Alternative to Roon....

[MarkHH]

If you have an old Intel PC / MacMini and run plex on that it actually does sonic analysis of the tracks and will suggesting similar albums and similar tracks to the ones you are playing and some of the suggested playlists are autogenerated from sonic similar tracks. The reason this isn't available when deploying the plex server on a RPI is they use some Intel GPU architecture (for transcoding movie content on the fly) and this sonic analysis tries to re-use the same GPU.

I have 2 Plex servers for this reason - one mainly for Movies / TV shows / LiveTV / Audiobooks (happily running on a RPI) and one dedicated to Music on a small intel linux PC.

My Plex server runs on an Asustor NAS (Celeron N3050 based) and is still very busy with the sonic analysis. At a rate of approx 10 albums per hour it will take until autumn for me to use this feature

But besides that - for serving music Plex uses almost no ressources at all ... especially when compared with roon.

 

[Snoopy]

Cost: Lifetime license. Pretty much a no brainer if you plan on using roon.

I doubt I need to upgrade my M1 MacBook in the next 10 years for roon.

Support & online: yeah both suck. Roon support is probably the worst there is. Better not dare asking a question because there is always the risk that you get banned for 1-3 months.

They should at least offer the option to use a basic version of roon 2.0 without internet or at least with only logging in every 24-48 hours.

 

[MarkHH]

Cost: Lifetime license. Pretty much a no brainer if you plan on using roon.

I doubt I need to upgrade my M1 MacBook in the next 10 years for roon.

Support & online: yeah both suck. Roon support is probably the worst there is. Better not dare asking a question because there is always the risk that you get banned for 1-3 months.

They should at least offer the option to use a basic version of roon 2.0 without internet or at least with only logging in every 24-48 hours.

Frankly I got no idea how Streaming will look like in 10 years time, neither do I know how long roon will exist … I wish them very well, though, they do a decent job.

 

[Berwhale]

My NAS btw., which was too old & too slow for running the roon server software since rel. 2.0 is idling along when I play my music with Plex. And the annual fee for the Plex Pass required to run PlexAmp is US-$ 39,99 - a fraction of roon's annual subscription fee.

I paid $74.99 for a lifetime PlexPass in 2014, it's the gift that keeps on giving

Did you install Plex server using the AsusStor app store or manually using the package supplied by Plex? I packages on the NAS app stores are usually quite old.

 

[Berwhale]

If you have an old Intel PC / MacMini and run plex on that it actually does sonic analysis of the tracks and will suggesting similar albums and similar tracks to the ones you are playing and some of the suggested playlists are autogenerated from sonic similar tracks. The reason this isn't available when deploying the plex server on a RPI is they use some Intel GPU architecture (for transcoding movie content on the fly) and this sonic analysis tries to re-use the same GPU.

I have 2 Plex servers for this reason - one mainly for Movies / TV shows / LiveTV / Audiobooks (happily running on a RPI) and one dedicated to Music on a small intel linux PC.

Plex does Sonic Analysis on my Intel based Synology NAS (DS920+)

 

[Stokdoof]

I hate Roon these days. This because of the move to Arc replacing the older Roon app. As a lifetime subscriber I am really disappointed. Roon is not what it was before the move to Arc. The old Roon app at least fitted full screen on my ipad the Arc app only shows small. Also the older Roon app just looked nicer.

 

[MarkHH]

I paid $74.99 for a lifetime PlexPass in 2014, it's the gift that keeps on giving

Did you install Plex server using the AsusStor app store or manually using the package supplied by Plex? I packages on the NAS app stores are usually quite old.

i install manually using the stable releases ... and yes, $74,99 is a great bargain!

 

[PaulZH]

I hate Roon these days. This because of the move to Arc replacing the older Roon app. As a lifetime subscriber I am really disappointed. Roon is not what it was before the move to Arc. The old Roon app at least fitted full screen on my ipad the Arc app only shows small. Also the older Roon app just looked nicer.

I still use the legacy ipad app inhouse next to Arc when I’m out.

 

[ahofer]

I hate Roon these days. This because of the move to Arc replacing the older Roon app. As a lifetime subscriber I am really disappointed. Roon is not what it was before the move to Arc. The old Roon app at least fitted full screen on my ipad the Arc app only shows small. Also the older Roon app just looked nicer.

I'm using it on my iPad now, full screen, no problem.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

I use a Chrome plugin I wrote, which works with allmusic.com and either Tidal, Qobuz or Deezer. When you navigate to an album page on allmusic, there's a button to search for that album on one of the three services, then play it on a WiiM (Mini or Pro). Works nicely. Allmusic is the source of metadata for most 3rd party music apps, including Roon. I simply can't justify paying for Roon as a jazz album listener.

 

[ahofer]

I simply can't justify paying for Roon as a jazz album listener.

One thing I like about the Roon Metadata is if you like an artist playing on a particular track, you can quickly find out who it is and, with a click, zoom in on their recordings. I was introduced to Ulysses Owens that way, I think via Christian McBride.

OH WAIT, I'm an ASR objectivist, I don't listen to music. Never mind.

 

[Stokdoof]

I still use the legacy ipad app inhouse next to Arc when I’m out.

Ok thanks, tried the old interface also and yes it still indeed still works. I did not know..