I like Roon. I don’t like change, but I don’t expect much will happen in my time horizon.
It’s not fancy, but I like Sonos a lot so I’ll be fine.
And don’t forget that BIS records was bought by about fly by night operation—Apple.
1 Like
I dont think much change other than new lifetimes will be blocked.
I hope the people dont leave the company. Some small company folk hate corporate america.
haha so true
A few things I did think of tho…
-
Harman products will be quick to have Roon readiness built-in, and now that can be a selling point and the potential for an expanded ecosystem
-
Harman’s competitors might not be so eager to make their devices Roon ready (or might abandon Roon altogether) because it’s now a competitor’s technology vs an agnostic one
-
Harman could make it more difficult/costly for a competitor to get certification
-
Harman might require added fees by subscribers/lifers to use Roon on non-Harman products
1 Like
I agree with Bullet 1.
Bullet 2 - Roon costs money now and they still do it. They want it. You limit your sales if you don’t.
Bullet 3 - Roon already does this…lol… just ask Paul
Bullet 4 - Raising prices is usually the first thing they do. I hope the CEO built a freeze into his sale. My guess is still they kill NEW lifetime people. Subscriptions are the future of everything unfortunately.
I must admit I already hate the idea of paying what Roon charges.
I have been using a MAC mini as the Roon Core so it was not difficult to abandon Roon and put Audirvana on the Mac mini which is much less expensive.
I did some comparisons of favourite tracks played through Roon vs through Audirvana. and concluded that Audirvana sounds just as good.
Plus I put my music library on a USB attachable SSD disk which Audirvana happily creates a library data file from.
The big advantage of this is that you can run Audirvana WITHOUT a network connection once you have set it up. No wifi, no ethernet just a usb transfer which is nice IMO.
Fot those that want it there is some basic DSP software and custiomisable upsampling on the fly included in Audirvana
It is also quite possible to run a copy of Audirvana from an Ipad (or Iphone) which can be used like a normal control point so the Mac Mini does not need a screen attached.
1 Like
I’ll be honest with you. For a classical listener, the advanced search features in Roon etc are invaluable to me. I haven’t found anything else that even comes close.
I’d love it if audirvana or someone else did it. But really, that’s not their focus.
2 Likes
I think I disagree on every point!
-
If Harman wanted to make their products Roon Ready, they didn’t have to buy Roon to do it. They could just do it like anyone else.
-
Roon is remaining intact. Licensing agreements put obligations on Roon as well.
-
It makes no sense to make it more difficult to get Roon certification. Roon make more money every time a new product is certified.
-
Roon/Harman will set fees at whatever level needed to maximise revenues.
Roon was going to be sold sooner or later. I suspect they want it to become more mainstream, which would need new partners and a lot of new software development. Amazon HD integration would require a major rewrite, hopefully voice control.
Most of my home audio is Roon Ready and has Amazon HD (and Apple, Spotify, Tidal and uPnP). I can only use voice command for Amazon HD.
Audiophiles laugh off voice control, but for lots of normal people it is a requirement.
haha, fair enough!
Your thoughts make sense, too! 
The one thing that’s interesting is roon now being owned by a competitor (of whatever device wants certification) vs it being an agnostic thing… I do wonder how that will affect the relationship. But maybe it’s like Airplay and dealing with Apple?
Ahdunno.
1 Like
When it comes to licensing cash coming in, they quickly forget they are competitors. if you are loosing a sale to a competitor, might as well make a few bucks off that logo that appears on it. Its why Anthem does not have a DSD sticker but it certainly does DSD. Displays it on LCD, but does not have the sticker as they did not pay. Roon is a bit different as the software calls home to make sure they have paid up …sorry I mean been certified.