[Whya Duck]

Nice post! I agree. A while ago I thought it was a luxury but now, with Qobuz and a good Roon core (SSD mac mini), the plethora and wide range of different music is incredible and I consider Roon to be almost mandatory. Just trying to justify the new Roon Nucleus as my mac mini is getting dated (but still works!).

CJ

I have had the same experience with Roon.

While Audirvana worked well for me, their transition to a subscription model in 2021 caused me to evaluate Roon. I already had a Mac mini, so I was all set to configure my Roon core.

While the Roon iOS app is kind of wonky at times (it changes the iPhone volume level even if you've disabled iOS volume control of a Roon endpoint) I enjoy being able to control Roon endpoints from my iPhone. The metadata integration, as well as the much better UI polish, made it a no-brainer to transition to Roon from Audirvana.

Support for Bluesound node (streamer) and mini (powered speaker) is fantastic. With Roon I can multi stream to various endpoints and it's a nicer experience than using the Bluesound app.

 

[deanorthk]

I have been using roon for a year now, since I have my brooklyn Bridge dac in fact. Right now, I could live without it, just the way it mixes my local library and qobuz, plus how it work with the dac as an endpoint, powering it up when I need it... Plus the roon radio, when some albums are done listening too, it switches to other songs, which is not brand new of course, but it's really well done. Is it worth the montlhy fee I'm paying? Considering the amount of time I spend listening to it... yup.

 

[sabloke]

I've got a bargain NUC7i7BNH unit on eBay that had a faulty fan. It was supposedly barebone kit only and cost me a hundred bucks delivered. When I opened it up I have found a 16GB stick and a 120GB SSD in it. A new fan cost me another $22, a Samsung Evo 250GB NVMe SSD another $60. I decided to get rid of the NUC case and build an open setup with the motherboard installed on a ITX frame that cost me another $35 on aliexpress. I've got a spacious NAS but figured local files on a good 2TB SATA SSD ($180) are going to run better and faster with the ROCK. All up and running now, after uploading some 18k tunes. It even ripped a few dozen CDs using a USB DVD-RW unit, something I wanted to do for ages. Absolutely stoked with the speed and sound quality streaming to my iFi Zen Stream. Adding new FLACs to the internal ROCK SSD is a breeze, everything gets scanned and catalogued within seconds! The little open frame ROCK is sticking to my TrueNAS with magnets and runs cool and quiet. Love this thing! I don't think there's much better out there for less than five hundred bucks that I spent on this project. The price include a quality LPSU rated 80W at 19V that is about a week away. If you love Roon, take it to the next level with a ROCK. Do it now

 

[PROblemdetected]

From an user with around 300.000 files on roon, hosted on a cloud server...

Nothing can beat roon right now.

The only thing u have to think about it if u are going to use enough to pay this price.

 

[F208Frank]

Roon gives a pretty good range of reccomendations via roon radio while playing your desired songs.

I would play a song I like, and then let roon radio recommend me similar songs, so far with good results~!

 

[JohnnyOps]

And with the addition of ARC recently so you can play your local library anywhere (plus incorporate Qobuz/Tidal if you've got internet where you are), the biggest complaint is gone...

 

[cj3209]

From an user with around 300.000 files on roon, hosted on a cloud server...

Nothing can beat roon right now.

The only thing u have to think about it if u are going to use enough to pay this price.

It will literally take you a lifetime to listen to 300K songs...

LOL...

 

[PROblemdetected]

It will literally take you a lifetime to listen to 300K songs...

LOL...

Around 20 years checking my last.fm

 

[MrPanda]

Jeepers, and I thought I had an impossible library size!

 

[deanorthk]

upgraded my roon core with a dedicated server, based on a moderne cpu, and an external passive PSU (not linear et). Added a good netword card, and holy cow, what a feeling it is.
Roon runs as smooth as before, since most of my library is now through quobuz, but sound wise, it's a joy. And even if I don't use roon ARC now (it's bad with 4G connexion for me), I play to test it later when I got my net portable headphone.

 

[PROblemdetected]

upgraded my roon core with a dedicated server, based on a moderne cpu, and an external passive PSU (not linear et). Added a good netword card, and holy cow, what a feeling it is.
Roon runs as smooth as before, since most of my library is now through quobuz, but sound wise, it's a joy. And even if I don't use roon ARC now (it's bad with 4G connexion for me), I play to test it later when I got my net portable headphone.

Im using a gaming pc (6600k oced with 32gb DDR4)
ROON is getting the files fly-by my google drive.
Also the ARC implementation on the 1.0 version is really nice. Just missing a couple of things:

- Landscape mode
- Sharing what Im listening
- Select DSP

 

[batmansbest]

Roon is great for the cloud functionality. Audirvana for me has been the best sound quality, especially Audirvana origin.
Better than Roon and JRiver.

 

[ubs28]

I still have the OG Audirvana without subscription which is by far the better deal. You got be to stupid to “rent” this crap.

I just received an email from Roon that I should renew my subscription soon because they will increase the price.

Hahahah.

 

[JohnnyOps]

OG lifetime was the best deal ever. At $699 it’ll probably look like a bargain in three years.

 

[MacedonianHero]

OG lifetime was the best deal ever. At $699 it’ll probably look like a bargain in three years.

A few years back, I paid $499...quite the deal indeed for Roon.