ROON?

roon has been discussed on numerous threads, its capabilities, its sound (or lack thereof), its value proposition

search bar above is the friend of anyone caring to read the large numbers of detailed discussions that have been had here 

suffice it to say here that there are plenty of folks who value roon in spite of its cost, so it must be offering something positive

It’s the best of all that’s your music, and then some. It’s catalogues, displays, plays, you can control all of your devices, you can read up on what’s playing the artist and musicians while it’s playing and then some. It’s basically everything about your music right at your fingertips. It’s a beautiful front end for all you local digital music, and streaming music subscriptions like quobuz and tidal, internet radio etc. I thought like you did before I took the plunge. I held off as long as I could, but when I finally took the free trial WOW I was hooked and it’s has only gotten better since. Try it out you may like it as well!

@mattmiller

Roon is a software just like Conductor but much more advanced and also not without its complexities. @duckworp summed it nicely for you but here is the thing, if you find yourself struggling using Roon, then all of its virtues not going to matter.
Also, Roon requires minimum of two devices (hardware) for best sound quality, one device called a server to run its core (brain) and the other a streamer, often termed as renderer. A general purpose PC or MAC can serve as Roon Core and there are limitless options for Roon endpoint (renderer).

In contrast, Conductor app is straightforward and robust. I am a long time Aurender user and also a Roon users for about three years now. I still prefer Conductor app by a mile for its simplicity and sound quality. And as you know, Conductor is equally adept at managing your library. Other may disagree with my assessment on Roon SQ but it really comes down to its implementation and your choice of gear to extract the best SQ from Roon.

If you value simplicity and convenience, then Conductor is the way to go!

Roon was a game changer for me. Prior to it, streaming was laborious, and an “oh, let me try this” option. Now it’s my preferred option, and my cd players are not being used. My cds are digitized on my server, integrated with Qobuz, and I have end points on every system.

duckworp’s post says it best.

Advantages of Roon:

- Roon seamlessly integrates streaming services and your ripped CD files into one database. You create a library of your local ripped files and streaming service albums you add to your library. So even if you have no locally stored music files it is still an absolute must-have for many audiophiles. Here is why:

- you can have multiple zones in your home, playing independently or link them together.

- you can manage your music library (consisting of ripped files and/or music from streaming services which you can add to your library also) with advanced database management tools. So you can tag an album by genre, or your rating, or mood etc. Combine this with Roon’s ‘bookmarking’ options and you have a rich and powerful and personalized music database searchable in so many ways.

- you can use sophisticated DSP options to create a flatter frequency response in your room. This is great for managing bass booms or high end harshness etc should your listening room have any such issues.

- Roon’s written editorial about every album and every artist is brilliant and the way it intuitively links artists and music is fantastic. Each album has every musician/producer etc listed with links to all their other work. You learn so much and it’s a rabbit hole of musical discovery.

- The music it plays after you have listened to your chosen music will introduce you to wonderful new music. The algorithm it uses is better than any streaming services’ algorithms. So you discover fabulous new music.

- Roon Arc is an app/service which allows you to access Roon remotely (in car or away from home) and now offers full dsp options within Arc, so you can tune your audio to the car’s environment.

- The interface on phones and tablets is brilliant.

- It manages the Classical metadata from streaming services and your local library extremely well, unlike most streaming services.

- To any music lover I would say that Roon is so phenomenal you will wonder how you managed without it, it is revolutionary.

- the cost, compared to any high-end gear, is minimal.

I love Roon and would recommend it to anyone. Even if you just stream and have no local library it is still transformative to a music-loving Hi-Fi listener.

Roon is also a music magazine, allowing you to get overviews of musicians, look at album reviews, discography, link to performers in the band and other bands, all the data there while you listen to the album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7qBMeTJWAQ

It also provides a sophisticated digital signal processing which IMO is worth the price of Roon alone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU-wLZDN4CQ

Roon a pricey proposition? What hobby are you in? When amps, speakers, and preamps costing $50,000 to over $500,000, or cables costing $10,000 for a few feet, a Roon lifetime purchase price is less than .10% of the sales tax that you will be paying for the above equipment. I purchased Roon 5 years ago and nothing else comes close

I also have both Qobuz and Tidal and for me Roon takes the music you “liked” from each and curates the two services in to one interface. What I love about it is that’s it’s like every album cover that I use to hold and read when I was a kid while listening to the album came To LIFE w links to the band members and other band if similar to what you’re listening to. So it expands my vision of similar artists. 
send me down a deep rabbit hole of music. And I love it 

I see Roon as a point of integration. I subscribe to both Tidal and Qobuz and log into those services in Roon. I would love to see more streaming services added to Roon. 
 

As others have said, you can create playlists from CDs from multiple services. 
 

Roon also provides multi-zone playback. I stream on two ELAC Discovery speakers in two bedrooms and on my main stereo. 

The new Roon ARC app let’s be stream my saved music when I am away from home.

I think Roon is awesome. I bought a lifetime membership many years ago and haven’t regretted it for a minute. 

Roon is definitely a pricey proposition versus utilizing native Connect methods that Tidal and Spotify use - if you have a compatible streamer. Quboz doesn’t offer a Connect feature that bypasses Bluetooth and allows you to stay in the app, and because of this, I feel like Roon really shines if using this particular streaming service. The big piece for me is that Roon allows you to tag albums and playlists which helps filtering by genre or mood (that you created). Worth it - meh, probably not, but I definitely try to utilize on the daily to justify the lifetime purchase prior to the increase. 
 

OP - if you have both Tidal and Quboz, the one benefit is that you could create playlist that include tracks from both services. Roon would also allow you to merge all of your albums in one place under Roon

O thank you !! jjss49 :-)

Roon and Aurender are competitors. No Roon for you.

correct

so op can spare himself the brain damage lol

 So Roon is software and Hardware?.....Like say Aurender's Conductor app and Aurender's music players. They have Roon software and Roon music servers..okay.

By the end of the year Roon should be available for current Aurender models. They are going through the certification process right now.

Roon and Aurender are competitors.  No Roon for you.