My Preliminary Experience With Roon and why I went all in!

I know Roon was discussed elsewhere. In the past I have listed 4 products to me which, IMHO, in my experience since 1987 have been real groundbreaking products. I now, after a week of "experimenting" with what was not such great experience initially am happy to report this becomes number 5.

My initial caveats out of the way first. My experimenting was and continues to be with a MacbookPro 13" 2.6 GHz dual core i5 with 8 gigs of memory or should I say my wife's and now our only laptop with my CHORD HUGO + LCD-X cans. I have not experimented yet with my MSB Diamond Plus on my main system.

Roon runs as a "server=core" as your licensed computer. All private nodes can be streamed to off the server. Right now to remote into the system and control playback your only option is a notebook or Surface type device but this will change when they support Android and iOS tablets.

As I write this, the product is still a work in progress and will shortly have tablet support, DSD compatibility (which it currently doesn't), integer support on Mac and they are talking to and working with some other people whose player engines and/or DSP could be integrated. They also now understand the need for ASIO and Direct DSD support and will soon be adding that (soon as in they understand and am working on it).

I have been pretty taken by the HUGO and LCD-X as a portable system and when just lounging around tethered to my laptop. My preference on the Mac has been either JRiver or Audirvana 2.1. I thought it was amazing. I installed Roon in "core" mode on the laptop to experiment and while I loved the interface thought the SQ suffered. Others were reporting similar findings.

Last night I installed the server portion of Roon on a high powered desktop on my network and used a client Roon (private node) on my laptop tethered to my HUGO just for playback. What a difference. By far the best SQ I have heard on this system (can't comment on the big system as yet) and the interface is truly a joy to work with. Yes there are issues that need to be worked on and these guys are hard at work doing just that. BUT if you are like me who have tons in their digital library this is by far the best interface I have ever used with the potential to provide the best SQ given their setup. I am rediscovering albums I forgot I have.

I recommend this product highly even in its infant state. Don't judge it too harshly until you set the core server separate from your playback node. It really is very simple but extremely powerful.

bplexico said:

Howie - I always find you a step ahead of me. In this case if nothing else I feel I am one day ahead of you.

I also know you are a tough one to please, so this is indeed high praise, which I concur with. Also I do appreciate that you have an open mind, an all too rare quality these days in which people judge and condemn without even trying that which they condemn. Much less trying, and continuing to keep an open mind.

I would be interested in the other four groundbreaking products, if you feel this off topic you can always PM me.

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Well, I have often given my first impressions only to be proved wrong with time. I have had this occur many times in my audio experience and hence, why I always give things a legitimate try, not just put one selected "audiophile track on" make my mind up and move on. Like you, I think, Roon has the ability to be a real game changer in the digital distribution world of home entertainment.

My 4 prior game changers, for me and for me only were and there are some that are ties:
1. Original ProAc Tablettes/Magnepans (forget which model back in 86)
2. MSB Analog/CHORD HUGO and while I own the MSB Diamond Plus, soon to be upgraded to either the V or if I am crazy Select, the Analog and Hugo to me represent the best there is per $ in the digital playback domain.
3. ARC GS150. I have owned a ton of ARC gear and can say, IMHO, this is the BEST piece of ARC gear I have ever owned.
4. Nola Concert Grand Gold Reference. These speakers need to be heard properly to be believed. I have never heard or owned a speaker that so defines the meaning of "high end" as these. Unfortunately, they are a boutique speaker, often stuffed into small rooms at shows,haven't garnered the interest like Wilson or Magicos (I have owned both by the way) and while crazy expensive are amazing. Now to be fair, I would feel equally comfortable placing Arnie Nudell's IRS in this last category, but I have never owned them.

Now there are host of other products that have blown me away in the past that I would have no problem listing, such as Spectral, Celestion SL600, the original blue coated Siltech (which I was a distributor for when first introduced in the USA and the first cable to breach the 10K mark), Quicksilver amps, Koetsu Rosewood, Goldmund Turntable (HP's variant), Original Quads, ARC REF10 preamp and Wilson Watt and Puppies.

Some of my biggest disappointments were the Magico Q1 and the Constellation Centaur which I lived with for a long time trying to get them to work. The Auralic Vega was also a big disappointment to me.

I could go on, but I don't want to fan any flames here.

Lastly, in the headphone arena, since I have ONLY recently got into them my absolute favorites so far are the LCD-X mated to the HUGO. Really an amazing experience.

amirm said:

Thanks for the recommendation. You are motivating me to give it a try .

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It is a work in progress but a fantastic interface. Just make sure you load the "core server" on a powerful network machine.

Elberoth said:

Great to see a competing product to Jriver. Competition is always good.

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I know many don't like the payment model but the experience is well worth it given a 14 day free trial period and their team (particularly Danny) have been great and seem to really want to please the Audiophile community.

isquirrel said:

I totally agree with your Roon findings, I love it, sound quality is great, easily better than Audirvana IMHO and love the library management.

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Another AWESOME aspect of the product is they are continually improving it and every week is a new surprise.

Now with ASIO support I am able to listen on my main system and today am working on getting it installed on my Windows Server 2012 R2 Audiophile Optimizer computer. I am pretty sure of it being able to run in GUI with Server but want to test it on Server 2012 Core Mode.

Yup it is pretty amazing

isquirrel said:

It works with JPlay support now, for the ultimate SQ

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That I know. What Windows are you using?

isquirrel said:

8.1 running on a dedicated server. Using only 700mb ram, 29 processes

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Thanks. I will let you know if I get it to work with Audiophile Optimizer in core mode on Windows Server 2012 R2 which is my goal. I had no issues with Win 10

isquirrel said:

I had some install issues as it looks for the graphics drivers (which were not installed) as it is somewhat graphic intensive

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I got it running in GUI mode. Just had to install the new graphics driver and media package.

When I get home I will attempt Core mode 2012 R2.

You can't use RDC so I am using Splashtop right now which didn't work with Win 10 so for Win 10 I used TeamViewer.

Roon is supposedly working to make the unit RDC capable and that would solve a lot of hassle for those like me who want to run it headless. But Splashtop is working. We will see if it works in Core mode.

MadFloyd said:

I don't understand what the attraction is here. It doesn't have remote tablet support or DSD support. Howie, why do you like it? What does it do that JRiver does not?

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It does have DSD and full ASIO support. It has been available with both for the last two weeks. It's user interface is spectacular and allows you to explore your library like no other interface. Plus it allows multiple devices on the same network. With the addition of ASIO, the differences between JRiver are pretty much non-existent and the ability to search your library is like no other.

Consider this software as a work in progress at this time. Once all the features they are going to introduce are introduced I believe it will be the new standard. Currently it has tablet support for Android and in the next week or two will have support for iOS. I am currently using my son's windows tablet and it is the most enjoyable experience I have had, even better than JRemote. However, I am looking forward for the app to be available on iPad.