TrainFan73
Frothy
Kind of with you here, except I been using Apple recently to fill in gaps left by people hating Spotify. My wife loves Spotify which is the only reason I left Tidal anyhow.
The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.
- Thread starter Ed Selley
- Start date
No. Roon is library management. It allows you to put streams from tidal/Qobuz in a library together with your own files, to customise the metadata for each and to manage and play them using a slick and intuitive interface.
It’s utterly perfect for what it is but it is overkill for a big chunk of people, it certainly was for me. I loved using it but I don’t use files or steaming enough at home on the hifi to justify the cost.
As an app and as a selection of songs I really like Apple Music and I love it in my car. I hate it in the house though. AirPlay is hurt.
TrainFan73
Frothy
Yeah, I'm a bit away from even thinking about that. So you would need a streamer service as well. Gotcha.
TrainFan73
Frothy
yeah, I don't know what I am gonna do when i get the card input. We'll see when we get there. I would like to drop a service, but I'm not gonna be able to convince the wife to go to Apple, I don't think. She could give two fucks about sound quality. She is concerned about her podcasts and ease of use (complacency with current entrenchment)
jamieanderson1968
Well-Known Member
Pretty much nailed it. I love Roon even though I only use Apple Music to stream, but might switch to Qobuz when they launch in Canada. But I also like futzing with metadata so Roon lets me do that for hours and hours
I’d probably go tidal. BluOS supports tidal connect so you can stream hi res natively on the card using the tidal app on your phone/tablet/computer.
MikeH
Well-Known Member
Roon is fantastic for combining streaming services + local downloads into one seamless music app. Doesn't work with Spotify or Apple because they don't let you tweak the meta tags.
It's pretty perfect for me because it fits all the things I wanted in a music app:
*I have a TON of downloaded music in all sorts of file formats (WAV, AIFF, MP3, etc.) and I also have a Qobuz subscription for high-res audio. They all show up in one app/library and it automatically selects the best quality if I have it downloaded + favorited on streaming. You can also manually set a preference to which file you want to play. Sometimes I have a specific CD mastering I like that's lower quality than Qobuz but sounds better to me...
*Lets me do multi-room audio. We have lots of random speakers around our house in different rooms. I can use the Roon app to play music in my living room on my streamer, or in my office on my turntable/amp/DAC setup, or in our breakfast room on Sonos. All controlled from one app that has my downloads + Qobuz.
*The software UI is just fantastic. I used to have to use the Lightning OS that came with my Aries Mini and it made me not want to stream music. It was annoying to select albums or choose between Qobuz/downloads.
There's lots of other features too that are great. I found myself using the app every single day (I work from home now) so it was worth just going in on the lifetime sub when I did.
As @Joe Mac said, it's probably overkill for most people. But if you have a ton of downloads and stream music a lot on Qobuz or Tidal, then it might be worth looking into. I ended up building a little NUC to house all my downloaded music on and installed the Roon server on it so can even listen to the music on my server on the go at home.
Same as. I really enjoyed the experience of it and having my library set up to my particular listing peculiarities. The problem was I didn’t use it enough. At home I generally grab a record of CD unless it’s a new release that hasn’t landed yet. I don’t really need roon just for that!
TrainFan73
Frothy
Yeah she was like fuck Tidal when I introduced her to that.
Bluos should work with Spotify as well. Probably where I’m stuck.
Yes I think I pioneered the NUC building on here. It’s sat on top of the bookcase turned off these days. Looking back I’ve spent a lot of money on digital files/streaming and trying to get it just right for me when increasingly the answer seems to be, “just connect your iPad to your DAC via USB the odd time you stream you dummy!”
Yeah it does Spotify connect too plus if they get the hifi tier you’ll likely get at least CD quality for most anyway.
jamieanderson1968
Well-Known Member
Can I get that on an N&G t-shirt?
TrainFan73
Frothy
I’ve come to the realization that I use streaming for a different purpose. Playlists are great for when people are over or I am doing something and being able to play it over the hifi is great. I love my little echo plus speaker but it was total convenience not sound. Now I get both.
Records are for me time.
CDs can currently only be played in the car.
I’ve come to the realization that I use streaming for a different purpose. Playlists are great for when people are over or I am doing something and being able to play it over the hifi is great. I love my little echo plus speaker but it was total convenience not sound. Now I get both.
Records are for me time.
CDs can currently only be played in the car.
Yeah I kind of use CDs and records interchangeably. They mostly contain different music and are what I listen to when I’m sat on my sofa at home. I’d only really stick on the streaming to sample something, for a new release or if my cousin has released some new tunes.
I don’t really have a party place. Too small and too far away from family. So when people are over it’s usually smaller numbers and part of the attraction for them, if we do put music on, is to see the record spinning, to see the tube amp lit and to listen to the fancy system.
I actually can’t play CDs in the car lol! But man is CarPlay great. Just so easy to tell Siri to put on an album and there it is! Also do the odd playlist and download it to the phone for longer trips because outside of towns and cities reception can be patchy.
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MikeH
Well-Known Member
yea--you told me what to buy haha.
try as I might, I can't get into CDs except for the odd time in the car (my car has a 5CD changer for some reason). i typically stream at home when I'm working during the day if I have to concentrate on something. If I have some downtime between work stuff, I'll throw a record on.I’ve come to the realization that I use streaming for a different purpose. Playlists are great for when people are over or I am doing something and being able to play it over the hifi is great. I love my little echo plus speaker but it was total convenience not sound. Now I get both.
Records are for me time.
CDs can currently only be played in the car.
If I didn't have lots of downloaded files, Roon would be overkill I think, especially for the price. I just couldn't find something else i liked enough that did all those things I wanted out of a music app. I know Plex might also be an option and others here have used that
Yeah work from home could have been a game changer for me with it too. But when I did it over Covid I was using my dining table as a temporary office so I was in my living area and so just stuck records on and now that it’s back to normal they’ve nuked all meaningful work from home.
I do miss having a soundtrack to my working life. Spun so much then, particularly early 2020.
CDs were my first collection so I have so much that hasn’t come out on vinyl or that isn’t worth buying on vinyl but I still enjoy. Plus it’s already there, it’s not like I’m buying it. It might just be better equipment but a CD sounds better than a 16/44 stream to my ears plus I still get the whole physicality and interaction.
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SnowmaNick
Well-Known Member
Roon works with Tidal and/or Qobuz, as well as any locally stored music. Aggregates, sorts, provides info on (metadata, disc info, etc.), and provides recommendations. It sounds simple and overpriced, but when you experience it, and my ability to explore music, not making playlists and/or hunting through the streaming services endless titles, becomes priceless.
Actually on the NUCs. Does anyone know how to change it off ROCK and put a normal OS on there? I’d like to sell mine and they’re easier to shift as a computer!
Is this an Intel NUC? Operating System Installation for Intel® NUC (also, Clean installation window 10 on an Intel Nuc - Windows 10 Help Forums -- personally if I were doing this, I'd do what one of the latter comments here suggests with using rufus to put a win10 or linux ISO on a USB stick and blast it with a clean install)