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Leaving Roon, Qobuz and Tidal

SKBubba

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I'm thinking about abandoning roon+qobuz, too. I haven't had any real technical problems with roon. They're just missing some features, are very slow to develop them, and some existing features are inferior. Plus, their aloof, superior attitude bugs me. Roon also seems complex and fragile. I think they made some bad choices of cross-platform development tools and it's holding them back.

I've been using Spotify for several weeks now. I like the Connect feature for controlling PC playback. I wouldn't even need the PC because my main amp has Connect built in. But, the built-in app doesn't support volume leveling and the PC app does.

Well, I gave up on Spotify. Looks like they have abandoned hifi. I'm back on roon, except with Tidal now instead of Qobuz. Tidal has the better mobile app, and MQA is evil but it doesn't suck. Roon is by far the best playback/library app, and its Tidal integration works better than its Qobuz integration.
 

Rottmannash

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I’ve recently been experimenting again with both Qobuz and Tidal in Roon. I’m now finding Tidal more stable and reliable than Qobuz. Adding new albums is snappy and zero music has gone missing. Qobuz on the other hand is still as buggy and unstable as ever (simply adding an album to my library is an adventure). That’s my two cents on the current state of affairs, others may be having different experiences.
I just check on the heart symbol and the album is added. Not diffucult and works every time.
 

Zensō

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I just check on the heart symbol and the album is added. Not diffucult and works every time.
With Qobuz, over 50% of the time I do that and it just sits there and spins indefinitely. Then I leave the page and the album isn’t added. Tidal is zippy in comparison. It’s definitely not my LAN, but I suppose it could be an issue with Qobuz‘ servers in different areas.
 
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Jimbob54

Jimbob54

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With Qobuz, over 50% of the time I do that and it just sits there and spins indefinitely. Then I leave the page and the album isn’t added. Tidal is zippy in comparison. It’s definitely not my LAN, but I suppose it could be an issue with Qobuz‘ servers in different areas.
Yup. Everything about qobuz, via roon, native apps or other front ends I have tried is clunky and slow.
 

elvisizer

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Yup. Everything about qobuz, via roon, native apps or other front ends I have tried is clunky and slow.
so have you thought about what that implies about what you're running them ON? time to upgrade whatever that is, yo. this software isn't strenuous and doesn't run slowly for me even on pretty old hardware (Roon core on a 2012 Mac mini, iPhone 8 and first gen iPad Pro as clients)
 

Timcognito

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Thanks to @Jimbob54 for this post and those who shared their input. This is the kind of s_____tive posting that is helpful here. Not veils lifting with ever increasing soundstage kind, which is BS.

Trying to keep rock throwing down.
 
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Jimbob54

Jimbob54

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so have you thought about what that implies about what you're running them ON? time to upgrade whatever that is, yo. this software isn't strenuous and doesn't run slowly for me even on pretty old hardware (Roon core on a 2012 Mac mini, iPhone 8 and first gen iPad Pro as clients)
You know I'm taking about qobuz not roon in that post?

But whilst you mention it, try running Roon with a large local library, large tidal and large qobuz library then hitting "shuffle". Or try syncing a 10000 track playlist from Tidal to Roon. Yeah, that can get clunky too.
 

jmaz87

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I've been using Plexamp with Tidal for nearly a year and I'm debating trying Spotify if they ever get HiFi rolling... it would be convenient since GF already has an account and my annual promotion with tidal is up in Feb.

when YouTube Music became a mockery of GPM I started to look around. I like Tidal and love that I can use Tidal connect with my RPI3 (volumio) in the Livingroom for a "bit-perfect" streamer and I can also use foobar2000 to stream my local stuff over UPNP.

Plexamp however can do neither, while it does have great radio and supports all my google cast devices none of them are decent enough to justify a lossless source...
Spotify connect does work with my RPI as well and the fact that we could probably save money having a family plan makes it really tempting.

Tidal app is kind of meh for me the suggestions aren't great, worse even than YTM which butchered the algorithm GPM used... I hear Spotify radio/ suggestions are one of its main strengths.

Plexamp is almost perfect but I noticed some newer tidal albums only showing up as 96 aac which to me means encoded mqa... bringing up another concern as to whether I'm even getting native CD in tidal app or just mqa lossy transcoded to 16/44.1 flac when they only have one album... I distinctly see 2 albums sometimes and others not... mildly concerning...

anyone else give plexamp a try? overall i like using it the most but I've barely used Spotify admittedly.
 

Peterinvan

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8 days left in my free Roon trial to make a decision. So far the DSP has been excellent (this was the main driver to look at Roon, easy customized DSP across multiple endpoints), the common interface with different endpoints is excellent, but the unexpected bonus was integration with Qobuz so now my library is a one stop shop. Discovering new music is easier and more fruitful. A library unexpectedly disappearing will be a big disappointment - maybe it will be a month by month transaction until I'm confident my library won't vanish.
I am using Roon on 3 month trial. My main use case is to be able to EQ Tidal streams.
One excellent feature in Roon is the ability to export a Soundiz .CSV of any Tidal playlist. I consider these as a backup in case of issues with Tidal.
 

Snoopy

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I am using Roon on 3 month trial. My main use case is to be able to EQ Tidal streams.
One excellent feature in Roon is the ability to export a Soundiz .CSV of any Tidal playlist. I consider these as a backup in case of issues with Tidal.


I did 2 roon and audirvana trials in the last 6 months. On Windows i5 laptop and a MacBook air M1 .

Went back to my Cambridge streammagic app and audio player pro for a while.

Currently subscribed to roon for a month to make sure I really want the lifetime license.

But everything has been working great with roon since v1.8.

The DSP for headphones is good. Multiroom streaming has been a game changer.

Got a 1 year qobuz subscription and recently got tidal hifi via VPN from Argentina as well (costs only 90 cents a month).

Both services work great in roon and I integrated my small local library of Flac files.

It's a bit ridiculous that nobody else (blueOS, Cambridge, Yamaha etc) manages to make a app that combines Tidal, qobuz and a local library like roon does.

The raspberry pi solutions still feel like Linux did 10 years ago.
 

Raindog123

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It's a bit ridiculous that nobody else (blueOS, Cambridge, Yamaha etc) manages to make a app that combines Tidal, qobuz and a local library like roon does

Auralic does - with their Lightning DS app. But it only works on Auralic streamers (and Apple control devices).
 

mrbungle

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I did 2 roon and audirvana trials in the last 6 months. On Windows i5 laptop and a MacBook air M1 .

Went back to my Cambridge streammagic app and audio player pro for a while.

Currently subscribed to roon for a month to make sure I really want the lifetime license.

But everything has been working great with roon since v1.8.

The DSP for headphones is good. Multiroom streaming has been a game changer.

Got a 1 year qobuz subscription and recently got tidal hifi via VPN from Argentina as well (costs only 90 cents a month).

Both services work great in roon and I integrated my small local library of Flac files.

It's a bit ridiculous that nobody else (blueOS, Cambridge, Yamaha etc) manages to make a app that combines Tidal, qobuz and a local library like roon does.

The raspberry pi solutions still feel like Linux did 10 years ago.
Same here, after a year I renewed with a lifetime license. I switched to DietPi from Ropieee and never had any issues with the endpoints anymore. The last couple releases greatly improved performance and stability on iPad Remote, everything just works for me now. Occasionally meta data server is sluggish on weekend peak times, but has been fine recently. Not sure they upgraded servers or added some caching. Qobuz streaming and small to medium Flac library.
 

JanesJr1

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1. Amazon Music Unlimited - currently under trial but its £7.99 pm or £79 annual for HD. It is one of the few streaming desktop apps that allows local and online files to be merged and also allows a full library shuffle (both of which I need). Spotify allows you to play local files through its app , but it puts them in a separate "box" so you cant shuffle along with streamed content- so pretty pointless, may as well use Musicbee etc separately.
2. EAPO/ Peace for EQ on desktop. Seems to work just fine - not as slick as the Roon DSP for sure, but its free and works!
3. For mobile - my wife has a Spotify account and you can add a second "Duo" account on for only a couple of £ pm. So far so good, but only a paltry EQ function. But then I discovered Wavelet thanks to @Doodski brilliant post https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...acos-ios-ipados-and-android.18450/post-602403 and wonderfully gives seamless access to the Auto EQ database of settings. Yes, I would love a proper PEQ, not GEQ and/ or presets , but you can tweak the Auto EQ settings a bit with manual GEQ so good enough. Sadly, Wavelet cant EQ an Amazon Music stream (nor Tidal and a few others I think) otherwise I would have done that.

You mentioned in this post from last year that Amazon Music Unlimited "allows local and online files to be merged and also allows a full ibrary shuffle..." I have been using Amazon for 2-3 years and cannot find any evidence of this capability. By "local files" do you mean music purchased on Amazon and downloaded for offline listening? Or do you mean finding local .mp3 or flac files that you already own?
 
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Jimbob54

Jimbob54

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On the windows app. Within settings (Music Management- automatically import music from....)point it to the folders/ drives with your own files (from wherever) and it will show them in your albums library - alongside any favs on Amazon service itself. It tries to remove duplicates but not very successfullly- but you can definitely access both online content and locally stored files through the Amazon app as a player.

No idea about the mobile apps - but there appears to be an import setting there too.
 

Snoopy

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Did read a bit in the roon forum but that forum is kind of a mess.

Is there a way to prioritize qobuz over tidal?
I just played one of these random artist playlists and roon did play a tidal cd quality file while there was a hi-res qobuz file as well
 

Zensō

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Did read a bit in the roon forum but that forum is kind of a mess.

Is there a way to prioritize qobuz over tidal?
I just played one of these random artist playlists and roon did play a tidal cd quality file while there was a hi-res qobuz file as well
Yeah, it's a bit of a mess. Unfortunately, that's Roon support page, they don't use a normal ticket system like most software companies. I spent a few months trying to work through the iOS controller issues with support, but the problems were never resolved. It was a very frustrating experience. Fortunately, they've recently pushed out a couple of iOS updates that improved the choppy scrolling and thumbnail loading issues, though it's still not resolved for everyone on every device.

I don't believe there is a way to prioritize one service over another.

I don't mean to come across as argumentative on this, but just wanting to give a heads up since you mentioned possibly going with the lifetime subscription. I personally know a handful of people who regret doing that due to some of what we've discussed.
 

mrbungle

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Did read a bit in the roon forum but that forum is kind of a mess.

Is there a way to prioritize qobuz over tidal?
I just played one of these random artist playlists and roon did play a tidal cd quality file while there was a hi-res qobuz file as well
Yeah, it's a bit of a mess. Unfortunately, that's Roon support page, they don't use a normal ticket system like most software companies. I spent a few months trying to work through the iOS controller issues with support, but the problems were never resolved. It was a very frustrating experience. Fortunately, they've recently pushed out a couple of iOS updates that improved the choppy scrolling and thumbnail loading issues, though it's still not resolved for everyone on every device.

I don't believe there is a way to prioritize one service over another.

I don't mean to come across as argumentative on this, but just wanting to give a heads up since you mentioned possibly going with the lifetime subscription. I personally know a handful of people who regret doing that due to some of what we've discussed.
I also don’t want to come across as fanboi as some clearly had tons of issues, some serious like losing their entire database. Seems to be though Roon learned their lessons and they focused on performance and stability recently. I guess I was lucky starting Roon with a smallish library and recently upgraded network and hardware for WFH.
 

Zensō

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I also don’t want to come across as fanboi as some clearly had tons of issues, some serious like losing their entire database. Seems to be though Roon learned their lessons and they focused on performance and stability recently. I guess I was lucky starting Roon with a smallish library and recently upgraded network and hardware for WFH.
I was one of those who lost their database. I'm glad to hear things are running smoothly for you!
 
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Jimbob54

Jimbob54

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Did read a bit in the roon forum but that forum is kind of a mess.

Is there a way to prioritize qobuz over tidal?
I just played one of these random artist playlists and roon did play a tidal cd quality file while there was a hi-res qobuz file as well
No - I never found a way to do this . It allegedly picks the "best" version and therefore if the Tidal version (after MQA unfold ) is higher spec, its chooses that. I also think it defaults to Tidal if the files are "equal" - Tidal seems to have deeper integration.

I would guess the Qobuz file in your example was 24 bit 44.1 therefore technically Hi-Res but it picked the Tidal 24/44.1 but Im guessing at this point.
 
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Jimbob54

Jimbob54

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I was one of those who lost their database. I'm glad to hear things are running smoothly for you!
Ouch- losing (temporarily) my online favs was a bit of a blow but losing the DB itself is horrid
 
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