2019 Roon Thread - is it worth it?

[goldwerger]

Roon is incredible. Building a relatively cheap Roon core to network your home is a game-changer. It provides the best sound quality possible, some of the best music discovery and learning features available, lets you easily combine your subscription music services with your locally owned music files, and lets you create multiple music zones in your home, all connected to the same music library on your network via ethernet or wifi. Throw in great DSP functionality, DIY-friendly architecture requirements, and easy UI. Can it occasionally be a bit buggy or require digging through their forums for support? Yes, but that has not ruined the experience for me.

I bought a lifetime subscription 5 years ago thinking maybe I'll get screwed over.... since then they've improved their product regularly with new features (Roon Arc) and new partners (hello cheap Fiio daps). I have not regretted purchasing lifetime one bit, although I have to admit at $900 the value proposition is getting narrower.

I feel the same. I am a really big Roon fan!

The way I would approach it is a component in your audio stack. It is worth so much more than a $1k component. All the hardware we put togehter (and I am guilty of a lot of hardware) is all in the end for one purposes - to enjoy music. The incremental value of Roon, in terms of music discovery, management, and just UI is worth more than any other 1k one could spend in your stack imho. It's the best investment I made. Some gear I'll buy and sell. This I'll have forever.

 

[NovaFlyer]

Roon is incredible. Building a relatively cheap Roon core to network your home is a game-changer. It provides the best sound quality possible, some of the best music discovery and learning features available, lets you easily combine your subscription music services with your locally owned music files, and lets you create multiple music zones in your home, all connected to the same music library on your network via ethernet or wifi. Throw in great DSP functionality, DIY-friendly architecture requirements, and easy UI. Can it occasionally be a bit buggy or require digging through their forums for support? Yes, but that has not ruined the experience for me.

I bought a lifetime subscription 5 years ago thinking maybe I'll get screwed over.... since then they've improved their product regularly with new features (Roon Arc) and new partners (hello cheap Fiio daps). I have not regretted purchasing lifetime one bit, although I have to admit at $900 the value proposition is getting narrower.

I feel the same. I am a really big Roon fan!

The way I would approach it is a component in your audio stack. It is worth so much more than a $1k component. All the hardware we put togehter (and I am guilty of a lot of hardware) is all in the end for one purposes - to enjoy music. The incremental value of Roon, in terms of music discovery, management, and just UI is worth more than any other 1k one could spend in your stack imho. It's the best investment I made. Some gear I'll buy and sell. This I'll have forever.

In that same boat as both of you. Roon brings everything together for me - my owned music, Tidal and Qobuz - into one presentation. It makes discovering new albums by artists I know about effortless. I bought a lifetime subscription years ago and couldn't be happier.

 

[Hubert481]

From the latest software versions - roon is really getting very slow
i cannot recommend roon nowadays for playing music - unless you reboot every day

the latest updates did not fix the bugs
one year ago it was an excellent music platform

updates with new features seemed to slow down the software and made it buggy

 

[Daiyama]

It seems there is an increasing number of users who have issues with the speed of Roon but it is not a general problem.
It seems to depend library size, unidentified albums and other thinks. Roon is aware and is looking into it (whatever time frame this means until they solved this).
With my small library and only couple of unidentified albums I have no issues with the reactivity of the program.

 

[Hubert481]

library size and unidentified albums never have been an issue in previous versions - this is a new "feature"

 

[sabloke]

I've found that BluOS sounds better with my local library and Qobuz than Roon, so not sure I'll renew my annual subscription. Plus, BluOS simply flies between the folders located on a Roon ROCK acting like a NAS for my NAD M33 streaming amp. Roon? Crawling at times, and useless if the internet is down.

 

[Roybenz]

The most irritating issue for me is this: playlist can’t stay sorted after artist. I have to do this every time. The mixed que Roon makes is also the one followed when choosing “play from here” it doesn’t even play in order when sorting list by artist. It plays in rooms sorted order, and never sorted by artis. Really bothersome.

 

[JohnnyOps]

Roon is just as snappy as ever for me (which has never been perfect, but I haven’t noticed any changes). ARC is wonderful for long-distance train rides and road trips and planes. Roon still powers Sonos plus my 2 headphone rigs and my main listening room. Fabulous kit, running on a NUC/ROCK.

 

[Ableza]

Same. No issues with Roon in my system. I am as in love with it as I was on day one.

 

[jp11801]

For me after a rather large move and a change to my Roon Rock nuc it is a bit slower than I recall but maybe by a few seconds

 

[568812]

Still the best music app for music apps.

 

[skhan007]

Several guys have recommended Roon to me, but with my preliminary research (reading and watching YT videos), I can see a use for it (personally).

• I don't have any hi-res streaming plans (my hi-res files are local on my hard drive and my streaming is by Spotify).
• I don't listen to my hi-res music anywhere but on my head-fi station, so no need for mobile uses or other room uses.
• My EQ settings are handled by my RME ADI-2 DAC.
• The organization of files, articles/info, and links sound cool. If that's the only benefit for my situation, probably not worth the subscription.

If there's some other benefit from Roon, I haven't found it yet, but I'm totally open-minded. Please sell me on it, as others seem quite happy!

 

[Ableza]

The best use case for Roon is the center for a home-based music distribution network. Roon Core is the server and Roon Players on one or many end-points located remotely from the core on your home network. If you don't need to do this type of home network setup then you will get little from Roon other than convenience.

 

[Whazzzup]

lifetime membership since 2015

 

[bfreedma]

The best use case for Roon is the center for a home-based music distribution network. Roon Core is the server and Roon Players on one or many end-points located remotely from the core on your home network. If you don't need to do this type of home network setup then you will get little from Roon other than convenience.

That convenience also comes with one of the best set of EQ options on the market. YMMV

I do agree though - Roon is definitely a luxury if used primarily with a single output device.