy, it would also see that and route through it. Personally I would not recommend a NAS as you need to a bit more juice than they can give to get optimal performance but you would need get a decent Intel dual core one at the very least and not ARM based. Also you need an SSD or some have used a USB stick for it to install on for the database to be quick,. Your better buying a NUC, install their OS and use a SSd inside that or external USB drive. Cheaper than a NAS and lot better at running Roon.
I mean just a NUC and an external hdd connected? At the end it costs around ā¬ 500/600, a good price around ā¬ 700 / ā¬ 800.
Roons recommended lowest end NUC system is a NUC7i3BNH, but others run it on older and newer ones. I myself did not get a NUC and got a Tiny Custom built Fanless i7 thats not a NUC but runs ROCK Roonās OS fine and it looks pretty good to. It cost my around Ā£525 quid plus another Ā£100 for 1 tb SSD. You can pick up the NUCS on auction sites for less though if your lucky.
I think that the Roon fee is adequate (thatās more or less what I donate yearly for the development of the software that I use for my system) but I have tried Roon and I was not impressed, see my comments on https://community.roonlabs.com/t/basic-roon-customization/68128.
Specifically, I found Roon quite distracting and I did not like the excessive usage of images and recommendations. I guess itās a matter of taste and I can imagine that if one has a music collection which is not well-tagged, Roon can actually be very useful. But it is just not for me.
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I had the same reaction as you. Actually my prime reason for taking the trial (2 years ago so no idea if any change) was because I had read that Roon was supposed to be good with poor/missing/inconsistent metadata, and as the difficulties due to the state of my metadata was what was bugging me with Audirvana, I thought Iād investigate. Well, Roon was no better, not recognising a significant part of my collection, so in fact it didnāt live up to the claims. Maybe it does with some collections, but not mine. (Audirvanaās recent addition of sorting by file location has, at least as initial impression, gone a long way to resolving my disquiet.)
Umm, Roon gives you total control over metadata. You can choose whether to use Roon supplied metadata or your own metadata, for the files that are locally stored, anyway.
And maybe you could avoid the snark. Iām not certain why you seem to be implying that those who use Roon canāt or donāt think for themselves.
I donāt need Roon to give me control over my meta data. I have that control already.
I have a huge library of music, all sorts of genreās. Massive collection of live concerts.
Iāve never had a piece if software so perfectly handle it all, have an easy to use interface and do what I want it to. Metadata is cherry on topā¦Iāve ādiscoveredā lots cool stuff in the last few yearsā¦
I use it at work to shuffle my classic rock collection, and even though a few years ago the radio or shuffle was kinda lacking, theyāve improved it enormously.
At home, it works seamlessly with my NDX2. really the ONLY way I listen to digital files. I was skeptical as wellā¦but it took me all of a One Month trial to realize I wanted to use it, and after the first year, realized it was indispensable. I ditched Tidle cause of very bad streaming issues (would drop off or freeze too much, maybe thatās improved). I really like browsing through my music on my iPad while my computer in another room has the Roon Core. I can filter by genre, and shuffle that, or filter by year recordedā¦
Sound Quality is great over the networkā¦
when i listen to music i am not reading or searching anything. I just listen to my local cds rips and hirez downloads. I donāt use Tidal and Qobuz.
I donāt want to see texts, critics, recommandations for other albums.
So Roon is not for me.
When not listening to music, i use allmusic. com to learn and discover new albums or musicians. I am reading jazz magazines also, and listening to new albums on itunes, bandcamp, qobuz or youtube on my ipad.
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Yes, but you implied that Roon takes that control away. I donāt recall saying anything about your control over metadata.
I freely do not know what can support the claim that āRoon gives you total control over metadataā.
My experience rather suggests that Roon gives one, if any, very little control over metadata. This also seems to be the consensus on the Roon forum.
I have tried to prevent Roon from showing āGenreā values which do not make any sense in the specific context of my collection: impossible. I have tried to force Roon to display āWorkā, āEnsembleā and āEraā values that, again in my collection, are populated with precise data. Again, no customization options to do so.
I might have missed something but the folks at the Roon forum have confirmed that Roon does not offer anything like MinimServerās indexTags list that allows one to select which tags are actualy indexed and which ones are disregarded. Let apart the many further customization options supported my MinimServer.
The same folks (very nice and helpful, by the way, see my āBasic Roon customizationā thread at https://community.roonlabs.com/t/basic-roon-customization/68128/5) also confirmed that, while Roon is very good at retrieving and expanding metadata information, it is actually very little customizable and gives one very little control over which embedded metadata are actually displayed and how they are displayed.
Of course this does not mean that Roon is not good for some users. But those who want total control over they metadata will likely look elsewhere. This holds also for the Naim server that many users actually find very useful.
Thus, while there is certainly no absolute good and bad, it is important to know what one is looking for and which servers excel at doing what one cares about.
Users who want total control over metadata and users who do not like the excessive usage of recommendations and being presented with external information (like me) will most likely stay away from Roon. For these users, MinimServer is likely a better choice.
Users whose music collection is inconsistently tagged, who appreciate the integration of external metadata and embedded data, internet streaming services and LAN streaming services and who do not dislike content to be presented in a graphical form will likely find Roon very appealing.
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Same here. That is the reason why, after having evaluated Roon for two weeks, I happily came back to MinimServer. It is miles ahead of Roon in terms of customizability and respect of embedded metadata and comes with an excellent documentation.
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Exactly it all varies. I have retired MinimServer in favour of Roon, where I ultimately found MinimServer far too limited for meta data, curation, indexing and library functions ā¦ actually all UPnP solutions have become too limited when it came to curation and indexing and lookup with labels, classical works, associations, partnerships, session musicians, engineers, your own categories, listening bookmarks etcā¦ but each to their own.
Itās the listening experience that matters, and for me I have discovered and enjoyed with my Naim far more music using Roon, and enjoyed the threads and associations of musicā¦ recorded music is so connected with influences and stylesā¦ and I find that side of music appreciation hugely enjoyable.
But sure for those that just want to spin up a CD and play as it were, and probably want to enjoy a more limited library then something like Roon I might be completely inappropriate. Itās about choiceā¦ for me itās enhanced my Naim enjoyment, and I am sure Naim recognise that would be the case for some hence their full Roon integration with the latest streaming products, and the native Naim integration is very good indeed
But as I say itās about and options choice, what is interesting with many of those on the forum that have discovered and appreciate Roon, there is an acknowledgement it might not be for everyone and simply try it for free, after all we all appear to listen to and enjoy music in different ways. To me that is a low risk balanced approachā¦
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