Switched! A+ to Roon. Yeah

[creativepart]

For the past year or longer I've been a dedicated Audirvana Pro user. I loved most everything about it. The few complaints I had were very minor. But I'm looking at going to a Ethernet/USB solution and they all seem really setup for Roon users. Not that I couldn't use other server setups - but I decided to give Roon a try.

 

OK, I now see why so many folks use this software. Plus, it overcomes every small issue I had with Audirvana. Key among them was their inability to mark Tidal files with any icon indicating the nature of the file format in Tidal. In A+ you had to play a song file to have any indication of whether or not it was CD, MQA, or some other version. I'd look at Tidal Albums and see two versions of the same title - one would be MQA and the other CD. But neither was marked as to version. It you wanted the MQA or even if you wanted the CD version you had to play a tune from each to find the one you wanted. You could see the format in Tidal because Masters have a "M" logo when on Tidal but not A+. A number of people requested this feature in A+ as much as 6 months ago, but it never happened.

 

So, not only do I have this feature from Roon, but so many more that I wasn't aware of. And, in only 2-days I've learned so much about my music and what else I might like.

 

I have a HD with 750 CD rips at 16/44 in ALAC format. It's great that my Tidal favorites and all 750 CDs are grouped together in Genres and organized for easier finding. Plus the SQ is very good as well.

 

All in all a Win-Win. I wish I had switched earlier.

[Sevenfeet]

I finally broke down and turned Roon on, after initially balking at paying for the cost.  And in less than 24 hours, I understand why audiophiles love this.  I'm sure earlier versions had some interesting bugs, but at Roon 1.5, it was surprisingly easy to implement across my house that includes two Oppo DACs hooked up to old Macs running Windows 10, three Apple TVs, one Airport Express and two Denon/Marantz processors.  Installing the Core on my elderly 2008 Mac Pro iTunes server was surprisingly painless;  It took all night for it to go through examination and equalization data collection process of all 30K songs and I boosted the rate by asking it to use all 8 cores maxed out.  Surprisingly, it didn't impede other functions of the server during the process.  The family watched a movie served through Plex during this process without a hiccup.  And playing music during these period seemed just as fast as when the server was idle.

 

Controlling the Core is also very easy regardless of the interface is MacOS, Windows, iPad or iPhone.  I'm also impressed that the overall latency of asking for a song and it playing is shockingly low, regardless if the song is from the local library or from Tidal.  I think the UI is pretty nice although there are some things I might change.  Scrolling through albums horizontally as opposed to vertically is not how I'm used to coming from other software but it's a minor quip.  Nice to have a choice between light and dark mode.

 

It would be really nice if one day you could mix and match Airplay devices with RAAT endpoints to play all simultaneously.  I don't know if the Mac endpoints can do DSD natively to the DACs or not (the main reason why I installed Windows via Bootcamp on those machines).  And I haven't tried HQPlayer yet, which will be the last integration point to test.

[tmtomh]

Nice report - thanks!

 

And I agree 100% with your final paragraph: It would make things so much easier if RAAT and Airplay (and other protocols) became interoperable - or if, heaven forbid, the major players came together to craft a new, single standard that could supersede not only RAAT and Airplay, but therefore also effectively kill off the awful DLNA.

[beetlemania]

Roon is head and shoulders above the rest for its interface and features. And the SQ is at least as good as anything I’ve heard.

[Sevenfeet]

And i just had a Roon victory in my house....I convinced my wife to use it.  Will wonders never cease....

[Allan F]

On 7/14/2018 at 12:00 PM, beetlemania said:

Roon is head and shoulders above the rest for its interface and features. And the SQ is at least as good as anything I’ve heard.

 

That would suggest that you have not heard HQPlayer.

[Jud]

On 7/14/2018 at 12:55 PM, tmtomh said:

Nice report - thanks!

 

And I agree 100% with your final paragraph: It would make things so much easier if RAAT and Airplay (and other protocols) became interoperable - or if, heaven forbid, the major players came together to craft a new, single standard that could supersede not only RAAT and Airplay, but therefore also effectively kill off the awful DLNA.

 

Curious to know: What is it about DLNA that is awful?

[mansr]

12 minutes ago, Jud said:

Curious to know: What is it about DLNA that is awful?

I take it you haven't read the spec.

[tmtomh]

13 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

Curious to know: What is it about DLNA that is awful?

 

Lack of support for gapless playback; limited file-type compatibility; inconsistent/incomplete implementation from brand to brand or device to device.

 

Also some more detail in the 2nd half of this blog post. It's from 2008 but AFAIK still accurate:

 

https://gxben.wordpress.com/2008/08/24/why-do-i-hate-dlna-protocol-so-much/

[mansr]

1 minute ago, tmtomh said:

Lack of support for gapless playback; limited file-type compatibility; inconsistent/incomplete implementation from brand to brand or device to device.

Gapless playback can be supported. Any file type can be supported. The problem is that everything is optional, and even the non-optional things can be done in a dozen different ways. Add vendor extensions, misinterpretations of the spec, and outright bugs. It's a wonder it ever works at all.

[mjb]

1 minute ago, mansr said:

It's a wonder it ever works at all.

Very true ?

[Jud]

8 hours ago, mansr said:

I take it you haven't read the spec.

 

Correct.  Thanks for answering the question in more detail downthread so I don't actually have to go read the spec now.   

[jabbr]

9 hours ago, Allan F said:

 

That would suggest that you have not heard HQPlayer.

or Roon through HQPlayer ...