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In Reply to: RE: Whatever happened to MQA? posted by Dynobot on May 05, 2017 at 18:12:39
You make an interesting point about Roon that I hadn't really thought of. For those of us who do have a vast music collection on disk I like Roon's metadata and how it allows me to manage my library, playlists, manage audio devices (local and end-points), DSP, manage playback locally or via iPad tablet, automated database backup, etc.
But now throw Tidal or other streaming services into the mix and what do you have? Is Roon just a sophisticated 'front-end' for managing music from the streaming service? And is it worth it?
I'm not completely clear on this as I don't have a Tidal subscription. Does Roon offer any 'value-add' for Tidal? If you don't run Roon with Tidal what does it look like? In other words how is it managed and is it clunky, comparable, or just passable?
P.S. I don't care about Classical. I know that many 'players' have issues with handling metadata for Classical but my Classical collection (if you can call it that) can be counted on one hand. Thx!
Follow Ups:
this explains a lot behind your posts and preferences. Only classical,in the main, has the dynamic range and tonal/sonic qualities to expose issues in high quality systems.
...sonic qualities that can expose issues in high quality systems.
And so do audiophile test CDs. How many of those do you own?
But in your case you barely have any music at all because you're all about spinning the same tune over and over and over again to listen to your system rather than enjoying the music .
Is Roon just a sophisticated 'front-end' for managing music from the streaming service? And is it worth it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~IMO.
Yes and No.
Yes it is a sophisticated 'front-end' that provides a rich amount of info for your music....but thats about it.
Is it worth it? No, once you get past all the pretty pics and print, its just in the way. Sure its nice to have this info...but be honest, who actually reads it?
At the end of the day its all about 'Content' and 'Quality' of sound.
1) What content can you bring to my ears? Okay my own music, sure they all do that...and Tidal. Which means I am forced to pay the cost of one particular service in order to expand my content. Its like buying a car that only takes 17.87" wheels and only one company makes them.2) Roon has a good scheme on paper with the Roon Bridge etc. But in practice it does not sound head-and-shoulders better than any free product. In fact many say it sounds worse. In my own experience Roon-Bridge sounds different but not better than PiCorePlayer as the Bridge.
My advice to Roon was to go Open-Source. Its what put Android on the map [love them or hate them] via free software development and features which frees them from legal restrictions. For example, if they were Open Source we would have pretty much every online music source available. Spotify fixes already exist that could easily integrate it into Roon....see Volumio and Rune etc. They can keep their core product 'metadata info' closed.
Now take away Tidal....were would Roon be?
Roons whole business plan relied on associating itself with Hi-End companies and providing eye candy.
Dynobots Audio - Music is the Bridge Between Heaven and Earth
Edits: 05/06/17
I bought a Mytek Manhattan for reasons that had nothing to do with MQA. I can only say that there are perhaps a dozen albums on the Tidal offerings that I would listen to, most of them by Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane. My casual opinion is that the MQA tracks sound better than most of my ripped CDs. As far as I recall, I do not own any high-rez tracks, as there are always CDs—often poorly recorded—that I would prefer to hear.But I am not much interested in fine discriminations of audio quality. (Now if you want to do A-B testing on Scotch, count me in).
I have over 3tb of music from ripped CDs and a some from rare vinyl. I have different kinds of music—classical, blues, early RnB, and 60s Rock—but the largest part of the collection is jazz from the late 50s to the present. I am interested especially in more or less unknown jazz players, many of whom are, or were, based in NYC, and often released music on small NY oriented labels. I'd guess most of the music I listen to will never be released as MQA. I consider myself very lucky to be able to hear many of my favorite musicians live on a very fairly regular basis. Every night in NY there is more music to be heard that I can get to.
I think Roon is best for people who don't know much about music, and are looking for suggestions, or people who know a lot about much and are looking for ways to organize a large collection with what they can find on Tidal. I don't know about other kinds of music, but the obscure jazz I find on Tidal is quite amazing. Often there are a couple of albums by relatively unknown players and at least some tracks by really obscure people. I wish Roon had a social media feature that would allow people to share their knowledge about the music that interests them. I find myself shuffling from Roon to sources of information on the net—All music guide, Discogs, and the database of Downtown Music Gallery, and The New York Jazz Record.
Some one scolded me for being off topic. I thought my point was that MQA is a trivial matter--at least at the present. The chances of any new format becoming a standard is highly unlikely, but it is a minor element in the handling of the complex musical resources that are available. Of course, a lot of people are not much interested in music.
The Tidal app works well on a computer and an IPhone. When you are trying to get your head around a vast musical collection that includes Tidal, Roon is a great tool.
Okay so you like MQA and Tidal....is Roon the only way to listen to Tidal?
Dynobots Audio - Music is the Bridge Between Heaven and Earth
NO
i stream Tidal directly from a MacBook Pro
Alan
Thanks Alan....that was kind of a rhetorical question.
I wanted the poster to realize that they didn't need Roon to listen to the fantastic sound they got from MQA/Tidal.
Dynobots Audio - Music is the Bridge Between Heaven and Earth
Sound commemnts. Some nspend more time with this kind of stuff than setting up their systems for quality sound.
While others spend all their time playing the same thing over and over while listening to their system rather than enjoying music.
Another faked post based on deliberate misinterpretation or inability to comprehend what had been said.
Is your own post that I linked to faked?
Thanks. I get your comment about Roon providing eye candy, and it is pretty. But I also find it useful with navigating my library visually and fluidly as I did with iTunes. I didn't get into computer based music to look at screens full of text representing thousands of music tracks. I'm a 'visual person'. Roon makes it easy to fly through (scroll) album art as does iTunes but it also offers much more.
I guess one of my big issues is being able to easily and visually navigate the library by artist, album cover, etc. Can we do that in Tidal w/o using something like Roon in front of it?
Tidal gives you a month free.
It is easy enough to find anything you mark as a favorite, otherwise you have to use their search. The player is easy enough to navigate, but info varies, and there will sometimes be 3 or 4 versions of the same album with no explanation. Sometimes it says remastered or deluxe, other times nothing. And it doesn't list the release date, just the date it was added.
If you try it, after selecting Hifi and your DAC, there is another menu you get to by clicking to the right of your listed DAC. There you give it exclusive control, and whether you want it to unfold MQA or pass it through untouched.
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