The Roon Diaries - Tips & Tricks

Yamaki

Not For Hire
Subscriber
I recently signed up for the free 14-day trial of Roon. I will be running it as a music management software tool only and more than likely will not be using it as a shell for streaming other services. Over the next two weeks I hope to make a decision on whether or not to continue with Roon or revert back to JRiver to manage my digital collection.

So this is a diary of sorts to capture my experience with Roon and compare/contrast it with JRiver. I will list some pros and cons, specific tasks I performed to implement Roon and will update this thread as I become more familiar with the software and how it works.

I would invite any and all Roon users, regardless of experience level, to chime in with your observations, likes, dislikes and lessons learned with Roon.

And with that, I'll pass along my initial experience in downloading and doing the initial setup.
 
I initially downloaded Roon on 10/28 and began the setup.

I did an initial scan of the Roon User Guide online, printed what seemed to be the key sections that would get me started and started playing with the software. The User Guide is chock full of good information and is helpful but only if you take the time to read it. Here's where RTFM really matters. (RTFM = Read The F***ing Manual). Setting up Roon without any other assistance really requires you to go through the User Guide and become familar with it.

However, I did NOT follow the RTFM rules and became mired in errors and trying to correct something I had no idea how I messed it up or how it operates. It's kind of like driving with a blindfold on. Fun until you hit something.... :( After spending some few hours trying to right the wrongs, I gave up and went to bed.

On 10/29 I deleted the copy I had downloaded the previous day and installed a new copy of the software. Then I sat back and made my tedious way through the relevant sections of the User Guide. I found I didn't need to read the whole dang thing but I did need to read, and understand, much more than I had the previous day. Tip # 1 - RTFM

Several mistakes became apparent after I had read more of the User Guide:
  • I managed to set up two System Output devices. There is a way to set up zones (more than one player or DAC) but this wasn't the way to do it. I kept getting either a "Failure to intiate device" or a "Device in use" error messge. Tip # 2 - During initial setup only set up one System Output. You can set up zones later.
  • It appeared I had a very bad metadata transfer. However, I had tried to listen to music before Roon was done analyzing all the tracks contained in the folder I pointed it to. The result was missing pieces of metadata and failure to play music due to the conflict in System Output and the Roon analysis process running in the background. Tip # 3 - Let Roon analyize your music files before you try to play them. Depending on the number of files this could take some time. In my case, with over 8K files to read it took over 5 hours...the second time around.
On 10/30 I carefully explored the Remote option. I downloaded a copy of the Android version of the Remote Control software to my Galaxy tablet. It immediately connected to my network and the Roon Core on my music server. I used the Menu icon to see my tracks, artists and albums plus I saw all the setup functions I had explored and used the previous day. I was relieved to see my metadata was all there. Using the menu I navigated to the Tracks section, put the player on Random and hit the Play icon. Voila!!! Music came forth from my system and it was good. Tip # 4 - Become familiar with the menu icon and the functions included.

I also set up a Playlist of about 800 or so files. I found a neat tip in the User Guide on how to avoid selecting and adding files one at a time. There is a sort of batch process you can use to select more than one file. Sure, even this method takes a bit of time but it's easier than adding them individually. Tip # 5 - When setting up a playlist use the multi-file addition function.

I will be spending some time later today learning how to add another specific folder so I have access to my holiday music without it becoming integrated into the entire library. I want to be able to create another playlist just for that genre without mixing in all those tracks to the general library.

Observations, Pros and Cons:
  • Con - RTFM. I guess I can't say this enough but it will really save you some anger and angst. It will take some time, however.
  • Pro - Initial software setup and is user option selections easier to navigate than JRiver's.
  • Pro -The Roon package is more intuitive. If you've iTunes or an Apple-centric software to play your digital files it will look familar.
  • Pro - I don't need a special driver download to use my McIntosh D100 DAC as I did with JRiver which seemed to fail now and then requiring a new download.
  • Pro - My D100 now displays the actual file bit depth and sample rate. With JRiver it got the sample rate right (most of the time) but the bit depth never wavered from 32 kHz.
  • Pro - Roon's user interface & album art display are superior to JRiver's.
  • Con - Adding tracks to a playlist is a bit more cumbersome than JRiver's. I haven't found a drag and drop method which made JRiver a bit faster to use in this respect.
  • Pro? Con? - I'm not sure if this is my imagination or if it's actually true but the music sounds different and in a better way. I've asked a couple of Roon users who also have McIntosh based systems and they report the same thing.
  • Con - Roon is a LOT more expensive than JRiver and is based on a subscription service. I could pay for 4 - 5 JRiver upgraded licenses with what it costs to subscribe to Roon for one (1) year. If I decide to keep it, I'll opt for the lifetime subscription to insulate myself from future subscription price increases and save some money in the long run (more than 4 years) based on today's lifetime rate.
Next up - Load another file source without integrating it into the main library.

As of today, I'm feeling positive about Roon.
 
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Today I added a second Watched Folder to Roon and loaded up all the holiday music. I was concerned about having to sort through a bunch of files to pick out the relevant music for a Holidays playlist but I needn't have worried.

First, I went to Settings > Storage > Add Folder Tip # 6 - Your new folder needs to be on the same hierarchy level as your other music folders. Example of my music folder paths:

Music Server \ D: \ Music \ FLAC

Music Server \ D: \ Music \ Holidays

Then Roon analyzed the content of the sub folders, added the albums and tracks to the Library and I was ready to select some music for a new Playlist.

I created the Playlist, then went to the Album view of my entire music collection. I sorted the albums by newest date added, which meant my new Holidays folder albums were displayed first in alphabetical order. I clicked on each album to view it. I could have drilled down into the contents of each album and selected specific tracks but decided to add the entire album to the playlist. Tip # 7 - Sorting by album name or by date added helps when wanting to add specific music to a new playlist.

So now the Holidays music is ready to play and She Who Must Be Obeyed will be pleased. ;)

The next thing to explore, at least for me, is Tags.
 
I have been using ROON since November 2015. Played with it for a while on the free trial, jumped for a lifetime subscription, as they were on sale, and I had a pocket full of change from OT.

I was a JRiver user but Roon seems so much more intuitive to me. I still have a copy of jRiver running to put stuff on my PONO player when needed.

The coolest thing about Roon is that after three years the Radio function seems to pick music as if it knows me like an old friend.
 
Over the past few days, as time allowed, I've bheen reading and learning about tags.

You can tag everything with whatever descriptor(s) you want, however, they aren't for me. Since I mix and match different tracks and genres into playlists, I won't be sorting thousands of tracks for anything specific. Rather, since sorting using the data already available within the Roon library database (artist name, album name, track name) is all I really need, I've decided to drop using them.

So for now, I am just going to keep on listening and, if something comes up I want to try, I will make another entry in the diary. It does sound different from JRiver and I do enjoy using it. I am leaning towards continuing with my subscription and, unless some unforeseen and fatal flaw emerges, I'll convert to a lifetime subscription before my first year is up.
 
(artist name, album name, track name) is all I really need, I've decided to drop using them.

Probably a wise choice. It is possible to get OCD about metadata tagging...

I'm sure Roon must apply more tags than just those three; release date (year) and a basic genre would be normal for a metadata database. And I'd expect a commercial metadata database to provide much more metadata, ideally sourced by the record companies, weeded for errors, and in a consistent format.

Most media managers will allow you to choose which metadata fields are shown in the user interface. So your files can have the embedded metadata, but you don't need to bother with it unless you feel the need to; you can turn on that field display, do what you need to do, and then turn it off again.
 
Their algorithm for Roon Radio picking songs based on what you have listened to is great. So is the ability to look at the history of what you have played.

The other day my wife was in the basement and asked me to play one of her favorite artists' new albums. I put it on for her and went outside. 3 or 4 hours later she was asking me how I was controlling the songs, as it played a bunch of her favorites in the same vein, and a bunch that she had never heard before but liked. She did not believe that it was Roon doing it by itself. We scrolled back through the history and she asked me to make her a playlist of the stuff she really liked.

This was a bit of it.

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So is the ability to look at the history of what you have played.

Again, that's absolutely standard for any decent media manager/player. I normally dump my 'now playing' list when it gets to 2500 entries, and start again. And I keep the old ones, so I have a play history going back to 2010...
 
Roon does have a fairly sophisticated architecture and I am realizing that it offers much more than I'll ever need. But I like the interface and how it functions. And, it sounds different than JRiver which I am enjoying. So I'm sticking with it and will convert to a lifetime subscription before my initial year is up.
 
I took a break from configuring Roon any further after investigating Tags in Roon and just enjoyed the music for a couple of weeks. And I must say I am thoroughly enjoying Roon, it's interface and how it works.

Alan Taffel's article on The Absolute Sound's website linked above mentions that he found Roon to sound better than it's competitors. When I was first told that by a friend who had adopted Roon some time ago, I scoffed. "It's only software, John! How could it sound 'better' or even 'different'?" He assured me that it did and I found that to be true. Don't ask me to explain it because I can't.

Alan Taffel takes a stab at explaining why in the article. As we all know, since we all hear differently, some of this may be subjective but as I sit here pounding away on my laptop and listening to Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris performing "Beyond My WIldest Dreams" from the "All The Roadrunning" album, I am once again struck by the fullness and detail I am hearing that exceeds anything that JRiver presented with the exact same file. Don't get me wrong...I liked JRiver. Program setup and user interface could use some work and simplification. The Wiki is difficult to use and finding information took a long time for me. Anyway, enough about the sonic and use differences between the two. For what it's worth, I am sticking with Roon.

I knew I'd get back to my initial setup issue eventually.

Yesterday an AK member PM'd me. He asked me to continue with this narrative as he was contemplating switching from JRiver to Roon and my real world, non-technically based user experience was of some interest. It's funny...his PM came to me just as I was wrapping up what I am about to describe below.

I got some help from the Roon community forum and their technical support folks that frequent that site in working through a couple of issues. I strongly suggest that, if you adopt Roon, you make good use of those resources and the Roon User Guide.

This is not a super technical document. I have endeavored to use the correct terms, especially specific areas within Roon, but if you have any questions just PM me and I'll do my best. You may be better off accessing Roon's online community than dealing with this Roon Noob. :D

In post #3 above I showed the file folder setup I used during initial setup of Roon. I could not, for the life of me, connect to my NAS to set up a Network Share so all the music would be stored on, and accessed from, the NAS. So, for the time being, I partitioned the music server's HD and set up the folder on that box. But that basically duplicated the file load in the system because I ended up copying all the folders over from the NAS to the server. This was not the most efficient use of network resources but it got the job done. Also, I hadn't figured out the proper folder hierarchy to use from within the NAS.

Yesterday I circled back to my initial setup of shared folders. My intent was to resolve the issues I had when trying to add a Network Share. It was apparent that Roon could access my Network Attached Storage (NAS) box - a Synology D415+ with 4-2TB solid state drives in a RAID 01 configuration - for the music files so I could avoid having two huge music directories on the network with one on the Endpoint running the Roon Core and one on the NAS.

My issue was not one caused by Roon. Rather, it was all due to my being in a hurry and not practicing RTFM again. However, having learned my lesson, I managed to eliminate two errors that prevented me from making the shared folder connections.

1. When trying to connect to a shared folder from your NAS or similar storage box, use the right address. Even though my NAS has an IP address, what I really needed was it's network address. Tip 8: Use your NAS network address, not the IP address. Instead of using https://NASXX/Music/xxxx, use \\NASXX\xxxx. You'll note the shorter network path there. Here's why...

2. Roon will only "dig" down so far into a shared network file hierarchy. Another reason it would not connect was that my music file paths were too far down in that hierarchy. If I used \\NASXX\Music\FLAC Roon only went to the next level below \Music and it would import ALL the files into one shared folder. I didn't want to wade through ALL my files to find what I wanted to build playlists. I needed to segregate FLAC from my Xmas folder, a MP3 folder, a New Music file and some others under \Music in order to build specific playlists. So I moved the FLAC, Xmas and New Music folders up in the hierarchy so they could be found one level below \\NASXX. I also added some numbers to them being 01, 02 & 03 respectively so they were at the top of the folder list under \\NASXX\ which eliminates some unwanted and unneeded searching on my part.

Tip 9: Roon seems to only go one folder level down in the NAS file directory. So you need to shorten the path and use \\NASXX\folder name.


Think about how you want your various music folders organized and labeled so Roon can build a network share you can use. I don't see a limit on how many network share folders you can build but I'll explore that later. Tip 10. Before you populate the network share folder in Roon, organize the folders on your NAS so they are easy to find.

I initially built a small shared folder in Roon to test the connection and my understanding of how it was supposed to work. I certainly didn't want to fail my own test, right? Here's what I did:

1. On my NAS I created a small folder called \\NASXX\Shared File Test and copied a few FLAC files over to it.
2. In Roon I accessed Settings > Storage and added that network share folder by clicking on the Add Folder button, then clicking on the Add Network Share link in the lower left of the Choose Music Folder popup box.
3. I entered the information necessary to access the NAS on the network (Network Share Location - \\NASXX\Shared File Test, Username, Password - Workgroup is not needed unless your NAS is part of a Workgroup set up under Windows) and clicked on Add Network Share. Roon made the connection and there was the file. Then I highlighted the new shared folder and clicked on the "Select This Folder" button while still in the "Choose Music Folder" popup box.
4. I went back to the Roon main menu > Playlists > clicked on the My Playlists button > +Add New Playlist. I created a playlist called Shared File Test (creative, right??? :)).
5. Then I populated the playlist with the FLAC files from the new Shared File Test folder.
6. Fingers crossed, I went to the playlist and clicked on "Play Now". Success!

At that point I built the three shared folders (FLAC, New Music, Xmas) following steps 2 & 3 above, then built some playlists for each.

Once I tested each playlist to make sure they all worked, I freed up some space on the music server by deleting all those music files I had copied over to it on 11/1/18 and deleted the test playlist and shared folder.

So that's it for now. I hope this helps anyone who is thinking about adopting Roon.
 
Well this is a great thread here for me to watch as I have been Roon curious for almost since its inception. Being a JRiver user I haven't felt the need for anything else EXCEPT for a streaming front end which is what Roon does. This makes complete sense to me as I have never cared for any of the streaming outfits front ends which are just dumbed down to the simplest terms that anyone off the street can master in a few minutes. Easy doesn't equal robust in my experience.

My concerns with Roon isn't the expense entirely, but the total investment I would need to make and then hope that they are around 5 years later to reap the investment. After all this IS a software company, and as such they often have a track record of faltering when the next great thing comes along.

So the investment.. I abhor subscription software! I am at the point where I am debt free, and keep my bills down to utilities, taxes, groceries, some booze, and that's mostly it. So if I were to go with Roon, I would go all in with the lifetime subscription right off the bat. Wish they gave more than a 2 week trial to decide.. seems like a month wouldn't kill them for the sort of investment they are asking.

Then that seems like all there would be to the upfront cost. However I know that there will be more. My PC is pretty much a train wreck when it comes to audio so I need at least a Raspberry Pi to run Roon (as I run JRiver through now). Then there is my NAS drive which I have read won't work right with Roon for some reason, so I would need to buy a better one. (Mine is a Seagate Personal Cloud). So there is probably close to $200 for that.

Finally there is all the playlist/smartlist work I have done in JRiver that would likely need to be recreated in Roon. So aside from the financial aspect, a time commitment to getting it up and running the way I want.

But the rewards would seem worth it if it lives up to its promise. Having control with my wireless mouse (touchpads make poor control interfaces IMO) access not only to my own music, but online sources, plus the great engine that finds music for me seems to be excellent from what has been written.

That it sounds "better" is interesting to me. I am of the belief that different is often heard as better, but I don't know if this is the case. It seems like all I would ever ask of a media player is to send to my DAC exactly what is on the file and the sound I get is up to the DAC.. Anything else is something else, or maybe I simply don't have a grasp on how it all works..

At some point I am just going to have to bite the bullet and try this. Maybe this winter I'll run the trial on my laptop and see if it can pull files from my NAS. And if it all works, I can hastily decide to buy in or not..
 
As a long time JRiver user I was leery of making the switch. I was encouraged by a friend whose opinions I respect and trust. So I figured the two week trial was a good way to see if it made sense for me to adopt it.

I, too, have a concern about Roon being available over the long term. As you noted, sometimes these things come quickly and go without much consideration given to those who have bought into the product. I rationalized my concern with reminding myself that, as with so many other things I've enjoyed over the years, nothing lasts forever. But, if you acquire something and enjoy it, by all means enjoy it for as long as you can.

As far as the infrastructure requirements, I already had that covered. I insured that there was nothing else needed and proceeded.

I had some extensive playlists built in JRiver but found it was easier to build and manage playlists in Roon. Once you have it loaded, and the library populated, sorting through your music is easy. Selecting whole albums or individual songs to build a playlist goes very smoothly.

WIth respects to control, I can operate Roon from a networked laptop or my tablet. Adding a Roon remote device is simple to do and provides a great level of convenience.

I've been listening to Roon since I implemented it at the end of October. I am still struck by the differences in what I am hearing vs. what I used to hear. For me, in this case, different is better. I don't know why Roon sounds better, I can't explain it but all I know is I like the results.

Good luck if you decide to give it a try, @Alobar .
 
Tip 11: Volume Leveling

Many of us who have embraced the digital solution find we have a mix of files that have come into our collection at different times and from different sources.

They can be rips from CD's, downloads from online sellers such as HD Tracks, Linn Records, etc..., older Apple files, maybe there are some MP3s from friends, etc... For whatever reason they all have different volume levels when you play them. Instead of messing with the remote control all the time to modulate the volume, you can enable Volume Leveling in Roon. Here's how:

1. Go to your Zone Settings screen by clicking on the Zone icon at the lower right of your Roon screen. It probably looks like a speaker and it has the name of the zone under it.
2. A popup will appear with the name of the zone at the top. At the lower right of this box is what looks like the ubiquitous Windows speaker icon. Click on it.
3. Another small popup box will appear. Click on the gear icon to the far right.

This will result in the Zone Settings box appearing. You'll see 4 items under Zone Options.
1. The second item is called "Volume Leveling". I set mine to Auto.
2. The third item is where you can set the volume ladder. The loudest setting is at the top of the table when you click on that option. That's where I set mine as it works best with what my pre-amp default power on volume level. You can raise or lower this value to whatever works best for you.
 
It's easier to just throw a record onto the turntable. :D

I've been wanting to try out Roon but at the moment, I don't have an endpoint in my main system, and since my DAC setup only plays DSD directly from a network share and not from a USB input, I wouldn't be able to use it much anyway, other than for background listening. (I'm not about to downsample DSD to PCM.) But, I'm looking at upgrading the digital end of things in the next year or two, so that is why I've started looking into Roon now. I like that Roon can use Chromecast as an endpoint, as I have a few of those throughout the house now. Perfect for others to use, and they aren't fussy about sound quality (nor am I fussy over the kitchen or garage systems). :)

I have to be sure it will work with my file structure on my NAS (present or future), as I have things organized in a specific way so I can find them easily. But, that's what the trial version (and manual, which I hear is a must-read ;) ) is for. They expect a SSD for the Roon database drive, but that is easily remedied since even my current NAS has USB3 and eSATA ports I can tether a drive to, and smaller SSDs for that are cheap. My next NAS will have enough horsepower to run Roon Core. My current one will, but performance won't be optimal.

I only hope they still have the lifetime deal available when I'm ready to use it full time, provided I like it enough.
 
That's one of the nice things about my system. Having a small Windoze or Linux based box between the NAS and the DAC allows me to use that box as the Core point with the DAC as the Endpoint aka Output in Roon-speak. I haven't tried Chromecast as a Zone but I suspect it would work.

I had to do a little reconfiguring on my NAS to create the folder structure Roon would read. As I noted, it will only dig down so far into the NAS file structure so creating new folders below \\NAS in the network directory wasn't too hard to do. A buddy of mine runs Roon on his NAS but he hasn't implemented SSD's in that box.
 
Roon added Chromecast support just this past summer, and it should output up to 24-bit/96kHz which is the limitation of a Chromecast. For the family, they don't really care--if it puts out sound, it's "working." :D And I know I can use a separate "mini" computer for Roon Core--I could easily tuck that next to the NAS in the basement, run it headless, and I'm good to go. I just need more storage capabilities, so this is a good opportunity to trade up to a 4-bay NAS and get something a little beefier. (DSD and high-res are eating up a lot more space than the CD rips.)

My NAS has a feature where you can configure the entire set of drives as a single virtual volume, but if one disk gets corrupted, you're screwed. I prefer to keep things dead simple and as "pure" to Linux as possible to improve compatibility with everything. (Such as, using rsync for an automatic backup to a second network drive.) Thing is, my drive needs to have a structure like \\NAS\volume1\ just to arrive at that disk's root. When I expand to three or more drives then I could get away with changing that structure. However, I'm also reading that a symbolic link should work, so maybe I'm worrying about nothing. ;) (Indeed--I don't even have it yet. :D ) In fact, with my current setup, I may try a symbolic link to my Music directory in the root and see what happens--I'm used to working with them in my line of work (server admin) but ironically I never thought of using one on my own NAS!

Plenty of valuable notes in this thread--definitely will refer to it when I get to the trial stage!
 
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