Roon Discussion

Discussion in 'Computer Audiophile: Software, Configs, Tools' started by AllanMarcus, Jul 3, 2016.

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  1. abisai2

    abisai2 Friend

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    I think the biggest issue getting this to work would be to understand the client/server connectivity involved. I've been running Roon at home for a few months now and unless the Roon Server is on the same LAN (IP subnet) as the Roon Clients (endpoints) the Roon Clients never find the Roon Server.

    With some effort remote connectivity might be possible but, that effort might not be so trivial for some.
     
  2. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    Its easier to simply have a second implementation and not try to share. I run roon at my house and on my boat. I have my music duplicated and simply unauthorize/reauthorize the instances as I need to.
     
  3. abisai2

    abisai2 Friend

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    Realistically speaking, this is really the simplest approach especially if all you want is Tidal availability or if you keep multiple copies of your music.
     
  4. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    These are very early impressions but yes, I will most likely pay the Roon subscription fee when my trial expires.
    I always thought that the Roon subscription was too much and, being a long term JRiver user, did not even bother looking at it.
    That's until I bought my last piece of the Bryston stack which is BDP-2. Bryston is a great audio company, and the sound from my BHA-1, BDA-2, and BDP-2 system is just heavenly but..
    Spending for three days with the BDP-2 UI, and trying to use Tidal is like being held for a ransom. It was so frustrating that at some point you just sayI will pay whatever, just let me out.
    BDP-2 comes with the 60 days free trial for Roon. So I started it
    The download, account setup, setting up access to my NAS folder, and logging in to Tidal took less than half an hour. My library with messed up tags, where nothing usually shows where is it is supposed to, was neatly presented to me the way I always wanted it. Then the best part: the integration with the BDP-2 Roon endpoint is flawless, it just works. The same with Tidal.
    I am not in love with Roon, it may still disappoint me but there is simply no choice if you want to manage and play your own library, and Tidal on a Bryston digital player. At least I haven't found any other option. So I am sold on UI and integration, the trial period will be spend mostly to compare the Roon sound quality with the BDP-2 native player.
    I read comments critical of Roon SQ comparing to JRiver on the Roon core system. Reportedly, the playback on a good Roon endpoint sounds is much better. Anyone can comment on this?
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2017
  5. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    I'm still up for a groupbuy if people are genuinely interested (need 3 including myself). Basically we'd need to decide as a group if we'd do a year or lifetime.
     
  6. abisai2

    abisai2 Friend

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    I can't comment too much on JRiver at this time. While I own it, I haven't spent much time with it. I essentially jumped on the Roon bandwagon shortly after an in person demo.

    I run a minimal Roon Core and have two systems acting as end points. The main system (Pi 3 (DigiOne) > Bifrost Multibit > Saga (PS Vane) > Jotenheim). The office system (PC > Eitr > Modi Multibit > Loki > Magni 3). I use HD600/HD650 with the main system. I use HE400i and Fostex TH-x00 with the office system.

    As far as I am concerned the sound quality is fantastic with my gear. I have no complaints whatsoever. If the quality from JRiver is superior then the question I would ask myself would be, which platform provides the functionality and ease of use that I need with sound quality to match.

    I'll say this much. I signed up for the initial trial with the intent of signing up for a yearly subscription. As the trial was about to expire I bit the bullet and paid for lifetime and do not regret it one bit.
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2017
  7. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    I think actually JRiver sounds a bit better but the Roon is much more reliable, user friendly and just fun to use.
     
  8. Lasollor

    Lasollor Friend

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    You can customize jRiver much more with vst plugins, I’m still using it with crossfeed plugins for hard panned music or bit perfect Sonarworks sometimes, though I have a lifetime Roon membership.
    I can imagine that people who are tweaking jRiver to their liking can’t achieve the same perceived sound quality with Roon.

    But Roon is the first stress free music player I’ve ever used, it just works as advertised. (no network or playback problems, no UI lag or crash, has clean interface etc.)
     
  9. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    I want to setup Pi 3 with Digi+ as a Roon enpoint but for me it only makes sense if I use wi-fi. The whole thread about wi-fi support on the Hifiberry support page is a hot mess. It took them months to provide the uid/pwd combination for the image pi/hifiberry. How did you setup your Pi endpoint?

    Your were playing both on the Roon core or an endpoint? People seem to get different results. My only reason to go Roon is Bryston BDP-2 and Tidal integration. On my PC I would stick to JRiver.
     
  10. abisai2

    abisai2 Friend

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    I'm using an Allo DigiOne. All I did was download DietPi which has support for the DigiOne. I enabled support for it, enabled WiFi and was done. I'm currently using the official pi WiFi adapter. The onboard Wifi worked fine as well but, it does get disabled when you use the dongle.

    Oddly enough I also have another pi with a Digi+ Pro. Its been a while since I set that up but, as I recall all I did was download the official image, enabled wifi, and was done. I will say this, finding the default login was aggravating. I lack patience for that sort of silliness.

    I've read all sorts of negative feedback about Wifi interfering with the Digi+ but, I have yet to run into that issue with either of my pi's. Main system is roughly 25-30 feet from my Cisco access point.
     
  11. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    @wormcycle I use it to my DirectStream Jr as an endpoint. JRiver over the network with various devices had been very spotty and generally not reliable with many other devices but Roon just works.

    On my desktop, it depends. Roon, Tidal, Spotify, JRiver to play with Sonorworks...
     
  12. winders

    winders boomer

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    If I were worried about Roon’s sound quality, I would be looking at HQplayer instead of JRiver. I could still use Roon with it too!
     
  13. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    After some listening on my Roon ready BDP-2, and reading this page: https://kb.roonlabs.com/Sound_Quality, I stopped worrying.
    The "Rule 2: Control and Output on separate devices" explains pretty well why running Roon Core and the player on the same system is not such a good idea.
    The Core does all the work, and in the process uses a lot of CPU and GPU. The Roon Core system requirements are real.
    Roon players like Roon ready devices and Roon Bridge do not have have UI, they do not do DSP, the focus in on playback and sound quality.
    And sound quality through BDP-2 as a Roon endpoint is as good or better then when using the Bryston native player. These guys seem to know what they are doing.
     
  14. winders

    winders boomer

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    Yes, I always plan on having the Roon Core separate from the endpoint. I tried them together out of necessity for a while and did not like the results. I am currently using an ultraRendu as an endpoint. I just bought a PS Audio DirectStream DAC with the Ethernet Bridge II card. It will be interesting to hear how that sounds compared to a dedicated endpoint putting out USB. I will compare it to my Yggdrasil with the UltraRendu too.
     
  15. topekk

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    Are you using DSD? I am using flac or alac files and tidal in conjunction with convolver and my cpu usage for roon doing everything on one box is 2-4% depending on source file. Output directly to Yggdrasil via usb. This is with a 3 year old gaming desktop.
     
  16. AllanMarcus

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    Hello,

    I finally got Roon up and running with the 60 free trial from Music Direct <>

    So far I'm impressed with with the sound / DSP features, but not all that impressed with the UI. Tidal integration is good on the computer, but seem quite lacking on the iPad.

    One possible deal breaker for me is the apparent lack of a rating system for dongs. Looks like Roon only had a three level rating system : like, nothing, don't like. For me, at least, this is insufficient. I would prefer a 4 tier (love, like, nothing, don't like), or at least a 6 tis system like iTunes had (0-5 stars, I don't use the likes in iTunes). Any way to get more rating options in Roon?

    I got a Gungnir Multibit and in intensive A/B testing with the Bifrost Multibit, neither I nor my son can hear any difference, so I'm thinking I can sell the Gungnir Multibit and use the money to get Roon.

    At any rate, Roon is interesting and I'm glad I finally have along enough trial period to play with it.
     
  17. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    Considering very uncertain situation of Tidal, Roon support for streaming becomes an interesting topic.
    Would you still use Roon if Tidal goes belly up? I probably would but Bryston BDP-2 that I use as the main player would be reduced to DLNA and NAS sources, without a reasonable level of integration with streaming services.

    For example I am very interested in new classical music streaming by IDAGIO but I cannot find a way to play it through Roon. There are some promising results playing external sources through Roon using icecast and liquidsoap but it is pretty cumbersome. I cannot find the way to setup Windows system output as liquidsoap source.
    I asked on the Roon forum and the answer was they have no plans for even basic capability to use external player as a source. Instead they invested all their development resources in creating MQA support through Roon. Taking into account limited development resources, and other improvements they could do to Roon, it was IMO pretty stupid decision.
     
  18. pedalhead

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    Well, Qobuz is coming to Roon in the near future (confirmed by both parties). I bet the Roon team breathed a sigh of relief when they signed that deal as I'm sure a lot of people consider streaming integration to be one of the main attractions of Roon, and who knows how much longer Tidal will stick around.

    Personally, I'll probably drop Tidal in a shot when Qobuz is on board, mostly because I want to vote with my wallet towards a streaming service that doesn't peddle MQA.

    Sadly, there appear to be a lot of MQA suckers on the Roon forum though, and existing integration with Tidal meant there was some pressure to get MQA supported. Agreed though, big waste of time imho.
     
  19. winders

    winders boomer

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    Yes, I suspect I will do that too. It’s not that I am necessarily dissatisfied with Tidal. It’s that I want to see what Qobuz’s library is like compared to Tidal. I most use Tidal to find music I like. Most of the time I end up buying the CD. I suspect I would use Qobuz the same way.
     
  20. direstraitsfan98

    direstraitsfan98 D2Girls v2.0

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    Is there any benefit using Roon over jriver for playing back your digital music collection? I know Roon can interface with Spotify, Tidal, etc, but aside from that, is there any good reason to be paying $100 a year for Roon, when you can just pay $60 one time, for life time for a home license for jriver?

    I suppose I can milk out two months free trial using two different credit cards. The skeptic in me thinks that Roon is overhyped and unworthy of its price tag, but I'm also scared I'll like the experience of the software so much that I'll wind up paying for it. That'll be $20 a month for Roon + Spotify, $30 if I went with Tidal. Does anybody here do one of those combos?
     

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