BLOG: Roon – Overdue revolution

Roon Remote
Lieven:

The last few years I have been using Foobar as my main audio playback program. Then when Tidal came I started using Tidal together with Foobar but I really didn’t like having to switch between programs. On top of that Foobar wasn’t always easiest to get correctly going with the Asio drivers (not for me anyway).

When Linus introduced me to Roon I had no idea what to expect, but now – after over a year of use – I am a big fan and it’s the only software I use now. I love how it integrates Tidal in the library and it let’s me choose between my (local higher bitrate) version or Tidal’s “quality”. It’s perfect.

Setting up new devices is a piece of cake and making zones is so easy. Another great thing I like is Roon’s radio. Like last.Fm and so many others the radio tries to offer you music you will like based on your listening history, but I have never gotten play lists as nice as from Roon.

While it isn’t the cheapest software out there, I absolutely love it and I think it’s worth the investment. Certainly if you have a big high res library of your own and want to combine it with Tidal. Roon offers so much more however and while you probably won’t need it all, it all is possible.

For me it’s come so far that I am disappointed when my new DAC isn’t Roon ready yet. Roon grows on you and everyone I knows that tried it loves it as much or even more than myself. Try it, you won’t be disappointed.
Call me a fan. 
Nathan:
iTunes holdouts include a faction that really, really sticks by 1st-party software. Another does’t mind iTunes’s complications, blipping Apple Music Prompts, incessant iPhone software updates, and legacy bilge. After all, Apple haven’t trimmed its fat. And Apple faithful may consider slogging through it all a rite. I’ve defended iTunes it for years. Worst software exists. And for the normie, iTunes does everything it needs to do. It’s just that today, iTunes is behemoth. And for the audiophile, it’s missing a few key items — even checking on bitrate, file type, etcetera, require extra clicks. 
Yesterday, I purchased Bexarametric’s latest, Solipsism, through iTunes. Currently, it’s firing out my iMac’s speakers. Roon didn’t ask me to side load it. Weeks ago, I set Roon to auto-scan my library, which flawlessly and slavishly it has done. Today, it helped me pick up music I’ve not listened to in yonks. Stuff from memory alley, both lossy(!!!) and lossless stuff sprang up. Which meant giving up Tea For The Tillerman and latching onto Songhai, a great, but forgotten guitar album that diverted me back in the ‘audiophiles must listen to this sort of music’ days. It’s a great album. But I’ve sinced rifled back to Bexarametric. My brain’s got nothing but room for electronic music. 
Electronic music and smooth-sailing interface design. Roon takes cues from OSX, but doesn’t slavishly kowtow to it. It’s easy to get back to home from a playing album, and there’re great full-screen controls that pop up when selecting a song. If you’ve a large screen and a vanishingly small pointer, it’s a god-send. Apart from right and left keys not tracking to the next song, Roon pretty much nails the interface. Its keen grouping systems, in-app speed, and all-in-one juggling of as many file types as I have on my computer make it an easy replacement for the combo of iTunes and Audirvana that previously I used. 
It sounds good, does gapless about as good as iTunes, and doesn’t bother me about anything. It does Tidal, connects to DropBox, and has a fool-proof parametric EQ, not to mention a great crossfeed system, and profiles. It’s not designed with a constrained eye to iOS as is VOX. It’s not skeuomorphic. Sure, it masks its slow cold boots behind quotes about music from famous people, but on the whole, it’s right on the money. If you’re into the low down: the nuts and bolts manoeuvres behind listening to your music, as well as the music itself, there exist several good apps out there. But not a one is as beautifully and seamlessly designed as is Roon. 
If you are keen to know more about Roon I suggest to read up on it in their very own Knowledge Database or in their support forums.
All I can do for now is to encourage everyone to give the 14-day trial a shot. I’m sure you’ll love it!
Oh, and just so you know: Roon won the product of the year award from Stereophile, DAR and Computeraudiophile in 2015. I think that speaks for itself…
Still not convinced? The list of hardware partners expands constantly, they already cooperate with brands like Chord Electronics, Mytek, Audioquest, Auralic, Shiit, PS Audio, Meridian, Oppo and many more! They all value Roon for what it is – the best in its class.
4.6/5 - (21 votes)
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A daytime code monkey with a passion for audio and his kids, Linus tends to look at gear with a technical approach, trying to understand why certain things sound the way they do. When there is no music around, Linus goes the extra mile and annoys the hell out of his colleagues with low level beatboxing.

8 Comments

  • Reply August 25, 2017

    phototristan

    FYI- Roon states for Chord FPGA DACs, this is not recommended, because the FPGA handles this internally a lot better: https://kb.roonlabs.com/DSP_Engine:_Sample_Rate_Conversion

    “You can upsample every file to the maximum supported bit-depth and samplerate. I’ve been doing this with my Hugo² (upsampling everything to DSD256), and though I have never been a fan of this kind of deforming, I must say, soundquality definitely benefited here.”

    • Reply September 1, 2017

      Linus

      Thanks for your comment, I couldn’t find the info on Roon stating that Chord’s FPGA is superior, it does state that some FPGA based DACs do a better job though.
      To my ears it sounds better to have it upsampled by Roon first and then handled as DSD by my Hugo2… YMMV of course.

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