Head to squarespace.com/cheapaudioman to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code CHEAPAUDIOMAN 100,000 Free Gear Giveaway ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZBZlUB79VrA.html Tidal Deal bit.ly/3siuqSF Crutchfield shop-links.co/cguPK8XEGmt Best Buy Deals shop-links.co/cf9yDZeYtUH amzn.to/3GkNaop CAM Store (New Products!) bit.ly/30Lgu4K apos.audio?sca_ref=552340.TY98BPcZ6P massdrop.7eer.net/qnOye5 Amazon Unlimited Music and Disney Plus Free Trial amzn.to/3DRAVj9 www.patreon.com/cheapaudioman
Great interview and as always, appreciate your channel and perspective. I love Roon (+ Tidal + my ripped/purchased digital content) and it fills my house with music (or just my headphones). I also appreciate it as a DIY platform - you can build your own core device easily if that is your thing or build Raspberry Pi based endpoints etc... It is under continuous development with features and fixes coming out and you have great options for backing up your efforts (anything you change/create/collect). It is is both a nerd's playground (me) and a sticky (helps you remember your rando choices) casual listening platform (my wife) and a way to explore (my musical / modern kids). Profiles rock in a diverse household. Tagging is something I just started using and it is really a game changer for me - glad that was highlighted here as well. Nice segment cheapaudioman.
This ROON actually seems pretty cool. This video came out at just the right time for me..as I've just now been wanting to try it out. I see now why so many people like it. Thanks Enno and Randy, I don't have to go searching another RU-vid channel looking for the down low on this ROON. Love this channel 👍✌️
I'm using Roon+Tidal and I'm loving it, what it does is really extraordinary but I only recommend it to those who already have a large music collection. It's just that paying for these two services monthly is very expensive.
I started using Roon after watching your previous stream with Enno and it's probably the best thing I have done in years. The music discovery system is fantastic, it opens up the world of music in a similar way that the old record shops used to do. I can't live without it.
Enno did a really nice job with his detailed walk through of the many facets of what Roon can offer to a lover of music! A couple of months back I decided to go all in with Roon by purchasing a Intel NUC and building it out and installing Roon's ROCK operating system to run a dedicated CORE server. It is working great and I've been enjoying the streaming of both Hi-Rez and CD content from Qobuz and Tidal to my several year(s) old OPPO UDP-205 player/streamer/DAC which is also happens to be a ROON ready device. There is a lot of breadth to Roon's software and I thought that the TAG feature that Enno mentioned was a cool nugget that I wasn't really aware of previously. I'll look forward to whatever improvements they bring forward when they decide to release version 2.0.
This is so far the best Roon info vlog that I have seen. Made it harder for me to decide which one to get Audirvana or Roon. Sound quality and price is ad will be a matter preference and I will give Audirvana a big plus here but dang I can’t let go of how easy to manage and enjoy my digital music library. Especially songs or files that I couldn’t remember because of the sheer size of my music Library (not that I own all of it since Qobuz and Tidal is to be blamed for much of it). Roon should support you more and thank you a lot Randy. You are not a cheap audio man anymore since you make us poorer with all these great stuff. Keep up the great work!!
The Roon trial is a dangerous proposition. Once you experience it, you won't want to go back to Foobar or Tidal/Qobuz's UI. There is so much information in it, music discovery is on another level, and the interface is gorgeous... My one wish would be that it supported more steaming services. I was hoping when Spotify went lossless that there would be a partnership... Or maybe Amazon Music?
The streaming computer I just purchased is Roon Ready so I will be exploring this as soon as the rest of my gear arrives. Just got an email that my Schiit has Schipped, so I’ll be up and running by mid next week.
The Room experience is so polished. Love how easy it is for guests to be able to control Roon while they are visiting. They only need WiFi, the Roon app, and there is no account login nonsense. While I have a laundry list of features I would love to have, if those features made the application more clunky, it would be for the worst.
Thank you Randy for bring this video to us viewers I think this clears up some of the mysticism about what Roon actually does. Although I primarily listen to music in the analogue realm, I do see using Roon as a way to tie together my steaming services and help expand my exposure to other music and artists. Super fantastic video. 👍🏾
I understand the roon concept but I cannot justify $12 a month to play my own music. It would be great if roon could produce a "lite" version - just the player without all the metadata. I would be happy to purchase this instead of a monthly subscription.
My thoughts exactly, monthly fee to play my own music? Music in FLAC that I already know everything about the artists and don't need metadata. Just a nice interface to sort things out and play them. The app that comes with my Cambridge Azure 851N does that but could be just a little nicer.
@@mr.b4444 I found musicbee album interface great, and free, as long as you can handle the time spent to organize some albums that might not load well or in order
I bought lifetime Roon over a year ago, and have an Intel NUC running Rock. Works really well, and I sub to Qobuz with it as well. I only wish Roon could incorporate more streaming services like You Tube Music or Amazon Music.
This was so perfectly timed for me. I've been cross shopping A-S*01 and Powernode (or maybe something Cambridge?), and I was wincing about spending the weekend researching "this Roon thing." I wanted to make sure I was doing a fair comparison of each product's potential.
I did the trial of Roon about 6 months ago and I really liked the UI experience and all of the features. I ended up going with Audirvana instead, since I didn't need the multiple device / multi-zone features and Audrivana just sounded better for my purpose of just streaming Qobuz with a decent player. I think Roon is absolutely worth the subscription fee if you like / need the features it provides.
I've been using Roon for years now. The one trick I found, you can use any listed sound profile with any Dac, just find the profile the sounds best with your Dac. For example I use a Modi 3+ with the Roon dCS Vivaldi Dac sound profile. That sounds best with my system. You don't have use the sound profile that's listed for your Dac in Device setup.
@@rap-soldier2185 In Device setup, in advance settings If your streaming from your computer. Set clock master priority to 7, seams the best for detail. Enable event mode To: yes Force max volume To: yes if available Work around devices To: NO! important Buffer size to default seams best for accuracy
Great demo and smart idea of Room to come on your show. As a newbie to hifi, I keep hearing Roon. Roon core, end-points, etc. I thought it was more of a tech/geek utility for ripping your music and managing your library and syncing playback to multiple devices from your PC. Now I see the light of what this really offers. Way more than syncing your devices or library. I'm a sucker for great UI design. I'm suffering a bit with Tidal, after using Spotify for so long. Unfortunately it seems like Spotify didn't want to play with roon. That's too bad, but I suppose they too see the value in their UI, and want to position themselves as such. I suppose their lossless is just loss, so I switched to Tidal using CAMs signup link some months ago. But the UI and exploratory functions in tidal pale compared to Spotify. Maybe roon will be my next upgrade as tidal makes it so difficult to explore new music
@@spamcan9208 I don't know anything about all that stuff. I've been streaming from my phone/T.V. to my video processor forever now...Spotify, Amazon Platinum, RU-vid Music,Sirius. I miss out on some of the higher quality, im in the market for a music streamer/streaming service right now.
You can get most of the features of Roon using a mid-price mainstream service and having a browser running so you can quickly search an artist, album, track.
I'm using ROON in my car... Absolutely sounds better and have fallen in love with the experience and how it works. I found myself playing the same old playlist or two. Now with ROON AI it's amazing
@@nigelpotter1576 2 ways. A NUC can run on 12v.. use that as a core. I custom built a small PC that is meant to run on 12v and I put ROON rock on it. Tablet provides Internet and network. I use ROON for Android to access the the core.
@@rap-soldier2185 I have some here... This was more on the arylic mini as an end point... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VHqyZMR9iUA.html
Bought the Roon lifetime subscription in 2017. Love it and the Roon radio is a nice feature. The tag option is very helpful. Running Roon core on a M1 Mac Mini with the assistance of the $20 Screens iPad app.
Nice video. I'm very interested in Roon. The software has value, and the curation has value. I would prefer if they were unlinked as I think users should have the option of scaling back and not paying for the curation or ongoing service but have an operating music server running on their own hardware with no ongoing expense. A question I have is Roon's plans, if any, for Apple music. I am finding Apple music to have real value with their spatial audio files. I have two listening systems, a quality surround sound for movies and spatial audio, and a good quality 2-channle system using Schitt's DAC.
I'm not sure I understand this ... I used to buy CDs, and I ripped them to mp3, but I stopped doing that a long time ago. Does that mean that unless I own the music, I can't play it? I currently use RU-vid Music so I can stream any music I want that is available on RU-vid music. Does roon connect to my RU-vid music account? Do I need a Tidal subscription instead? Could someone answer this for me? I am confused. I need to know if I need to BUY the albums I want to listen to, or if I can use a streaming service which is what I currently do with RU-vid music. Thanks!
Music is cheaper than ever, and artists make less than ever roon could help by putting a purchase button or a patrion button for us to help support artists.
Ron, This is great, what about a session on how to use the DSP features and differentiate between what is available with the two different Nucleus cores.
Roon is cool, and yes audiofile stuff are expensive but I just can't justify 13$/month for it. Damn my Tidal HiFi Plus subscription is 10€ making Roon more expensive than Tidal. If it was 4.99€/month ( and not that yearly b.s. ) I would be in, but this is in my opinion extortion just cuz it's for audiophiles. They should look at Plex for business model and pricing.
Everything is quite easy. There is no competitors for roon (maby audirvana) and to be honest this program is good = expensive (600eu lifetime now I believe)
@@nosurname9652 well there are some alternatives but they are not as good ( just like Emby vs Plex ) But it seems arrogance at Roon is high, so they use "made for audiophiles" to justify the price. Room is good, but is it 13$/month good? For some yes, for others no...I just can't justify that price and there are also people who just can't afford it. I'm sure if they went with a more reasonable price of 4.99$/month that they would have a lot more subscribers and probably more earnings.
@@TVSanFierro Completely agree that their monthly cost is overpriced and making them loosing money. Probably their managers somehow proved this price choice as standard - money big enough to be payed by everyone bla-bla... the thing they missed is that ppl nowdays use quite many subscription services and paying for several of them these "easy to pay" stacks into quite visible amount, so many of us started to avoid these "easy to pay" subscriptions. Probably would buy this program for the old price of 400, but now even being able to pay this subscription without any problem, I'm looking at this price critically and find it unnecessary. Most of services already understood it and act accordingly (mostly playing with discounts for newcomers and hiding information about discount end-time. Tidal with it's last 30% discount for newcomers is a classical example - needed almost break into half to find that this discount works only 1 year on THEIR OWN official site... ) They trying like crazy trying to keep this level of monthly cost as long as possible. Everyone understands that 1st step will raise a wave of discounts as it should happen in modern market full of competitors. Fact is that the one of giants (deezer, qobuz, tidal, spoty) who will give more and cut their price will get a big part of this market. Apple actually already understood it and started to act what is clearly seen in their subscription politic for apple music loseless. Big companies mentioned above probably already understood how's much money they lost due to apple and probably will decrease price a little, because making new "super mega hyper" format like mqa wont work anymore.
@@nosurname9652 lifetime is not a solution even at 400$. The company can go bankrupt tomorrow, server will shutdown and my money goes to the air. Fortunately my NAD C700 comes with Bluesound BluOS that's probably the next best thing after Roon.
@@TVSanFierro yup, also using bluos (have powernode n330) and find it really good and comfortable to use. Hope they will add kind of always accessible ribbon with main functions to avoid pressing "back" 33 times when I need to change some options while choosing a track somewhere deep in local folders. This would make it top 1 in my personal list of preinstalled OSs 😁
I gave it 3 months and honestly didn't find it to be that good. It was slow close to iTunes kinda slow. It doesn't support Deezer Hi-Fi or Spotify or Amazon HD Music. Tidal is an unacceptable option. It might be better on a dedicated machine like an Ipad or mini computer that is just for music.
So Roon is just an organization and metadata software service and not a streaming service, meaning you need a subscription to a streaming service plus hardware plus the option of Roon? When people respond on Fb to streaming they never specify, just plonk a generality.
Roon is really a local music server/client/remote system that can incorporate your streaming service with your local files. and that's just a basic starting point.
It seems like an interesting concept, but I personally don't want all the info just the music, I don't have the time to get the best form it . However I can see it been a great system to use for the right people . Great to see how tech moves so fast .
Cheapaudioman, I need a dac. I'm sure there are price points, where to do better one will need to spend a lot more money to do better than at $X. From your point of view, at what $ point will I need to spend a lot more to do better while still having a great dac? Maybe the question should be, what's the price point dac before stepping up to the Ares II? Thanks
I have the Ares2 and honestly I can barely tell the difference between it and and the onboard DAC on my Bluesound NODE when I a/b them. Im 47 and my annual hearing test says I have great hearing, but I feel like the difference is like 5% in quality. Granted I'm right in the middle of Mid-Fi, I'm running NODE>Ares2>Emotiva Ta100>Elac UBR 62/Focal Clears.
Yup, it never was cheap (was 400 and now I believe it's 600eu) but from opposite side is lifesaver for one who have big music library and to lazy to work with tagging metadata album covers etc. Plus many other features. As usually, you have option: spend money or time on your hobby.
@@nosurname9652 Lol they raised the price actually ? I See 700 USD for lifetime. Anyways... I'd rather go with Tidal + foobar ;) I'm just worried that cheapaudioman is promoting something that is THAT expensive. 700 USD for music player.
@@10Filip main idea of roon is making your music library looking good and easy to use (metadata, tagging, cloud services with information helping to find music you like etc.) plus integrate it with tidal and/or qobuz + DSP presets + multiroom etc. etc. etc. It's not the music player, but well made combine type program. It's really good I'd say, but must admit lifetime licence is really expensive. And ofc, should keep in mind that roon core must be active on good PC all the time to use all features, meanwhile audio devices should be roon-ready (should have an electronic board able to communicate with roon-core using their protocol). Most of DACs with usb input should still work good (more or less), since running same Linux based system.
Roon really sucks. The only benefit ROON has is if you use tidal because tidal is the worst UI interface known to anything. If the price was cheaper maybe just maybe it could be used but the price is just as much as a music service for a front end. I think Roon is taking advantage of audiophiles
I'd pay the money to invest in a better UI. Tidal has the lossless I want, but I still use Spotify to explore new music, as that functionality seems difficult in tidal by comparison. For that reason, I could justify the investment in a company that is continuing to develop their database and UI. (Like Roon)
@@cheapaudioman right. DSP. I don't even think you gents had time to mention that, but I've picked up in forums that Roon users are applying all sorts of PEQ and DSP in general, and I think it's all done in the digital domain. The more I learn about it, the more you could justify the subscription model. They are clearly expanding this product and it's got solid benefits going for it, even if you only used it to consolidate your UI needs to a single platform that works .. better.
Is nothing sacred these days??? You make a comment on a channel that you subscribe to and you get a scammer reply to you pretending to be Randy with offer of prize gifts. I despair at the world we are living in.
Interesting, why my comment was deleted twice... Nothing rude was there... just couple facts which could be useful for possible roon new users.... strange.
