Oh, and just to state the obvious…
I cannot speak for Roon Labs. I’m just sharing my understanding as a long time Roon user and active member of their forum. I could be dead wrong. But I don’t think so.
Elk saidPlacing a product in the grubby hands of the general public is always the ultimate test.
Well, ROCK is out. And based on the feedback (or lack of problem posts thereof) in the Roon ROCK forum, things seem to be going pretty smoothly.
What Roon delivered is 100% consistent with what we were lead to expect. More actually, as they’ve announce an off-the-shelf-preassembled product in conjunction with DIY ROCK, for the less DIY inclined.
The platform works well, and is relatively easy to set up. It appears there’s been one, inconsequential, bug that was fixed within 24 hours. The rest is all good.
The only problem I can see from ROCK in “the grubby hands of the general public”, is from people not reading (or deliberately not complying with) the information accompanying the release; product information, installation instructions, supported device list, etc. I’ve got it running, and it’s awesome IMO. Would not for a second consider running RoonServer on my NAS when I can have ROCK.
When ordering one, is there a box we need to check to make certain you receive your commission? 
[Edited to add emoticon in a fur-smoothing effort to appease the easily offended.]
Elk saidWhen ordering one, is there a box we need to check to make certain you receive your commission?
OK. Not a subtle point. Just wanted to say “I told you so”.
I’m done now.
Elk saidWhen ordering one, is there a box we need to check to make certain you receive your commission?
Given the absence of any indication that your comment is in jest, I have to ask. What do you think the commission would be on a free product?
Is this the quality of post we should expect from a forum leader?
Regards
Mark
+1
I thought Elk’s comment, while a tad snarky (but funny) was to the point. Scolley seems cranked up to shill-level on this product, and not sure what necessitated the “I told you so”.
I run Roon so I found it very useful, I was not aware of what ROCK was.
markus46 said Given the absence of any indication that your comment is in jest, I have to ask. What do you think the commission would be on a free product?Sorry, my severe allergy to hyperbole/shilling flares up on occasion. Yes, the fact the OS is free is the precise irony on which my prior tongue in cheek comment is grounded, I assumed this would be understood. I will add an emoticon to my earlier post for humor impaired snowflakes.
scolley said Just wanted to say "I told you so".I caught that. Thus, my reply in kind.
rogerdn said I run Roon so I found it very useful, I was not aware of what ROCK was.Excellent! These discussions are great for learning.
If you choose to try it, please report back with your observations.
Elk saidElk - there was no hyperbole in my post. Not that I can see. It was all pretty factual, no exaggerations. And to be shilling I'd have to get something - some form of renumeration - from Roon. And I don't. So the post was not shilling either. Granted, I really like the product. But 5 minutes Googling will show that most of the industry enthusiastically agrees with me on that. So my enthusiasm is not unique. Heck, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that Paul M's got Roon set up in the PS Audio demo room.…severe allergy to hyperbole/shilling flares up on occasion…
Most important was getting the word out that an excellent alternative to Roon on a NAS exists (provided you can afford a NUC), and thus on topic, and possibly helpful to some readers of this thread.
Oh, and just to be accurate, ROCK is only “free” in the same way all Roon Labs software is free. There is no charge. But if you haven’t spent money on a license to use it, it won’t work. ROCK is just more of the same in that regard.
scolley -
Aside from the sheer number of words you’ve posted about it, I’m guessing Elk and I are reacting to the marketing-speak you’ve ventured into. I am a happy Roon user, and this may indeed be the greatest thing since sliced bread for us Roon users. Just not sure how you knew it would be all these things listed below, unless you were either creating or repeating hype. No offense intended : ). They should hire you, though.
“That’ll not only work great, it’ll sound great, and it’ll be supported like crazy by Roon Labs.”
“Not only do you know it will be fast (because the OS is optimized for the NUC platform), but it’ll sound great AND it’ll be uber stable. Why? Because ROCK has no GUI (it’s headless), and you can’t even RDP in for a command line, because they don’t give out the root password. So there’s no way in, no way to break it. IMO ROCK is an appropriate name. For it will be a set-it-up-and-forget-it Roon appliance, and solid (stable) as a rock.”
“Well, ROCK is out. And based on the feedback (or lack of problem posts thereof) in the Roon ROCK forum, things seem to be going pretty smoothly.
What Roon delivered is 100% consistent with what we were lead to expect. More actually, as they’ve announce an off-the-shelf-preassembled product in conjunction with DIY ROCK, for the less DIY inclined.
The platform works well, and is relatively easy to set up. It appears there’s been one, inconsequential, bug that was fixed within 24 hours. The rest is all good.
The only problem I can see from ROCK in “the grubby hands of the general public“, is from people not reading (or deliberately not complying with) the information accompanying the release; product information, installation instructions, supported device list, etc. I’ve got it running, and it’s awesome IMO. Would not for a second consider running RoonServer on my NAS when I can have ROCK.”
scolley said . . . on topic, and possibly helpful to some readers of this thread.Absolutely, and I am certain there are those who are very interested. I hope they try it and report back.
I’ll leave to each reader whether your eager glowing praise of this apparently flawless product embraces the hyperbolic. [insert preferred emoticon here]
Looks like this will compete with the SonicTransporter, which I have, but 2-3 times more expensive so it will have to add value.scolley -
“That’ll not only work great, it’ll sound great, and it’ll be supported like crazy by Roon Labs.”
"Not only do you know it will be fast (because the OS is optimized for the NUC platform), but it’ll sound great AND it’ll be uber stable.
badbeef saidJust not sure how you knew it would be all these things listed below, unless you were either creating or repeating hype. No offense intended : )
And no offense taken. Really. Your question is a good one.
In reply, I’m one of the small set of Roon Knowledgebase Editors on the Roon forum, that don’t work for Roon. Like moderators on most forums, it’s an unpaid role, at the request of the forum owners, that exposes me to a lot of information/material that the general public does not see and/or allows me to see some information before it’s released to the public. It also places me in semi frequent communication with various Roon employees about products/plans. In no way is this any kind of access to any kind of Roon “inner circle”, nor grant me access to tightly guarded secrets. It’s just exposure to somewhat more than the average person on their forum. And I’ve not previously, publicly, mentioned that role here, as I did not want to appear to be boasting.
Though I do believe everything you quoted from me is all material that was publicly available through many various comments made by Roon employees, primarily in their forum. How ROCK was going to work (what it would do, etc.) was not a secret, though that information might have to be pieced together from multiple places. But that it worked, and worked well was something that I was exposed to as a KB editor, though that too could be surmised - if not directly found - from publicly available information, were one following ROCK postings closely.
In summary, I had unique assess to information, though all of what I’ve said was already out there for people really looking.
rogerdn saidLooks like this will compete with the SonicTransporter, which I have, but 2-3 times more expensive so it will have to add value.
One might say it competes, though I’m not sure “compete” is the right word since there’s no additional charge. It’s just adding more value to the brand. You could buy a SonicTransporter. Or if you are DIY inclined, you can build a RoonServer appliance now yourself. Whatever options your purchase of a Roon license got you before, it gives you more options now.
I was referring to the $1200 and $2000 hardware packages, do you think they might offer improved SQ ?
scolley said I’m one of the small set of Roon Knowledgebase Editors on the Roon forum . . .I do believe everything you quoted from me is all material that was publicly available through many various comments made by Roon employees, primarily in their forum.
Thanks. This places your comments in context and explains why your posts read as ad copy.
Regardless, and more importantly, in addition to slicing and dicing, does ROCK make julienne fries?
I hope the average Roon user who has tried ROCK is as pleased with it as you and Roon promised they would be.
rogerdn saidI was referring to the $1200 and $2000 hardware packages, do you think they might offer improved SQ ?
Well, as far as I know, there is no SQ difference in those two hardware packages, provided you are not trying to run the $1200 version with a library larger than it was designed for. And as to whether they offer superior SQ to other product out there, I would not know. I DO know that Roon that ROCK - whether in a DIY NUC, or in their Nucleus NUCs - is going to offer the best SQ you are going to get out of a Roon core. But that does not mean that it’s necessarily audibly better than other things like your SonicTransporter. I guess time will have to tell on that.
I can say that you’ll find the pricing for th $1200 and $2000 Nucleus have been set with HiFi shop pricing in mind. So while they may be offered online, the price is consistent with what the Nucleus dealers will be charging (to cover markup for the HiFi shop, and more markup from the shop’s distributor.) So when you look beyond the fancy case, I don’t think you’ll see a lot of additional value over buying a nice NUC and installing ROCK. That is unless you are the target audience for the Nucleus, which is someone that’s willing to pay a premium to not have install anything themselves, and are willing to pay said premium for the knowledge that the SQ will be as good as is possible.
Thks for the detailed reply, assume the ROCK O/S is different from what’s on the ST, any chance Andrew could install it ?