Calling all ROON users, current and former

[Grizaudio]

1 hour ago, POV said:

 

One thing that's really important consideration (IMO) for having a streaming service enabled is Roon Playlists and the magic of Roon Radio.  I have discovered countless new tracks/albums/artists through these mediums some of which I now consider to be in my top favourite artists (like Leprous as an example).  The way I play it is that for albums that I discover through streaming services that I really love I order either the CD (and rip it into my Roon library) or the LP or both.  Having Qobuz integrated into Roon is an essential ingredient.

 

My tip with the trial is to give it a few months, to give yourself a chance to fully appreciate everything Roon has to offer.  I really doubt this is possible in a one month trial.

 

I'm a lifer...

I would agree Roon's music discovery ability is great. But Roon Radio has not always been good. Spotify is vastly better at recommendations. 

Its better than it was for sure. So many times Roon would just repeat the same Roon Radio tracks over and over again - it was useless. 

 

6 hours ago, The Mad Scientist said:

it also has extensive DSP capabilities. My main system's REW and Rephase corrections are applied as impulse responses within Roon's Muse DSP engine's convolution filters.

 

Roon's DSP is pretty decent, but it does have issues. I have personally raised a few, particularly around multichannel crossover/DSP.  

The PEQ IIR engine is also not as intuitive as it should be, the engine doesn't apply DSP like a speaker manager should.

It was optimised for 2 channel, without enough thought to multichannel crossovers, independent level manipulation in PEQ adjustment screen etc. 

 

I actually moved my DSP crossovers/correction out of Roon, into CamillaDSP for an improved experience. 

I use loop back from bridge into CamillaDSP - works perfectly. 

 

On 16/10/2023 at 11:57 AM, Snoopy8 said:

I have never questioned the positive experiences and am happy for all you.  Sorry that I have not made that clear earlier.

 

But the zeal of a few did not allow for someone to say that Roon was not necessarily the best!  And it was not isolated to a thread nor to an individual.  Note that this happened a while ago and I have not posted since. 

 

Time to move on, with no more from me.  I hope that OP now has a better appreciation of Roon.

 

I know a few users that rate Roon's sound quality, behind other software/hardware combinations.

Perhaps this difference is more a function of the hardware being used, than the software itself. 

But whatever works for each individual is what's important, celebrate the difference, diversity is the spice of life.

 

I will admit I'm not one to over analysis SQ once I'm happy. For me its more about the music, and liking what I hear. 

If I want a slight change in SQ, I simply employ DSP and tweak to preference. 

 

I compared Roon, to a heap of software players - I honestly don't hear a difference.

A few included, Vortexbox, Snake oil, Daphile, Foobar, MQn, Audivarna, etc.. 

But I do (I believe I do) hear differences between the endpoints being used to deliver the digital signal.... I.e. Raspberry Pi vs Nuc v's Streamers etc. 

 

The only thing I noticed, for some reason, Audivarna would fail some RME ADI 2 dac bit perfect tests - Via USB and uPnP.  

Weird. 

 

Roon passed every test, and the user experience was exceptional so Roon stuck. 

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Grizaudio

[POV]

6 minutes ago, Grizaudio said:

Spotify is vastly better at recommendations. 

Its better than it was for sure. So many times Roon would just repeat the same Roon Radio tracks over and over again - it was useless. 

 

I don't personally find Spotify significantly better for my styles of music (prog rock, prog metal, inudstrial, deep house, progressive deep house).  I've read complaints of repeated tracks here before but i have never experienced that myself.

Edited October 19, 2023 by POV

[Grizaudio]

Just now, POV said:

 

I don't personally find Spotify significantly better for my styles of music (prog rock, prog metal, inudstrial, deep house, progressive deep house).  I've read complaints of repeated tracks here before but i have never expereinced that myself.

 

Thats great.... I went through a period with Roon Radio were recommendations would continually repeat. Their were many users experiencing the same issue. 

 

Roon would also jump from Ambient Electro, to Mozart or something silly. 

 

[Hydrology]

1 hour ago, POV said:

 

I don't personally find Spotify significantly better for my styles of music (prog rock, prog metal, inudstrial, deep house, progressive deep house).  I've read complaints of repeated tracks here before but i have never experienced that myself.

 

Same here - never repeated tracks. And found Roon Radio vastly superior to Spotify's equivalent, from my own experience.
Most of Roon Radio's complaints Ive come across is a lack of interaction with the software in terms of likes/dislikes, reasons why you skip a track etc.

[sir sanders zingmore]

18 minutes ago, Hydrology said:

 

Same here - never repeated tracks. And found Roon Radio vastly superior to Spotify's equivalent, from my own experience.
Most of Roon Radio's complaints Ive come across is a lack of interaction with the software in terms of likes/dislikes, reasons why you skip a track etc.

Roon radio is the thing I like least about Roon. 
I gave up on it ages ago so perhaps it’s been improved, but it had this ridiculous habit of always throwing in Van Morrrison songs… no matter what song or style I started the Radio with. Go figure… 

[Hydrology]

13 minutes ago, sir sanders zingmore said:

Roon radio is the thing I like least about Roon. 
I gave up on it ages ago so perhaps it’s been improved, but it had this ridiculous habit of always throwing in Van Morrrison songs… no matter what song or style I started the Radio with. Go figure… 

Lucky you - I LOVE Van the Man!

[POV]

20 minutes ago, sir sanders zingmore said:

Roon radio is the thing I like least about Roon. 
I gave up on it ages ago so perhaps it’s been improved, but it had this ridiculous habit of always throwing in Van Morrrison songs… no matter what song or style I started the Radio with. Go figure… 

Fascinating.  I’ve never really had that issue.  Occasionally a song come up that I consider a bit out of type for the playlist but that happens on Spotify too.

[Grizaudio]

Roon radio would repeatedly play the same tracks/artists..... it would also play random tracks which had nothing to do with the genre I was listening to etc. 

Its much better now. 

 

[Grizaudio]

I think its fair to say, Roon is easily the best option available for the Music lover - with all things considered. 

It has completely upgraded my listening experience, both at home and when mobile. 

 

I will add, ARC is still not as reliable as native Qobuz out of the house…. Arc will sometimes struggles in areas where the Qobuz app has no issues… 
 

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Grizaudio

[captain starlight]

I haven’t don’t the survey above - simply I don’t like doing them.   But I will say, I absolutely love Roon.  Been a daily user for 4 years and I have no regrets.  To me, it is an essential item.  I also subscribe to both Tidal and Qobuz and I also have a large collection based on my local NAS.  Roon sees it all, the search function is transparent -in that it seamlessly searches my library and also tidal and qobuz - plus roon radio (the functionality where it continues playing random songs after it finishes my selection is a great way to find new artists.  Then there is the information presented as they say, in an interactive magazine format.  Too-me, roon is the perfect and required add-on for any large internet connected library.

 

but, I don’t use ARC.  I just stream from either tidal or qobuz  when I am out and about.   All my favourites are mapped to either anyway.

 

so big vote for me….

[MattyW]

Yeah, I’m a Roon lifer. Wonderful product. I do wish it had CD ripping integrated though that’s a minor niggle really.

 

 I’ve Roon ARC ready to rock n roll but have never used it with any regularity. Maybe once I’ve wireless Apple CarPlay. Guess I’ll see.

Edited October 19, 2023 by MattyW

[Grizaudio]

20 hours ago, sir sanders zingmore said:

Roon radio is the thing I like least about Roon. 
I gave up on it ages ago so perhaps it’s been improved, but it had this ridiculous habit of always throwing in Van Morrrison songs… no matter what song or style I started the Radio with. Go figure… 

 

You might suspect overtime AI could be used to improve this function in Roon.

Reviewing the Roon forum, Roon Radio appears to be an on going issue, NQR.

 

I can only imagine this coding must be one of the more difficult aspects to get 'right' for the dev team.  

 

Rather than using Roon Radio to explore, I typically look at Bandcamp, and Roon recommended artists for music discovery.

This strategy seems to provide ;improved' music choices, more inline with my genre preferences at time of searching.

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Grizaudio

[POV]

1 hour ago, Grizaudio said:

Reviewing the Roon forum, Roon Radio appears to be an on going issue, NQR.

What are the issues?  I’ve been listening to Roon Radio for the last 5 hours straight off the back of playing one Younger Brother track and not skipped a single track, this is pretty routine for me.  Curious what it is about my use case where these issues don’t ever appear for me.

[keyse1]

29 minutes ago, POV said:

What are the issues?  I’ve been listening to Roon Radio for the last 5 hours straight off the back of playing one Younger Brother track and not skipped a single track, this is pretty routine for me.  Curious what it is about my use case where these issues don’t ever appear for me.

Curiosity 

Some people have none

about music

or formats

 

 

 

[POV]

17 minutes ago, keyse1 said:

Curiosity 

Some people have none

about music

or formats

 

 

 

 

alrighty then  

[Grizaudio]

1 hour ago, POV said:

 

alrighty then  

 

Most complaints are in line with my previous comments. 
 

In appropriate/unwanted music based on previous listening habits 

 

 

 

 

[Ccollins]

Today i see a banner ad on stereonet for Roon trial 3 months for $3 - Black Friday

 

i click on the link and sign up but no mention of this seen on Roon website even after signing up 15 mins ago

[Willmax]

5 hours ago, Ccollins said:

Today i see a banner ad on stereonet for Roon trial 3 months for $3 - Black Friday

 

i click on the link and sign up but no mention of this seen on Roon website even after signing up 15 mins ago

I tried following the link as well but it still shows the regular 14 days free trial with the regular subscription value of $14.99 after the first fortnight. No mention of $1 Black Friday deal at all. 

 

[Ccollins]

Maybe it’s coming tomorrow (ie today usa time) or later in week. 

[Willmax]

3 minutes ago, Ccollins said:

Maybe it’s coming tomorrow (ie today usa time) or later in week. 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hopefully the promo will stay on until Friday night so I can give Roon a try.

[Godot]

On 15/10/2023 at 10:36 PM, Snoopy8 said:

I tried Roon but did not fit with the way I consumed music.  Exploring new music, finding more information is not my thing.

 

The thing that turned me away was the sound quality, a little behind my setup.  I now refrain from expanding further because I got jumped upon.  There are quite a few who have the same opinion, but are equally reluctant to say so, let alone post here.

 

I also know 2 or 3 Roon users who acknowledge this, but they enjoy the rich information. That trumps any drop in SQ.  

 

Hope this helps with your decision...

It might be interesting to read some posts on the Antipodes forums, where some clear preference for Squeeze server and player is strongly encouraged by some, based on their own assessment of sound quality. There are Roon lifetime subscribers who have given away the other software benefits of Roon in favour of their perceived benefits of Squeeze SQ. Antipodes does say that Squeeze is optimised for best SQ for their products. 
I am a lifetime Roon subscriber using an Antipodes EX as a Roon server into a Playback Designs StreamIf as a Roon player, I think it sounds amazing good. Anyway, it is only one part of a whole system, the user interface and convenient functionality of Roon make it an outstanding experience for me. 

[Hydrology]

In my system where I use an Innuos ZEN as Roon Core, prior to Innuos releasing their Sense software, I preferred running Roon in Squeeze mode. However, while sound quality took a step (or two) northward, it was hampered by buggy compatibility (at Roon's end, hence why it was called "Experimental").

For me, this step up in performance is easily achievable running Innuos' own software mode, but there are so many things to like about Roon that I don't regret one cent paid to them so far.

[Willmax]

Has anyone here been able to verify/sign up to the Roon Black Friday deal of 3 months for $3?

I cannot find any info about it.

 

[Ccollins]

If you have previously trialled roon and you want this $3 for 3 month offer (again), then try a private window in your browser and go to roon. You may then see a pop up for the $3 offer that you can click on to activate. 

[Willmax]

I haven't tried Roon before but now I can see the deal live on roon's website!!