ROON vs JRiver?

[teddlesdee]

To start, I have both.... I also paid the lifetime payment for Roon, perhaps a bit prematurely.

The equipment at the moment is a dell laptop running either as a music server connected via ethernet to a NAS and Dev.
I have just also invested in the Sony Xperia Z4 (nice bit of kit, if it wasn't for the keyboard sometimes being sluggish to connect!) - stunning display though. I have roon on this as a slave.

The Game - So with this setup, I am getting things working, but every time I load roon or jriver on the laptop, I have to remember to tap the Dev to wake it up, then find the little greyed out Dev app in the system tray (which is a pain), and once the Dev has woken up, then select Ethernet manually. All this before using the music server!!

Is this right?

As for Roon vs JRiver, I must admit, it is a faff to have to 'maximise/ full screen' the thing to start using it or to get the Sony to connect... and if you need to do summat else on the server, you have to minimise the Roon prog to be able to get at anything underneath... not ideal, it seems....
I had the mad idea of using a Tidal trial on this, but once I realised that Tidal does not support downloads (off-line) on windows, because I have a pretty cr@p internet speed, getting rid of a part started stream of Frank Sinatra, was a bit of a pain!

JRiver, I kind of have a soft spot for, it seems clean, more intuitive to an old brain like mine, easy to find stuff, and lots easily accessible options to fiddle with. Any difference in sound quality? Well my old ears cannot hear the difference that is for sure...

Obviously I need to spend much more time with Roon, to try to identify what everyone is raving about!

What am I doing wrong?

Ultimately, I would like to ditch the laptop as a music server, and go for something screen-less, small and dedicated that just works from switch-on.....either pre-built , or build one based on Windows Server 2012 myself.... Ideas?

[Antoine]

The Game - So with this setup, I am getting things working, but every time I load roon or jriver on the laptop, I have to remember to tap the Dev to wake it up, then find the little greyed out Dev app in the system tray (which is a pain), and once the Dev has woken up, then select Ethernet manually. All this before using the music server!!

You'll need to set 'autoswitch' in 'AIR' to 'always'.

https://help.devialet.com/hc/en-us/artic...set-up-AIR-

I'm not sure if Devialet has fixed the bug yet but the setting wasn't auto-saved back when I still used AIR. You'd had to quit the application once manually once to save it, if you didn't it was back to the previous setting after a reboot.

[teddlesdee]

The Game - So with this setup, I am getting things working, but every time I load roon or jriver on the laptop, I have to remember to tap the Dev to wake it up, then find the little greyed out Dev app in the system tray (which is a pain), and once the Dev has woken up, then select Ethernet manually. All this before using the music server!!

You'll need to set 'autoswitch' in 'AIR' to 'always'.

https://help.devialet.com/hc/en-us/artic...set-up-AIR-

I'm not sure if Devialet has fixed the bug yet but the setting wasn't auto-saved back when I still used AIR. You'd had to quit the application once manually once to save it, if you didn't it was back to the previous setting after a reboot.

Thanks Antoine

I knew I was being stupid!
Mind you... when you rush back from work with all the rubbish still spinning around in your head, only then to get the usual demands on your time and attendance from your missus (bless!) - it is, perhaps, not surprising I am not firing an all 8 cylinders when trying to sort this stuff out!

cheers

[Antoine]

I don't believe anyone is calling you stupid here!

[teddlesdee]

Having played with Roon for a while now, I am beginning to think that I made a mistake buying the full licence.

OK, so its got lots of pretty pictures of the albums, and lots of info on most of the background, but I find it a bit...err.... 'in-your-face' for some reason. I do miss the quite simplistic listings of JRiver.

Navigating around JRiver seems easier too. Maybe its me but also I have failed to set the transitioning between tracks to fade out and in with Roon. It was very easy to set up with JRiver.

Also, Roons integration with Tidal is tight (good), but with the lack of off-line download capability for PC, I presumed that the Roon remote on a Sony tablet would fix that issue maybe.. but, no, it doesn't!

Tonight I might try the independent Tidal app, and see if that allows downloads. The reason? Because even in this day an age, if I can get 900k download speed on my rural internet I am very lucky! Not conducive of streaming I am afraid!

Anyone out there have some insights & thoughts on comparing Roon with JRiver?

[teddlesdee]

OK after a break, I tried both Roon and JRiver again to see if I could rationalise my opinons on both and perhaps to settle on one.

JRiver - very flexible, easy to find your own library and cruise, see album covers if you want, and more options you could shake a stick at, but.....

Bearing in mind I suspect that I have not yet found or explored all the possibilities, there is one BIG irritation! And that is being able to set up and add tracks to your own playlists!

Jeez its complicated, I have no idea why they have made it so convoluted, and googling it finds numerous suggestions on 'how-to' but its failed for me! Add to playlist, gives you a screen that shows all the playlists available, yet they are greyed out, and the only thing you seem to be able to do is create a new one.... So I have given up -
A great shame, as there is so much you can tweek to your own liking - there is even a very flexible 'equaliser'! Something that appeals to me beinga 60's & 70's teanager where 'equalisers' were a common item.

Roon - Yes its pretty, yes it is easy to use, but there are far less options available. I often like to switch from 'album Image' view, to just a 'list' view for quick selections, rather that have to scroll sideways for ages to get to something interesting. But there appears to be no 'Alternative View' options which would be great. You only get a list view on 'tracks'. if Roon would add more of what JRiver has done in respect to options in particular, it would become a no-brainer.

[AllenB]

There is definitely a bit of a learning curve in using Roon to best effect with your library and listening habits. I am only part way up the curve, but it's fun. A few things that might help you along the way:-
- As for 'in yer face' maybe try the dark theme, rather than the light theme.
- I have started using the Radio feature more often, especially if I am doing other things whilst listening. All tracks played are stored in your History, and Radio has found tracks that I had forgotten about, but prompted by re-hearing them, I look back in my history and select these for further listening.
- The Focus feature is extremely powerful and varied, that certainly takes a bit of getting used to.
- Don't forget, whilst browsing, you can hit any key on the keyboard and it will jump to that part of the browser, I find this really useful than the endless scrolling. I quite often will randomly hit a key and see where I land!
- If on Windows, and a maximised Roon screen, you can always hit the Windows key to get to what's underneath. On a Mac you should always have access to the Dock by moving the mouse to the bottom of the screen

There is so much to Roon, that I feel I have only scratched the surface, but finding new ways of doing things and navigating around is part of the fun. I am sure the iOS app is going to make things a lot easier with the touchscreen interface.

Can't offer anything on JRiver, never used it.

[johnsap]

I would consider SQ as my top priority here..

[baddog]

One could also use the headless Roon core options now available for the Mac & PC ( if you have a separate instance of Roon as a remote) and avoid the minimize/maximize issue, plus they can auto launch at startup. And then use either a second Mac/PC/Android device/IOS device (soon) and navigate via them.

The interface is very different in Roon, takes some getting used to but between hot keys, the focus feature ( i.e.. "/") and a lot of other options for viewing and navigating content, becomes quite intuitive after a while.

Very pleased with the sound quality of Roon, don't feel I am lacking for anything.

Of course YMMV...

[hk6230]

There are so much 'more' in Roon: Genre, Discover, Playlists creation, Tidal integration, and its metadata feature is fantastic. And, I'm using RoonServer on my headless NUC now. My NUC/Roon is my streamer for my NAS music (plus Tidal) with music playback up to 24/192 and DSD64. And I'm lucky enough to use Devialet AIR without any problem.