Hey Confused, great to hear your thoughts on Roon.
A couple of pointers which may (or may not) help you:
Quote:I was a little disappointed re metadata and album artwork etc. If I use iTunes or JRiver, I now have more or less 100% complete artwork (although this has taken some effort in the past).
If you want Roon to ignore it's metadata and/or artwork and use your own metadata, you can change this preference after import by selecting all relevant albums, clicking on the edit button, and bulk-setting the preferences accordingly. There's no way (currently) to set things automatically on import, so you'd have to repeat after bringing in new material - but it should get you to a happier place pretty quickly. I barely touch my own metadata unless a rip really screws up, so the Roon data generally suits me, but I know there are others that have meticulous metadata/artwork that they use in preference. I believe controls for this are getting an update in 1.2 also.
Quote:The ‘album centric’ theme continues with track ratings, which Roon does not support. Roon offers album ratings, but that’s it. So if you wanted to listen a particular album but filter out a couple of dire (low rated) tracks, this is not possible in Roon.
It's not track ratings I know, but the scenario you describe can be achieved with the 'love' and 'ban' settings at the track level. If you ban a track it will display in the listing but never play until you release it. I have a few tracks on certain albums I can't stand and I never hear them now
.
I'm biased but I'd say 'hang in there'…. quite a few of the features in Roon grew on me after a while, and further down the line I found I couldn't go back to anything else. There are a few things that still annoy me and I think could be improved, the good bits just keep me hooked. v1.2 is set to bring lots of new features, and its constantly evolving. That said, I'm an album based guy, and always wanted a way to control both my music and streamed services together in a pretty UI so I guess it was made for me.
If you keep an eye out for RoonReady on any new streamer, you'll aways have the option to use it later while still getting the benefit of the hardware.
I echo all the strengths of Roon. In truth, it has changed how I listen to music and I'm loving it.
Regarding Track artists... I find that when I search for an artist, it will list the artist's albums but also the albums the artist appears on (e.g. compilations or just supporting musician) or somehow associated with (e.g. produced). It's only as good as the metadata, but I find it pretty solid most of the time.
I have spent many years ripping & tagging my own music and was still amazed how much more and often better information Roon provides. But of course, you will find the occasional problem with Roon data. Fortunately, as indicated by Steve (Hifi_swlon), Roon does allow you to defer to your tags rather than it's metadata if/when needed.
Last and perhaps the most important... I've never run across a company that is as customer-centric as Roon Labs. Spend time on their forums and you can't help but come away impressed. If only we could get Devialet to take a lesson or two.
(30-Mar-2016, 20:28)mdconnelly Wrote: [ -> ]I echo all the strengths of Roon. In truth, it has changed how I listen to music and I'm loving it.
Regarding Track artists... I find that when I search for an artist, it will list the artist's albums but also the albums the artist appears on (e.g. compilations or just supporting musician) or somehow associated with (e.g. produced). It's only as good as the metadata, but I find it pretty solid most of the time.
I have spent many years ripping & tagging my own music and was still amazed how much more and often better information Roon provides. But of course, you will find the occasional problem with Roon data. Fortunately, as indicated by Steve (Hifi_swlon), Roon does allow you to defer to your tags rather than it's metadata if/when needed.
Last and perhaps the most important... I've never run across a company that is as customer-centric as Roon Labs. Spend time on their forums and you can't help but come away impressed. If only we could get Devialet to take a lesson or two.
Re the metadata I actually agree, it is just the way the album artist (often 'various artists') is used in the track listing that annoys me, but yes, the individual track artists are there in the metadata and picked up in searches as you say. So a minor whinge to be honest.
I'm not yet sure about the Roon forum. OK, it's miles and miles and miles better than Devialet's wall of silence, but I have seen a number of topics progressed by both forum members and the Roon professionals which then just go cold regarding input from Roon. With some threads / topics, the input from the Roon guys is exceptional, but not all, it does look to me that like the Roon guys are a little selective about what they want to run with and what they want to quietly drop. But as I said before, I am very new to Roon and intrigued enough to keep my subscription rolling a while yet, maybe I'll get the Roon bug before too long!
(30-Mar-2016, 21:19)Confused Wrote: [ -> ]Re the metadata I actually agree, it is just the way the album artist (often 'various artists') is used in the track listing that annoys me, but yes, the individual track artists are there in the metadata and picked up in searches as you say. So a minor whinge to be honest.
I'm not yet sure about the Roon forum. OK, it's miles and miles and miles better than Devialet's wall of silence, but I have seen a number of topics progressed by both forum members and the Roon professionals which then just go cold regarding input from Roon. With some threads / topics, the input from the Roon guys is exceptional, but not all, it does look to me that like the Roon guys are a little selective about what they want to run with and what they want to quietly drop. But as I said before, I am very new to Roon and intrigued enough to keep my subscription rolling a while yet, maybe I'll get the Roon bug before too long!
If you haven't posted on the Roon forum already, it might be worth it re album artist meta-data. I'm clueless at that level of specifics but I'm sure you won't be the first if it bothers you it will probably be an issue for others and there are some serious meta-data fanatics there. Maybe there's a solution....
I do agree about your forum comments. I guess just because they're better at product support than anyone else I've come across, and they're so open, I hold them in high regard but I think it's also fair to say not all topics are treated equally and not all feedback given such considered thought - they locked a couple of Qobuz topics for example, which is very out of character and I sensed the frustration at being repeatedly asked for something they felt they were unable to deliver. In their defence I think they're a very small team and they've been thoroughly bombarded with requests and feedback - much of which they've tried to deliver quickly or at least clarify their position - and you can feel that they're absolutely maxed out resource wise. I imagine forum participation at the level they indulge is incredibly time consuming. And us audio people are a demanding bunch (yeah, I include myself
) and they generally take feedback with good humour - certainly better than I'd deal with it. Still, if Devialet followed their lead by only 1% (doesn't make any sense but you know what I mean) at least we'd have a clue what was going on and feel like they might care what we think (slightly).
RoonReady is pretty new but all the partners signed up and currently working towards (unspecified product) approval are here:
https://roonlabs.com/partners.html
It doesn't state the products (despite Roon saying the program would be specific to devices rather than brands - as its they that are RoonReady) but it's very early days and I imagine a few more will become certified in time for the imminent 1.2 release. Bryston are said to be very close. The notable exceptions are Aurender and Melco. Both have said via email they are looking to do it, but judging by that page they're clearly less keen than the other brands. What this space I guess.
(30-Mar-2016, 20:39)Confused Wrote: [ -> ] A Confused response. Nice try! But love and ban is no substitute for more granular track ratings. For example, if I listen to an album, I might want to listen to all except a couple of annoying tracks (which might be rated 1). However, I might want to listen to all T-Rex tracks rated 5. You can't trick love and ban into doing this.
Ah, sorry I missed some replies in italic....
Well, agreed, but you only mentioned filtering tracks you
didn't like in the previous post
Track ratings come up a lot in their forum. I'm sure they're going to have to bite the bullet and do it, but I sense it's a non trivial rewrite so that's probably the stumbling block. It didn't affect me as I'm so lazy I started in iTunes with good intentions rating tracks but just got bored and found it easier just skip what I didn't like. Favourite and ban work for minds like mine as all I really care about is finding what I love and NEVER hearing tracks I hate. In betweens too hazy for me. But people that do it have years worth of ratings they rely on, so I can't see them getting round it ultimately.
I m not good at writing big note but enjoy reading all the above about Roon.
I exited Roon Trial last Thursday. Tried on my MacBook Air as computer and USB to Devialet. After trial version i tried Audirvana Trial / ofcourse iTunes until now, and I was not sure about the Roon Lifetime price point. I can clearly say this, I already miss Roon badly
.
From whatever little time I had with Roon during trial period, my favorite feature is "love" "ban", and the artist thread. I mean when we click on Artist it will bring all the track where the artist is either Solo performing or performing with other artist. Really good as i started un-covering lot of track I never tried and started to see it in new perspective. Meta-data is very fresh. I like Metal data from Roon than my own.
Good help from hk6230 (Gary) in using Roon - Personal Note - Thank you Gary.
Could not wait any longer and fed up of analysis paralysis, and its very easy decision looking at other software streamers (Audirvana, ituns, Bluesound + many other), I bite the bullet and bought ipad mini 4 64Gb as remote. I will be buying Roon this week. I will use MacBook Air as computer. Will try Devialet AIR-ETH and USB. During trial period AIR-ETH did not work well as it was getting drops. Need to clean up my MacBook with all junk data stored to help Roon work smoothly and in "Dedicated" mode (is that what its called as
)
Cheers All!
/Jnan
the biggest bugbear to mass roon adoption is the price
I got life membership on a special at $200 .. but at $500 .. LMs/Jriver/whatever would do
apart from that , I had to get a new touchscreen puter and ipad to run roon , it wouldnt run on my old ipad and my old puter due to screen resolution
Not sure that I can square the circle of spending such a huge (relatively) amount of money on - CD players - Record Decks - Streamers - Amps - Speakers - Records - CD's and yet be upset about $500 for a life membership of the best replay software out there. Or does digital playback not qualify as a "serious" listening medium.
(30-Mar-2016, 22:51)Hifi_swlon Wrote: [ -> ] (30-Mar-2016, 20:39)Confused Wrote: [ -> ] A Confused response. Nice try! But love and ban is no substitute for more granular track ratings. For example, if I listen to an album, I might want to listen to all except a couple of annoying tracks (which might be rated 1). However, I might want to listen to all T-Rex tracks rated 5. You can't trick love and ban into doing this.
….
Well, agreed, but you only mentioned filtering tracks you didn't like in the previous post
…….
I thought about this some more, and as it turns out you can in fact cover your other scenario using favourites (love heart). Basically, 'favourite' (or 'love', or 'heart' or whatever you want to call it) the tracks you consider 5 star. Then go to album or artist mode and select the favourites (heart) filter at the top. When you press play now, you'll only get the favourites..There's a post here which explains it step by step.
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/automat...ist/3505/2
You could also make a 'focus filter' if you have more specific requirements.
Actually, there's one enterprising Roon user trying to export track ratings from iTunes via metadata, which he can then use with focus filters in Roon. Looks like he's got a few issues (possibly bugs) but its a nice idea, and would be easy for Roon to do something like this as a stopgap. Not a solution you'd expect from Roon, but it would do the job…. The relevant bit starts at post 18…
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/where-d...hem/156/18
I'm trying here….. (no, I'm not on commission
)