Roon Labs Releases Version 1.4 Update

Good news....

Now we have to wait until Roon releases it....  As of 1pm Monday no updates.

It's released.

I had to wait for the official release before I could announce anything.

Wow.  This is a pretty major release - iOS device endpoint support has been on my 'list' forever

Looking forward to giving it a spin.

Jeezus... The non-dark-mode hurts my eyes!

Shuffle play is improved it seems, much more "random".

No MQA first unfold...

It looks like that is permanently stuck.

Finally able to get rid of that shuffle option!

Love love love my 1.4! In dark mode of course.

The best part of this release is I no longer have to fight with my poorly functioning Chord Poly to stream Roon. Prayers answered. 

Sound Quality has taken a really nice step forward.  1.4 Sounds much better at least for my system and ears!

I have all this time off during the holidays, I think when I get a chance I am going to play with Roon.

My Android device updated. My iOS 11 Air Pad 2 is still not showing a 1.4 version available in the AppStore.  Is this possibly a delayed rollout geographically by Apple?

Working very well for me with Chord Poly. If I can help out anyone who's is having problems, let me know. Still getting an annoying "Uncertified" beside the Poly, but working fine.

The best new feature for me is the non-destructive queue.

4 hours ago, firedog said:

My Android device updated. My iOS 11 Air Pad 2 is still not showing a 1.4 version available in the AppStore.  Is this possibly a delayed rollout geographically by Apple?

Same happened with my iPad mini.  I deleted it and reinstalled; voila.  Midwest US.

The new Radio function is awesome.

3 hours ago, ted_b said:

Same happened with my iPad mini.  I deleted it and reinstalled; voila.  Midwest US.

Yes that was it.

Loving Roon 1.4 so far. Playback on iPhone is really slick, and sounds great!

I verified it does all the right things when I attach my DF Black to the iPhone:

1. passes through up to 24/96 PCM content
2. downsamples higher res PCM to 24/88.2 or 24/96 
3. transcodes DSD to 24/88.2
4. Passes through Tidal MQA content as 24/44.1 or 48, BUT
5. Does NOT enable MQA decoding on the DF, despite Darko's claim here: http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2017/12/v1-4-seasons-greetings-from-roon/  I suspect John wrote that before his first espresso of the day, because it could only work if Roon did the first unfold in SW, since the Dragonfly is an MQA renderer, not a decoder. And we know the Roon/MQA dance may never be consummated in our lifetimes.

Roon 1.4 on an iPhone playing through my ifi Nano is what iTunes should have been but never was.... Wonder whether all that cash in Apple's hands has them thinking Roon is now something they can't resist owning???

1 minute ago, sdolezalek said:

Roon 1.4 on an iPhone playing through my ifi Nano is what iTunes should have been but never was....

Good point. I'd forgotten that while iTunes has been doing grouped zone playback for a long time, you could never play to an iOS endpoint.

In fact, the only thing missing is the ability for my iDevices to connect to the Roon Core remotely so I can use them wherever I have either WiFi or phone connectivity back to my core...

On 12/19/2017 at 7:37 AM, marcusman said:

Sound Quality has taken a really nice step forward.  1.4 Sounds much better at least for my system and ears!

Could you please elaborate? Sounds better in what way?

On 12/18/2017 at 9:03 PM, austinpop said:

No MQA first unfold...

 

It looks like that is permanently stuck.

Such a shame. I thought Roon was going to strike a deal with MQA, but it appears they are far from shaking hands.

5 hours ago, AmusedToD said:

 

Could you please elaborate? Sounds better in what way?

From what I'm hearing with my system is timing and spacial definition improvements. I'd like a little more time to listen and validate the improvements I'm hearing.  Nothing else has changed with my system except the Roon upgrade.  

From the release notes they seem to allude to some optimizations.  

"We’ve also optimized the RAAT implementation in the Core to minimize CPU usage and context switching during streaming. On the endpoint side, there some optimizations in Roon, Roon Server and Roon Bridge that reduce timing variability when passing audio buffers to device drivers."