[pedalhead]

I've been playing with the trial version today a little & so far it looks quite promising.  By far the biggest win for me is the AMG data it pulls in.  I currently spend a huge amount of time browsing the Allmusic web site and having all that data integrated into the player is almost enough to make it worth the (steep) price for me. Tidal integration looks fairly seamless, although ironically I recently ditched Tidal in favour of Qobuz as I find the latter superior in a number of ways. Roon claim it cost them $500k to integrate with Tidal and as Qobuz is in bankruptcy protection they're not minded to spend the resource on it.  A shame, but understandable.
 
I've also been unable to get the JRiver WDM driver working, but I think it's a JRiver issue in my case as nothing is working with it.  Odd, because it worked fine when I last used it a couple of months ago.
 
The clear weakness to my mind at the moment is the lack of tagging support, one of the things I really like about JRiver. It's also tricky to identify different versions of the same album...for example, a vinyl rip vs a remastered vs an original master of the same album. I suspect I could use a workaround by changing how I tag these different versions, but that would be a pain.
 
I found this video on CA.  Half an hour run-through of the product. I haven't watched it all yet but might well be interesting...
 

 
Anyway, I shall definitely be playing with this some more during the trial period.  Whether it'll be enough to justify the steep price...especially if I want to stick with Qobuz rather than Tidal...I'm not sure.

 

[Rumiho]

Decided to go with the trial myself and while the interface is very nice it does not play well with music/artist names not in English and pulled a large amount of incorrect metadata for my library so it looks like I will pass until they better sort that out.

 

[bigshutterbug]

Yes, I love the browsing features, and easy access to album and artist info. I have not yet compared it to other programs for sonics, but hope to soon.

 

[Audio Addict]

Just finished my 14 day trial and made the commitment as it seems to consistently get better with each new build.  The addition of the Android remote put it act my fingertips, which is really needed to really be able to read what's playing off the server core.  I know my laptop could be used as the remote but when I am listening, I don't want to have it sitting on my lap to control.  The Android app makes this possible.  
 
What I also learned was with the large selection of files I have on my laptop, I can make Roon the music manager by unauthorizing the server core.  
 
I have used it with both my PWD MKII off the server core as well as my Geek Out off the laptop remote and the sonics are excellent.  I had been using JRivers v20.108 but Roon is just such a clearer / easier interface.  I found myself listening for much longer period as I started using Roon instead of JRivers.  
 
I will say the forum support has been very good, hopefully it will stay at the current level but since they really are a startup, one never knows. 

 

[pedalhead]

Yup, I agree. I've also signed up for a subscription. I'm find Roon to be very solid right of the gate, and the developers are (currently) very responsive to suggestions and issues. The integration with AMG data is definitely the highlight, but it's also wrapped in a very tidy and intuitive interface. Colour me impressed. Just looking forward to ASIO support and full sub genre and style interaction with Tidal, both of which are apparently coming soon.

 

[DrTone]

I signed up for a lifetime subscription today.  Love the Tidal integration!
 
1) I do believe more advanced tagging is coming soon.  Along with the ability to config roon to use certain tags from your source files instead of the tags from their online sources without loosing all their extra collected metadata.  Example: Most Dave Matthews Band albums show up as Dave Matthews where I want them to use my Album Artist tag.
2) ASIO support is right around the corner.  Which might allow you to use J River's ASIO driver instead of the WDM.

 

[Audio Addict]

The lifetime membership is worth a lot if you are 21 not so much if you are 65

 

[Chikolad]

A lifetime membership costs roughly like 4 years of yearly subscriptions. If you like the service and think it will still be relevant 4 years from now, you should prefer the lifetime membership

 

[Audio Addict]

A lifetime membership costs roughly like 4 years of yearly subscriptions. If you like the service and think it will still be relevant 4 years from now, you should prefer the lifetime membership

No doubt the lifetime option is the better way to go financially.

Maybe I can figure out a way for it go on forever.

 

[7ryder]

  I signed up for a lifetime subscription today.  Love the Tidal integration!
 
1) I do believe more advanced tagging is coming soon.  Along with the ability to config roon to use certain tags from your source files instead of the tags from their online sources without loosing all their extra collected metadata.  Example: Most Dave Matthews Band albums show up as Dave Matthews where I want them to use my Album Artist tag.
2) ASIO support is right around the corner.  Which might allow you to use J River's ASIO driver instead of the WDM.

I also signed up for the lifetime plan a few days ago.  Yes, the Tidal integration is great, yet I don't think Tidal sounds as good as files pulled from my NAS.
 
Regarding your comment about the JRiver ASIO driver, AFAIK the only option is the WDM driver; I've never seen a driver from JRiver besides this one and I use it on my dedicated PC w/ Yggy.  
 
Is there a driver I haven't seen?

 

[DrTone]

  I also signed up for the lifetime plan a few days ago.  Yes, the Tidal integration is great, yet I don't think Tidal sounds as good as files pulled from my NAS.
 
Regarding your comment about the JRiver ASIO driver, AFAIK the only option is the WDM driver; I've never seen a driver from JRiver besides this one and I use it on my dedicated PC w/ Yggy.  
 
Is there a driver I haven't seen?

It's probably not available on Mac.  It might have been introduced in v20.  Anyway you can find it under General->Features it has to be enabled.

 

[7ryder]

 
It's probably not available on Mac.  It might have been introduced in v20.  Anyway you can find it under General->Features it has to be enabled.

I'm on a PC and that's the WDM driver which I'm currently using with Roon.  

 

[Chikolad]

I'm contemplating buying a subscription, but what I saw in the very short trial I had does not justify the high asking price IMO. 
Do you know anything about new features to be added soon besides DSD support?

 

[7ryder]

No idea.  I suggest you check their forums if this is important to you for making a decision.

 

[Chikolad]

Thanks