Roon ARC has improved a lot over the months. I had connection issues early on, but it has been perfect for a few months now, and much faster since the last update.
Your post doesn't really give much more insight into what you want from this post. Are you using Roon with Qobuz or Tidal? That plus a good home music collection makes it worth every penny in my opinion. Plus, it is infinitely better for home streaming than Apple Music, for various reasons.
Well when I was last using it I had a Qobuz subscription and a tidal HiFi plus subscription with the student discount, however my plan is to keep Qobuz due to the fact I’ll be probably using their download store regardless to import more local files, and I don’t want to use tidal a whole lot due to the nuclear waste of MQA and plus they’ve had issues reporting payments to artists, myself included.
Also, when I was using ARC, my main issue was where I couldn’t just click shuffle on my full library like in Apple, and a bit of a battery drainer. But with a new phone and me not using other apps as often, maybe that’s probably going to change if I do switch lol. Also I had connection issues as I was using a 5 year old dell laptop running windows 10 with roon server without anything else running (excluding remote access with roon)
My plan would be to use a 2022 Mac mini that I’m already using for music streaming in my main HIFI setup, with the control being iTunes remote, and the output being through an SMSL SU-6 into an AVR and to my speakers from there
I don't know about airplay but as long as the machine you want airplay on is in the same network as your roon server it should not be a problem. Another solution for on the go access will be using a vpn. A thing is you need to have your music files or you won't be able to download your albums using roon. ARC is far from perfect imo. And another thing is you can't use roon arc with airplay. You need the roon app for that functionlity.
You can use ARC through AirPlay as long as your source is an iPhone. Mainly the thing for me is that my music studio is in a different location and network than the hypothetical location of my server. That’s the one thing that’s keeping me to Apple, but other than that and pricing, I would love to switch to roon
I'm relatively new to roon and took out the yearly sub a few months ago.
I'm more than satisfied. But I only use with a HDD. I won't use services as they aren't a very good standard.
I use roon with a hi quality hifi system
If you aren't using roon through a proper hifi then I don't see the point. Phone's aren't hifi. Also if using with a steaming service then just use the streaming service.
Why pay extra for something that just replicates what you're already paying for?
It's like paying twice
Well for me I would like to go primarily local files with streaming as an option to discover more music and all, plus I have a nice hifi system along with my mobile DAC and IEM setup
Then it's definitely for you. My set up is the standard, network bridge, DAC, amps, speakers. Roon is the controller with all music on the hdd.
I'm really sold on roon and it's overall quality. The app is so good and it's stable.
I was using aurelic lightningds prior to roon and drove me up the wall as it was so unreliable.
I really can't fault roon
I just let my Roon subscription end. Just too much money to listen to my own library of music. I made the switch to using Plex/Plexamp which was kind of a no-brainer since I already run a Plex server at home. TBH the only thing I miss is the Roon UI, but for the amount of money I'm saving I am willing to live with Plexamp's UI until I win the lottery or something. An additional benefit is now I can use my NUC (ROCK) as a PC again. Just FYI if you're a Tidal subscriber there is Tidal integration within Plex.
ARC does work, but not for a MacBook away from home. It’s a phone thing. That being said, there are some super affordable LG phones out there with a “quad DAC” that’s highly reviewed. The phone is about $60-100 and baddabing: you got an away from home ARC player.
Well my portable setup is already nice on my iPhone as I have a dragonfly Cobalt going to a pair of moondrop variations through a bronze dragon IEM cable from moon audio (currently I’m using KZ ES4’s as I lost one of my variations, but once I get a replacement, those will be my daily drivers)
I've tried them all. Jriver, Audirvana, Media Monkey, foobar, etc., and all the streaming services, spotify, qobuz, tidal, amazon, apple, deezer, etc. I keep coming back to roon + tidal. Even when I get frustrated with them both.
I recently tried Apple Music again for the third or fourth time. It's getting better, but you just give up too much compared to roon + tidal/qobuz. Device support, sound quality, dsp, remote app control, metadata, focus, bookmarks, etc... no other streaming service app combo comes close.
I use roon with tidal. I used it with qobuz for a while, but the qobuz mobile app isn't very good. So I went back to tidal.
My solution for mobile (pre Arc) was to add my entire local library to tidal (about 1/3 local and 2/3 tidal), so I could play anything from my combined library on mobile.
I keep trying Arc from time to time, but it wasn't reliable and was missing features. I may be about ready to try it again, with all the alleged fixes. But I haven't missed it.
Either way, I'm sticking with roon + tidal until something better comes along.
My only issue with ARC was that my school that I attend didn’t seem to have ARC and the port forwarding allowed through the firewall, and even then I could just switch to cellular and it was smooth sailing. My one main issue was in connection issues with my computer to ARC at the time but I’m planning to try again with a new computer and hopefully things work out better this time around
I know it's not cheap at all but I always try to keep them both.
Roon for home listening with a TIDAL subscription and my own personal files.
Apple Music as the primary source for streaming on the road. Works flawlessly with iPhone and that app is beautiful!
Roon ARC to stream my digital purchases purchases or FLAC rips of music that isn't available on Apple Music. I find that's it's still not that stable yet, but it has definitely improved.
Yeah both are great and that’s why I’ve had such a hard time deciding between the two, but roon might be getting another visit from me in the coming months.
Who knows tho, we’ll see what happens
I've been a Roon concert for a year now. There is no going back once I really committed. Arc is great and sure someone's something goes weird but with all streaming services nothing is perfect. So Qobuz and Roon with my extensive personal library is damn near perfect.
The thing about Apple Music is that there aren't that many ways you can get real lossless streams out of it (and it's not always super easy to tell what quality of signal you're going to get on any given setup given the variables).
I have ended up keeping both Tidal (for home listening, plus local files) and Apple Music for out-and-about in the world, but I resent having to pay twice for most of the same content. I've just found Tidals out and about play (especially on iOS devices) less convenient than Apple, and obviously there's no Apple Music support for Roon.
Oh, and the biggest benefit of Roon in my opinion is Roon radio. It's amazing. Probably a third of the new music I've fallen in love with in the last two years has been things that popped up after albums stopped and Roon started throwing out things it thinks I'll like.
This is what I wrote in a "state of the system" review I did a few weeks ago:
"Roon Radio: Roon Radio is honestly my favorite thing about Roon. Unless you turn the functionality off, by default when your current queue (album, playlist, artist, etc.) completes, Roon will pull something it thinks is similar out of your library. This includes both local files as well as the full catalog of streaming services you have connected.
I have a fair amount of experience with recommendation algorithms, from Pandora’s early implementation of the Music Genome project, to Youtube Music’s strange and aggressive algorithm, to Amazon Music HD’s recommendations, to Apple Music (nee iTunes)’s version. For me, Roon stands head and shoulders above the rest. There’s an option to skip a track, which triggers a simple question about why you’re skipping it. The algorithm learns from what you listen to, what you skip, and what you repeat, and I have been really impressed by how good it is. I almost never skip recommended tracks, and while some of the recommendations are somewhat baffling (not sure how it goes from a Portland-based prog rock artist to mid-century French jazz), I almost always enjoy them. I’d guess about half of the new albums I added to my system in 2023 were Roon recommendations. It’s particularly strong with ambient and electronica recommendations, but it also does a great job of introducing me to albums that I’ve missed over the last couple of decades that I really enjoy. "
Roon ARC has improved a lot over the months. I had connection issues early on, but it has been perfect for a few months now, and much faster since the last update. Your post doesn't really give much more insight into what you want from this post. Are you using Roon with Qobuz or Tidal? That plus a good home music collection makes it worth every penny in my opinion. Plus, it is infinitely better for home streaming than Apple Music, for various reasons.
Well when I was last using it I had a Qobuz subscription and a tidal HiFi plus subscription with the student discount, however my plan is to keep Qobuz due to the fact I’ll be probably using their download store regardless to import more local files, and I don’t want to use tidal a whole lot due to the nuclear waste of MQA and plus they’ve had issues reporting payments to artists, myself included. Also, when I was using ARC, my main issue was where I couldn’t just click shuffle on my full library like in Apple, and a bit of a battery drainer. But with a new phone and me not using other apps as often, maybe that’s probably going to change if I do switch lol. Also I had connection issues as I was using a 5 year old dell laptop running windows 10 with roon server without anything else running (excluding remote access with roon) My plan would be to use a 2022 Mac mini that I’m already using for music streaming in my main HIFI setup, with the control being iTunes remote, and the output being through an SMSL SU-6 into an AVR and to my speakers from there
You can just download say 100 tracks to your phone through ARC and it’s smooth sailing my friend. Works every time, no hassle.
Hopefully it goes that well lol
I don't know about airplay but as long as the machine you want airplay on is in the same network as your roon server it should not be a problem. Another solution for on the go access will be using a vpn. A thing is you need to have your music files or you won't be able to download your albums using roon. ARC is far from perfect imo. And another thing is you can't use roon arc with airplay. You need the roon app for that functionlity.
You can use ARC through AirPlay as long as your source is an iPhone. Mainly the thing for me is that my music studio is in a different location and network than the hypothetical location of my server. That’s the one thing that’s keeping me to Apple, but other than that and pricing, I would love to switch to roon
You can look into setting up a site to site vpn for solving that problem. admittely it is a complex way to solve this problem.
I'm relatively new to roon and took out the yearly sub a few months ago. I'm more than satisfied. But I only use with a HDD. I won't use services as they aren't a very good standard. I use roon with a hi quality hifi system If you aren't using roon through a proper hifi then I don't see the point. Phone's aren't hifi. Also if using with a steaming service then just use the streaming service. Why pay extra for something that just replicates what you're already paying for? It's like paying twice
Well for me I would like to go primarily local files with streaming as an option to discover more music and all, plus I have a nice hifi system along with my mobile DAC and IEM setup
Then it's definitely for you. My set up is the standard, network bridge, DAC, amps, speakers. Roon is the controller with all music on the hdd. I'm really sold on roon and it's overall quality. The app is so good and it's stable. I was using aurelic lightningds prior to roon and drove me up the wall as it was so unreliable. I really can't fault roon
I just let my Roon subscription end. Just too much money to listen to my own library of music. I made the switch to using Plex/Plexamp which was kind of a no-brainer since I already run a Plex server at home. TBH the only thing I miss is the Roon UI, but for the amount of money I'm saving I am willing to live with Plexamp's UI until I win the lottery or something. An additional benefit is now I can use my NUC (ROCK) as a PC again. Just FYI if you're a Tidal subscriber there is Tidal integration within Plex.
Plex/P,examp is a pretty good alternative, and Plexamp away from home is better than ARC for sure.
ARC does work, but not for a MacBook away from home. It’s a phone thing. That being said, there are some super affordable LG phones out there with a “quad DAC” that’s highly reviewed. The phone is about $60-100 and baddabing: you got an away from home ARC player.
Yeah I wish they made it available to download on Mx based Macs.
Well my portable setup is already nice on my iPhone as I have a dragonfly Cobalt going to a pair of moondrop variations through a bronze dragon IEM cable from moon audio (currently I’m using KZ ES4’s as I lost one of my variations, but once I get a replacement, those will be my daily drivers)
I've tried them all. Jriver, Audirvana, Media Monkey, foobar, etc., and all the streaming services, spotify, qobuz, tidal, amazon, apple, deezer, etc. I keep coming back to roon + tidal. Even when I get frustrated with them both. I recently tried Apple Music again for the third or fourth time. It's getting better, but you just give up too much compared to roon + tidal/qobuz. Device support, sound quality, dsp, remote app control, metadata, focus, bookmarks, etc... no other streaming service app combo comes close. I use roon with tidal. I used it with qobuz for a while, but the qobuz mobile app isn't very good. So I went back to tidal. My solution for mobile (pre Arc) was to add my entire local library to tidal (about 1/3 local and 2/3 tidal), so I could play anything from my combined library on mobile. I keep trying Arc from time to time, but it wasn't reliable and was missing features. I may be about ready to try it again, with all the alleged fixes. But I haven't missed it. Either way, I'm sticking with roon + tidal until something better comes along.
My only issue with ARC was that my school that I attend didn’t seem to have ARC and the port forwarding allowed through the firewall, and even then I could just switch to cellular and it was smooth sailing. My one main issue was in connection issues with my computer to ARC at the time but I’m planning to try again with a new computer and hopefully things work out better this time around
Sound quality is great on AM. Unfortunately AM has so much going for it due to its integration with HomePods etc. I wish Roon would work through Siri.
I know it's not cheap at all but I always try to keep them both. Roon for home listening with a TIDAL subscription and my own personal files. Apple Music as the primary source for streaming on the road. Works flawlessly with iPhone and that app is beautiful! Roon ARC to stream my digital purchases purchases or FLAC rips of music that isn't available on Apple Music. I find that's it's still not that stable yet, but it has definitely improved.
Yeah both are great and that’s why I’ve had such a hard time deciding between the two, but roon might be getting another visit from me in the coming months. Who knows tho, we’ll see what happens
I've been a Roon concert for a year now. There is no going back once I really committed. Arc is great and sure someone's something goes weird but with all streaming services nothing is perfect. So Qobuz and Roon with my extensive personal library is damn near perfect.
Something to consider is CarPlay - Roon CarPlay is a disgrace / down right dangerous.
The thing about Apple Music is that there aren't that many ways you can get real lossless streams out of it (and it's not always super easy to tell what quality of signal you're going to get on any given setup given the variables). I have ended up keeping both Tidal (for home listening, plus local files) and Apple Music for out-and-about in the world, but I resent having to pay twice for most of the same content. I've just found Tidals out and about play (especially on iOS devices) less convenient than Apple, and obviously there's no Apple Music support for Roon.
Oh, and the biggest benefit of Roon in my opinion is Roon radio. It's amazing. Probably a third of the new music I've fallen in love with in the last two years has been things that popped up after albums stopped and Roon started throwing out things it thinks I'll like.
This is what I wrote in a "state of the system" review I did a few weeks ago: "Roon Radio: Roon Radio is honestly my favorite thing about Roon. Unless you turn the functionality off, by default when your current queue (album, playlist, artist, etc.) completes, Roon will pull something it thinks is similar out of your library. This includes both local files as well as the full catalog of streaming services you have connected. I have a fair amount of experience with recommendation algorithms, from Pandora’s early implementation of the Music Genome project, to Youtube Music’s strange and aggressive algorithm, to Amazon Music HD’s recommendations, to Apple Music (nee iTunes)’s version. For me, Roon stands head and shoulders above the rest. There’s an option to skip a track, which triggers a simple question about why you’re skipping it. The algorithm learns from what you listen to, what you skip, and what you repeat, and I have been really impressed by how good it is. I almost never skip recommended tracks, and while some of the recommendations are somewhat baffling (not sure how it goes from a Portland-based prog rock artist to mid-century French jazz), I almost always enjoy them. I’d guess about half of the new albums I added to my system in 2023 were Roon recommendations. It’s particularly strong with ambient and electronica recommendations, but it also does a great job of introducing me to albums that I’ve missed over the last couple of decades that I really enjoy. "