When I checked with Paul on my last visit to Boulder earlier this month they were working on the user interface app and had all the user interfaces taped on a wall for the app developers to implement.
So, it’s coming. No word on when we’ll get to beta test yet.
–SSW
LOL!
I was not just stating a personal opinion. Right or wrong, many in the audiophile community were disheartened by the price of the Nucleus and Nucleus Plus upon launch. What Roon fan wouldn’t want hardware directly from Roon Labs? But even the audiophile press commented on their pricing in their review.
“…if you have money to BURN, you could also buy the Room Nucleus…” - Hans Beekhuyzen Hans Beekhuyzen Channel
But yes, I expect the PS Audio Music Server to raise eyebrows. Most of their best hardware is quite expensive. Their margins rival Apple.
Yours,
Byrdman
@Byrdman. Expensive? Seems very reasonable compared to other solutions. Octave, if it’s ever complete, will likely cost much more than Nucleus plus!
Probably not a good assumption to make that a small family company like PS has “margins that rival Apple”. If they do in fact, then good on them, as they are selling millions fewer products. If you think Nucleus is costly, then I’m not sure why you are complaining about Octave’s timeline.
I wouldn’t - much as it is entirely possible that I will not want software from a longterm hardware company like PS ; )
I do admire your first-time poster clickbait title and post. You may have a Future on the Interwebs, Bro.
For sure, Octave will be more than Nucleus but I don’t believe PSA makes any where near the margins Apple does, except for maybe power cables.
Have a look at pinkfaun.com for next level hardware to run any number of OSs and management/playback software. I have no connection other than a very happy customer.
Kinda gotta say that I don’t see Roon as “Music Software”. Seems too broad. Subscribed for a couple/few years. I see it as awesome metadata/browsing software. You want something else actually handling the music end of it.
That really doesn’t make much sense… very few are going to pay for Roon to be used a a browser. Roon seems as good as any other music playing software as long as you assure bit perfect transmission and take the trouble to galvanically isolate the Ethernet feed.
@fdreed - If you were responding to my post, I would disagree, and it has been generally held hereabouts (including the head honcho of PS) that Roon negatively affects sonics, compared with alternatives. And I would guess that a significant portion of subscribers use it solely for navigation/metadata with other devices handling the Audio.
Actually, I was responding to you! And now I am again… 
With regard to Roon SQ, you seemed to disagree with something I didn’t say. I gave some specific pre-conditions, namely bit perfect transmission and galvanically isolated Ethernet. I doubt the opinion “generally held hereabouts” included those conditions, but I realize I could be mistaken.
I do know that, in my system, Roon was sonically inferior to mConnect and some others until I added an optical segment to the Ethernet. After that, formerly significant differences between software SQ went away -just something I suggest everyone try before giving up on whatever they find to be their favorite browsing program.
Without any data AFAIK, we are just going to have to agree to disagree about a “significant portion” of people subscribing to Roon solely for navigation/metadata -I would bet that it is rare.
Roon gets a bad rap regarding sound quality I believe because it can be run on so many different OS, hardware and network configurations. Not to mention, Core and Endpoints.
Without a clear statement of the subject setup, one can jump to the conclusion it’s Roon when I would bet it’s the Mac Mini or PC laptop or other, and not running on a purpose built high end server like I have, at fault. I also have proper power and network isolation and realtime Linux OS specifically tuned for extremely low latency.
I use it, Roon, mainly for navigation, some PEQ on very boosted streams (JBRadio-2) and have it feed HQPe for player duties, all in one box. I slightly prefer the ‘sound’ of HQPe without upsampling into DS via IS2 vs. Roon alone over the same physical path. But if my purchase didn’t include HQPe license I probably would have never missed it. My server spend was north of the projected Octave hw price though.
Yep, I’ve got fiber between my streamer and the rest of the network, PCI board and SFP so no additional power supplies to fuss with.
AND my I2S board doesn’t pass the bit perfect test! Who cares, it sounds fantastic.
I have run Roon and Audirvana from the same PC and network into B2 and I think Audirvana wins hands down for SQ. I only use Roon because Audirvana is so buggy (on Windows at least) and the remote software is a joke IMO.
I look forward to Octave software running through a B3 at some stage in the future as I am hoping it will have good SQ and something to rival Roon in it’s interface (or at least closer than Audirvana).
Right now, I am using Roon, installed at a Qnap nas that lives 30 meters away from my system, in conjunction with hqplayer installed in pc that feeds my matrix spdif 2 though a SOtM USB card. All powered by LPS (including the PC). Great SQ. On par, or even better than UltraRendu. And it is fun to play with HQplayer’s filters.
I’m not happy with Roon’s sound quality but, aside from an occasional disc spin, I use it exclusively.
I think I could improve it’s quality if I get a better server setup. It’s running on a Mac Mini and I should likely move to ROCK on a NUC.
ROCK alone is a vast improvement over MacOS. Most any old PC will run ROCK if you have one around before committing to a NUC
So I was wondering exactly that.
From the Roon documentation, the disclaimer about problems running on anything other than the tested component kits, I wasn’t going to bother but I’m very comfortable with this type of thing and have patience so I will give it a shot on an older NUC I have here that already has an SSD.
The load takes a few minutes, they just can’t support it on anything but the specific NUCs.
It’s a basic Linux build, simple.
The discussions about the sound quality of Roon are often very controversial and emotionally discussed and apples are compared to pears.
As a source, a server should sound good and have great usability and software, if I can be sure to get the best, I pay for it.
Since 3 weeks I have an Innuos Zen Mk 3 with 8TB harddisk. Here I experienced Roon for the first time and have to say that it is fantastic. In a direct comparison the Rooncore sounds a bit less good. Its not Night and day but as a audiophiler its to much. I had to deactivate the Rooncore. Now I wonder what the reason is ? Is it only the smaller processor power ? It can’t be due to the rest of the hardware.
It’s a shame to have to decide between good operation or better sound.
What I would like to add. After this experience the Roon certivikation has therefore no more meaning for me. I must even be sceptical whether the Roon Nucleus+ really sounds better.
You mean, in the Roon context, right?
Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. So far either the software was the problem or the hardware. I hope that the Octave Server combines both perfectly.
It’s a central source device and many people still don’t seem to realize how important it is in a chain. This is not a new insight.