Content
@
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Thumbs Up
@thumbsup.eth
Thinking about transitioning from Apple Music (paid streaming + many of my own on device albums), to Roon. Would just combine torrented and purchased albums into a library I could access anywhere. Is anyone currently using Roon? (I think I saw @matthewb is). Would you recommend it? And are you running the Nucleus or an alternative server solution? Do you self host or use some sort of cloud-based server hosting solution?
3 replies
0 recast
5 reactions
matthewb
@matthewb
Roon seems like overkill for what you’re currently describing. Apple Music already gives you a humongous library on all your devices, accessible from anywhere, and supports local file playback afaik. not too expensive monthly. Roon is designed for local network playback, so typically you’d have one or multiple playback systems (e.g. speakers) and control playback from a phone or tablet on the same LAN. it is possible to use Roon for remote playback but only through the Roon Remote app (not desktop) and of course you’d need to ensure server uptime or it won’t work. the target audience for Roon is mostly audiophiles who want lossless streaming or local file playback as well as granular control over each element of the chain + filters (DSP, low/high pass, etc). none of this is particularly relevant unless you have a good quality system for playback and want an easy, refined interface to juggle multiple streaming sources (Tidal, Qobuz) or local files in a lossless chain.
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
matthewb
@matthewb
w/r/t the Nucleus, they’re pretty expensive for what they are which is essentially a NUC running their Linux distro called ROCK. you could build your own fairly easily if you don’t care about sound quality. I have an older Nucleus (not the Pro) which came before their current basic offering ($600 USD?) as well as the Titan ($4000 USD?). it’s fine and works well as a turnkey solution, but I have been finding it slow lately which makes the app experience sub-par. I’ll likely be moving to a dedicated streamer/player, but mostly for sound quality reasons. smoother app experience is a welcome bonus, though. I like the app overall though, it’s definitely a thoughtfully designed experience. I’d say the recommendations algo is a few notches below e.g. Spotify but sometimes it does well. my recommendation would be to try running a Roon instance on e.g. your laptop and seeing what you think before investing in hardware + $830 lifetime or $150-$180 yearly subscription.
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
Thumbs Up
@thumbsup.eth
Thanks a ton! This is really helpful. Yeah Apple does allow playing local files (as it is essentially the native iPhone music player app). I have several albums I’ve bought on bandcamp and one or two I torrented added to my library and as Subvert will soon launch their platform, I’ll probably be buying a lot more music. I do use flac/aac but listen mostly on beats studio headphones or stereo HomePod minis, neither of which is a hifi setup (despite sounding nice to my ears). I listen to whole albums and love to learn about them and find albums produced by the same engineers at or featuring the same musicians. And so the interface seemed nice. But I take your point. I should test this out before making any plans to upend my entire situation. I did read that roon remote allows for downloading music to device for offline play so I’m not sure if the server going down would even matter since that’s probably what I’d do most of the time. Then cost would be the most prohibitive part.
0 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
