a remarkably basic question about Roon

Thanks for asking. I haven't joined the fray here simply because I know so comparatively little about streaming technologies and equipment.That said, I've had Roon for about a week and I love it! I admit, though, that I may be like a man who has never seen a flower and is overwhelmed by the discovery of a dandelion. Perhaps there are orchids and birds of paradise up ahead.... 

Like others, I never understood why I should buy something that seems like just a nifty version of what I already own. For a few years now I annually have looked at the Roon website and found it bright and shiny--and not in a good way. So I'm quite surprised by how much I like it. Call me shallow but I love the easy interface that allows me to move easily between internet radio, my stored music files, and Qobuz.  (Yes, I KNOW--I could do all this before I got Roon. But it's so much nicer now!)

I can't yet respond to the big question: how does Roon affect sound quality, if at all. There are too many variables in play for me at the moment (in my system but also in my life). That's up ahead. 

I have a few quibbles, naturally, though I may just not yet understand all the features. While they talk the "audiophile" game, I wouldn't bet a nickel on their customer support. It looks to me like they put a lot of their energy into marketing some kind of bougie lifestyle. Blah. Still, I will report that I've already been emailing with Andrew at Small Green Computer, researching $$$ ethernet cables, pondering "bridges," and the like. Better and best, I've been listening to music. This may be the honeymoon period but I am enjoying it. (Ask me again in three months....)

Oh, and yes, plenty of queries, coming soon.

I got multiple mentions in this thread! I've never felt so loved!

My take on Roon is that they've developed some features and functions, and combinations thereof, that are unique and it's the best multi-zone music library software available.

That said, it is also very buggy and flakey, and the Roon development team has some very odd takes on what the software should represent.  Roon was developed on a multi-platform video game development kit and it has its limitations.  This allows Roon to work on many more platforms without dedicated programming for each one, but it also limits what can be done where other software is much more capable.

So, enjoy Roon, and try not to get frustrated when you get in deep and something just doesn't go right, but understand you're not alone.  

Roon is a love/frustrate sort of thing...

And I think that’s the key point here. Some talk about Roon as though it is incredible and god’s gift to music. It’s not. It’s software.
 

Like all software it comes with bugs and like all software the content, process and UI are very personal  things. Some can live with the issues and some cannot. Evangelising helps no-one make an informed decision.

Well done to Roon for spotting the gap in the market but perhaps less well done for not recognising the inevitable shrinking of that gap as manufacturers step into it and for electing to take the traditional route of largely ignoring customer feedback,

Despite protestations to the contrary a user base of 100,000 world wide is very small and shrinking, Assertions to the contrary confuse Roon certification and Ready status with actual users. The numbers of the latter likely do outstrip the number of users and to not very bright people they probably suggest the user base is massive. The reality is no more complex than that of devices which come with Bluetooth. Some manufacturers include it because they think it’s a valuable tool. Others include it because not including it would exclude them from the market space in which they expect to compete. My example would once again include Innuos. Every device they sell works smoothly with Roon. Few Innuos Sense/2.x users will actually be using thar functionality at this point simply because the latter sounds way better. 1,000 sales of a product which Is Roon certified does not equal 1,000 Roon users any more than it indicates 1,000 Bluetooth or Spotify `connect users.

I have no reason to use Roon now. The UI is not especially accessible and the sound quality can’t compete with Sense. However, even if it did I don’t find it’s use of data from AllMusic especially helpful, enlightening or even competent. In the same way Amazon continues to recommend albums to me that I already own, having bought them from… Amazon… the recommendation engine of Roon is basic at best. “Give me less well known and largely mediocre facsimiles of what I already own or have listened to.” For me that’s useless functionality. For others it regains something outstanding. If you enjoy music that you get out of that then brilliant. Each to their own. However, far better to walk into that knowing the reality of it than believing it to be some previously unheralded work of programming genius.

I absolutely stand by my previous assertion re: lifetime membership. There is no software on the planet which will last your lifetime. As several bids to buy Roon have recently been rebuffed and both would have used it to serve only their own product base then it’s a matter of time really. Nevertheless if it represents value to you and you have a lump sum available then go for it.