Will Naim be supporting the Roon App?

Neat.

Thanks for the heads up GregW, looks like a cracking application and one which I'll definitely be trialling  It seems very well thought out, incredibly user friendly and packed with lots of interesting ideas. I can see this being very popular amongst us hi-fi enthusiasts 

I've been Alpha/Beta testing this and it's quite a beast. I'm sure there'll be a few teething troubles but they'll get sorted. The pricing model will determine much, I guess.

Pricing for Roon in the US is reportedly $119 per year service fee, $499 lifetime fee and another higher level premium service for $999 (I believe, may be $699). 

Compared to what my Orange music calogue software can do, the pricing looks excessive. 

Of course not Allen. It's streaming capabilities would need more work by way of a uPnP plug in. Come to think of it, it may already have one. I haven't checked. Roon doesn't do anything new but it is a lovely point of convergence. At a ridiculous price.

Good name for it, though, sounds like it was aimed at overpaid footballers.

Roonlab is out, just downloaded it and started playing with it. Time of iTunes seems definitely over

I have no need for all the links to internet material, in the end it does distract you from the music.However the really fantastic feature is to be able to add tidal albums to your own Collection. 25 or more albums is not that interesting in itself, since you will never listen to all of them and you may endup drowning in all the music.

Interestingly the Naim servers can scan all Network connected devices for music and updates, and also attached usb drives, and give all the information about your local stored albums, so I am not as impressed as the guy on the video. If it is as good as he is constantly saying why does he have to Waste so much time saying it over and over Again. 

Claus

Just had a quick look at this and not really sure what it is supposed to do that is worth spending the money on. The Naim app gives extra info if required and I can count on 1 hand how many times I have used it. The info I seek out is often on the www. This seems a clever way of pulling info in, that is most probably FOC, and then charging for the pleasure. More money than sense springs to mind, but maybe I'm having a bad day!!!

To be honest Allen it just looks like an opportunity to generate cash and there are lots of organisations out there that seem to do this. I'm most probably not the sort of customer they are aiming this at, all my media is on a single NAS with CDs as back up.....if I have an urge to check the details I dash upstairs and pull the CD out....doesn't happen very often as I'm only interested in listening. No head in the sand here but equally not stuck in the sky, just firmly in the real world on solid ground.

I'm going to be following the development of Roon quite closely. From a UI/UX perspective it's the first app that I feel challenges the Sonos experience, which imo is excellent. Actually I think it's even more attractive and functional. It's not cheap, but good design is worth paying for as far as I am concerned. 

It's early days, but I'm most excited about how manufacturers will go about implementing support for Roon. 

I have not develed into the ins and outs too deeply, but the latest plex update brings a raft of new music features including this all so important web lookup.

Plex easily delivers a similar great look and rich feature set. The only thing I think its missing is automatic discovery of music on your network, because obviously you store music in 100 locations around your house.

For everyone else, yes, I think it really is basically the same, but free.

Whether individuals want to pay for Roon is a matter for them. However, as to whether there is something else out there that does what Roon does, well there really isn't anything that comes close.

You couldn't be more wrong about the people behind it.

Having spent some time with the app, I am particularly impressed with how functional it is for a 1.0. These guys built their first system in 2003 and their experience is telling in a very positive way. I can definitely feel the influence of their earlier Sooloos systems, yet it's completely new.

Creating a library from multiple local sources is quite helpful to me. I have managed multiple iTunes Libraries in the past. Having my CD rips, iTunes Store Content and more recently 24-bit material in their original locations but in one place is extremely useful. Until now Sonos was able to manage the first two but not the 24-bit material.

The profile support for different members of the family is great. I'm unclear if that will extend to streaming services. I have a Deezer Elite, not a Tidal account so I couldn't test this. Sonos currently supports multiple Spotify Premium accounts so the concept is not unrealistic. I'd hope that if it wasn't an option today it would be in the future. With a platform agnostic approach I'd hope that support for further streaming services will come quite quickly.

Zone support has the potential to support multiple vendors which is very exciting. Until now multiple zone support normally means hardware from a single vendor.

No one from Naim has commented. I'd be interested in their thoughts. I can understand there are risks when you offer 3rd party access to a key part of the product experience, but there are also clear benefits. Customers not having to deal with UPnP would be one such advantage in my view. If managed well this relationship can work well.

I use a number of Garmin devices to track my Swim/Bike/Run workouts. The Garmin apps are pretty good but there are better options if you really want to manage a training plan or analise the collected data on a deeper level. Making that possible makes Garmin's products more attractive to me.

If I bought a Naim streamer today and was provided with a Naim branded version of Roon I'd be very happy indeed:-)

I'll download the trial, it certainly seems to have it covered in terms of searching your music collection. My immediate thoughts are that it does not tag your files, that means it will have side files or a database, which in turn means when you eventually move away from it you are knackered.

My other thought is, it looks like a 40 quid app like jRiver. Obviously the developers know there are mugs out there in the audio world and have pitched the price accordingly. It has a look and feel obviously aimed at hipsters, with likes and dislikes etc.

In terms of amalgamated music, well squeezebox has been doing this for years, I have my music, net radio, spotify etc all available in one app on my phone, so sorry not getting that bit. But I am going to have a play now.

Well it was a brief look. The main application is a server but does not support Remote Desktop for install.

Game over.

Its a shame I was starting to get interested. 

I presume one can pay monthly and not up front, in which case if you feel its worth the outlay (as well as spotify/tidal and all the other services that actually make this service worth while) then fill your boots.

In the mean time they need to sort out making it work on windows server, because erm, it supposed to be a server software.

I think Naim would be wise to concentrate on what they do best, making outstanding audio products! and then perhaps work in partnership with some leading edge audio software businesses (maybe they already are?) with perhaps making an acquisition or two along the way. As GregW pointed out, if a purchase of a Naim streamer / network player came prepackaged with the likes of ROON it would make an already amazing product even better. 

Many of the Roon tags are outside the various ID3 (2.0, 2.3 and 2.4) specs which makes it difficult to write the metadata back to your original files.

ID3 2.0 still isn't universally accepted; ratings are an example of a sticking point, 2.3 and similarly 2.4 are likely a very long way from becoming universal standards. With that in mind using sidecar files or a local/cloud database is likely the best option for advanced tagging. 

OK, tried it . . . . very nice. I get it. The thing works well. It's a good app.

But $449???????????????????????

Good grief. 

The biggest problem with the price is not that I would simply never, ever pay anything close to that amount of money for that product - eg Netflix costs £6 a month, so the most this is worth is maybe £1 a month with a strong wind behind it - no . . . the problem with the price is that very, very few people will pay it. And tiny revenue means big losses, and big losses means no more Roon, and then they'll; have paid $449 for nothing at all. And who wants to do that? Bit of a vicious circle.

I, for one, hope Naim doesn't spend one minute of their time integrating Roon until the makers of it get faintly, remotely realistic about the price.

Have Roon implemented UPnP server functionality?  I saw something on the faq page about that being a goal, but not initially.  

And . . . is it installable on a nas?  To function with Naim players, it'd need to be running on 'something that's running all the time' and that'd have to be a nas presumably.  Very few of us use a pc or Mac as a server; a nas is much easier.

I'd definitely do the free trial if I can use it.

I think that's a big "subject," as Naim streamers are looking for a network connection and a UPnP/DLNA server at the other end of the network.  Roon isn't really up and running in a manner suitable for that, but I'll keep watching as I'd try it if it were.