Roon discovering music - effective?

[DomT]

Hello everyone
I am tentatively considering Roon only from a discovering music perspective. I like the joined up meta data approach. It seems impressive. Anyone like to comment on the reality?

 

[tkimages]

I’ve been using Roon for many years now and that short video you posted sums it up nicely. I didn’t join Roon to discover new music, my main reasons were to access MQA material (Tidal) and to ‘manage’ my ripped CDs for use in my then recently acquired Meridian system. I have discovered many albums and artists that I like, often accidentally, but I’m sure that I don’t use the ‘discover’ facilities as they should be used or as often as I should. However, my music library has increased by a considerable amount and I haven’t bought any new music in the time I’ve been subscribed to Roon + Tidal.

 

[hearhere]

Surprisingly that video didn't mention the feature I found while on my month trial with Roon. Their "radio" feature whereby , when your queue of music ends, Roon will add tracks that it thinks you may enjoy.

These Roon features are great, although much of what Roon offers is available to BluOS users, although perhaps not so comprehensively. The info icon often lists similar artists and may open a link to their Wikipedia or AllMusic page. Though not as good as Roon, I decided it was good enough not to subscribe and get the hardware needed for Roon long term.

 

[DomT]

Surprisingly that video didn't mention the feature I found while on my month trial with Roon. Their "radio" feature whereby , when your queue of music ends, Roon will add tracks that it thinks you may enjoy.

These Roon features are great, although much of what Roon offers is available to BluOS users, although perhaps not so comprehensively. The info icon often lists similar artists and may open a link to their Wikipedia or AllMusic page. Though not as good as Roon, I decided it was good enough not to subscribe and get the hardware needed for Roon long term.

and to Innuos users which is why as an Innuos user I am asking the question. My understanding is that neither Blueos nor Innuos have these discovery features ie the meta data searching that the video highlights.

 

[simon g]

Frankly, you need much more than a trial month to even begin to get a grip on Roon capability. Music discovery is just one very good aspect of that. Roon has been running an e-mail Roon Mastery campaign, in 100 bite sized chunks as it were. That might also be on their site?

Music discovery is an absolute delight, to be frank

A very big plus for Roon is the multi platform capability. Thus, if you do change kit for whatever reason, so long as it;s Roon Ready then there's no need to worry about the usability/features of a new app. It'll be exactly the same experience with your new kit.

If you do like what Roon does, the optimum experience is running the Core on Rock on a dedicated device, that is connected via a Roon end point (i.e. not directly from your Core device). Of course, it may well also be fine on other devices, but it won't be optimum. Also, your Core needs to be on a suitably powerful device if you want to get involved in its DSP capabilities.

 

[DomT]

Frankly, you need much more than a trial month to even begin to get a grip on Roon capability. Music discovery is just one very good aspect of that. Roon has been running an e-mail Roon Mastery campaign, in 100 bite sized chunks as it were. That might also be on their site?

Music discovery is an absolute delight, to be frank

A very big plus for Roon is the multi platform capability. Thus, if you do change kit for whatever reason, so long as it;s Roon Ready then there's no need to worry about the usability/features of a new app. It'll be exactly the same experience with your new kit.

If you do like what Roon does, the optimum experience is running the Core on Rock on a dedicated device, that is connected via a Roon end point (i.e. not directly from your Core device). Of course, it may well also be fine on other devices, but it won't be optimum. Also, your Core needs to be on a suitably powerful device if you want to get involved in its DSP capabilities.

Thanks for that. Am not interested in DSP having heard massively upscaled and optimised files at Fourlegs home and having heard the music I like at Snoopdog's home DSP and a really expensive system its not worth it for the music that I listen to. I will also stay on the Innuos platform. Apparently Innuos will work fine with Room so long as I am not doing DSP.

It's only the music discovery that intrigues me.

 

[simon g]

Well that worked, not. Did not have a problem with the moon app, but I, and my wife had a problem with the amp part. It had been on demo yesterday, and was playing when we arrived. Had a listen to it playing cd from the Saturn, then streaming. Took it out of the system and put a elicit-r in. Long story short, I will shortly have a Rega Saturn and a trilogy vti for sale, to be replaced by a saturn-r and elicit-r. It made the moon amp sound like it had gone to sleep. Sorry Serge, amps sound very different.

Thanks for that. Am not interested in DSP having heard massively upscaled and optimised files at Fourlegs home and having heard the music I like at Snoopdog's home DSP and a really expensive system its not worth it for the music that I listen to. I will also stay on the Innuos platform. Apparently Innuos will work fine with Room so long as I am not doing DSP.

It's only the music discovery that intrigues me.

I don't use DSP or other shenanigans either, preferring 'native, as it were. Roon is fine on Innuos (been thrre, done that!). Roon is very good at showing all versions of a particular album, often at different res. Often difficult to compare if different masters. Hiwever, where I have a ripped original I can then compare against a known reference. I have Tidal and Qobuz, so there can be up to 8 or so different versions. Music discovery is also optimised having the two services, but I admit it;s a bit of an indulgence. On tbe sq front, Qobuz is well ahead, ime.

On the discover front, I do like the many links in the write up provided with most albums and seeing what Roon has to suggest on a similar front.

It's interesting to set up a playlist of some of your favourites and turn Roon Radio on and see what comes up. Of course, you then hear something you like, click on the various links and off you go! As you build your library, Roon learns more about you and the recommendations become more apposite, yet not so tight as to limit discovery.

The search and filter capability is awesome, so once you start expanding your library it doesn't become overwhelming.

 

[hearhere]

Frankly, you need much more than a trial month to even begin to get a grip on Roon capability

That leads to one of the points I have AGAINST Roon! I can pass my iPad runnoing BluOS to any visitor and invite them to choose music. It is far more intuitive than Roon.

Also, your Core needs to be on a suitably powerful device if you want to get involved in its DSP capabilities.

This suggests that the signal is influenced by Roon. Again this is something to avoid, as everywhere the signal goes, it is likely to be adversely afftected. I'd rather an app that just tells the streamer to get the chosen music from the chosen source - Qobuz, NAS, etc. I do not want Roon or Bl;uOS (or any other app) to actually handle the signal, let along Digitally Process the Signal.

 

[StingRay]

This feature is on Deezer and it worked very well but unfortunately on BluOs this does not work. I don't know how Deezer is implemented on Innuos yet. I use Allmusic to discover similar artists and music.

Roon you need a computer.

 

[simon g]

That leads to one of the points I have AGAINST Roon! I can pass my iPad runnoing BluOS to any visitor and invite them to choose music. It is far more intuitive than Roon.

This suggests that the signal is influenced by Roon. Again this is something to avoid, as everywhere the signal goes, it is likely to be adversely afftected. I'd rather an app that just tells the streamer to get the chosen music from the chosen source - Qobuz, NAS, etc. I do not want Roon or Bl;uOS (or any other app) to actually handle the signal, let along Digitally Process the Signal.

If you're happy with Bluos then that's fine. I used that for many years, right from the very beginning.

Your second point is erroneous, but I can't be bothered to go through why in detail. In brief, you can choose whether to use DSP or not. You can also see the signal chain, quite simply, if you want.

As ever, this is thread drift. Any thread mentioning Roon is quickly full of those who just want to say how they don't like it, won't use it, etc, having never properly tried it or made any real attempt to understand how it works. In this case, why are you responding to a question on the effective discovery of music in Roon? You clearly have nothing to contribute on that, so why not just pass this thread by?

Those that would like my input on the features, strengths and weaknesses of Roon are welcome to pm me. I shall not post further on the subject.

 

[DomT]

I don't use DSP or other shenanigans either, preferring 'native, as it were. Roon is fine on Innuos (been thrre, done that!). Roon is very good at showing all versions of a particular album, often at different res. Often difficult to compare if different masters. Hiwever, where I have a ripped original I can then compare against a known reference. I have Tidal and Qobuz, so there can be up to 8 or so different versions. Music discovery is also optimised having the two services, but I admit it;s a bit of an indulgence. On tbe sq front, Qobuz is well ahead, ime.

On the discover front, I do like the many links in the write up provided with most albums and seeing what Roon has to suggest on a similar front.

It's interesting to set up a playlist of some of your favourites and turn Roon Radio on and see what comes up. Of course, you then hear something you like, click on the various links and off you go! As you build your library, Roon learns more about you and the recommendations become more apposite, yet not so tight as to limit discovery.

The search and filter capability is awesome, so once you start expanding your library it doesn't become overwhelming.

Simon you hit the nail on the head it’s really just discovery that will be interesting to me. Am looking to speed up searching for interesting music. Will do an a/b sound test against the Innuos but expecting QuBoz through a Innuos to sound better based on those whom I trust here but will keep an open mind.