Who knows about Roon Labs?

[Foxbat]

While I was researching installing a media server for my home to support my new networked Home Theater and Smart speakers, I came across something I hadn’t heard about before called Roon.

Roon - How Roon works

roonlabs.com

I’m wondering what is so fantastic about the Roon Labs setup that makes it worth $9.99 a month. So, I’m asking any of my fellow SatelliteGuys has any experience with this system.

I know Plex is another popular system for media serving and has the advantage of handling video files as well as audio. Why go with Roon, then? It seems to have widespread acceptance with the audio hardware manufacturers. I’m curious if anyone here has any experience.

 

[harshness]

It does seem odd that nobody's said anything about it in two years.

I'm not sure I'd bother setting up a media server that only did audio.

 

[Foxbat]

Yeah, that's where I was having a disconnect. While it may claim to be high bitrate lossless music streaming, a lot of the hardware supported spans from "normal" 44/48 KHz bitrates to 384 KHz rates on the high-end DACs. If you don't own a compatible DAC, it's overkill. The only other thing that seems to be "worth it" is the combination of curation of your content, AI recommendations based on the curation, and background album art/lyrics mining. But $9.99/mo worth?

One thing I found interesting was support for the old SqueezeBox hardware that Logitech acquired a decade ago. I have an old SqueezeBox player but it requires a dedicated music server that also drives the user interface of the player. I'm not sure it's worth it to resurrect the SqueezeBox from the archives to play music. I'm oversubscribed at this point (too many speakers/music players for the number of inhabitants in our home).

The HEOS system seems to do everything I need and there's no extra cost to the purchase price for the hardware. Plus, it supports the popular home media server systems.

 

[TRG]

Not worth it to me.

I use a RaspberryPi with a HifiBerry DAC. The OS and server software is MoOde audio. My phone or tablet are used to control the system. I'm very picky about my music and this combination surprised me. Does it perform the same as my 5 thousand dollar DAC? No, but it is one hell of a bang for the buck. There are lots of low cost tweaks you can do to make it even better. Oh, and MoOde is free.

moodeaudio.org
HiFiBerry | Audiophile 24/96, 24/192 sound cards (Audio DAC and SPDIF out) for the Raspberry Pi, audio out, audio cards, audio projects

 

[raoul5788]

Yeah, that's where I was having a disconnect. While it may claim to be high bitrate lossless music streaming, a lot of the hardware supported spans from "normal" 44/48 KHz bitrates to 384 KHz rates on the high-end DACs. If you don't own a compatible DAC, it's overkill. The only other thing that seems to be "worth it" is the combination of curation of your content, AI recommendations based on the curation, and background album art/lyrics mining. But $9.99/mo worth?

One thing I found interesting was support for the old SqueezeBox hardware that Logitech acquired a decade ago. I have an old SqueezeBox player but it requires a dedicated music server that also drives the user interface of the player. I'm not sure it's worth it to resurrect the SqueezeBox from the archives to play music. I'm oversubscribed at this point (too many speakers/music players for the number of inhabitants in our home).

The HEOS system seems to do everything I need and there's no extra cost to the purchase price for the hardware. Plus, it supports the popular home media server systems.

Didn't you just answer your own question?

 

[Foxbat]

Didn't you just answer your own question?

Maybe. I saw an announcement that Roon would support my Denon receiver and my new Home 150 speakers, but I don't see any indication in the Music options for my devices to add Roon Labs. Since it doesn't have any great "secret sauce" that I'm missing, I guess I can save my $10/mo and put it toward some other monthly subscription service.

 

[rtywonia]

Roon is a music organization system. It allows you to manage your music and play it on any room tested device as part of a whole house music system. If you are really into music and you want the ultimate lossless digital music management system you need Roon. Plex is pretty worthless in this regard. You have to be really into music though. If you you are the type of person listening to background music on an Alexa, Apple, or Google device, then don't bother. I use this with Tidal music subscription, digitized cd collection, and high end speakers and audio gear throughout the house. It is the ultimate system for audiophiles and music geeks.

 

[rtywonia]

Didn't you just answer your own question?

Maybe. I saw an announcement that Roon would support my Denon receiver and my new Home 150 speakers, but I don't see any indication in the Music options for my devices to add Roon Labs. Since it doesn't have any great "secret sauce" that I'm missing, I guess I can save my $10/mo and put it toward some other monthly subscription service.

Foxbat. With heos your stuck with that ecosystem of products and you don't get music management in the way that Roon is able to manage your music collection.