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mconnect HD vs Roon - A Brief Overview

Music1969

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Then you won't like LMS either.

I see the attraction with Roon's user interface. It really is a significant improvement over the others. But, I typically like to buy my software in one shot, if available, rather than doing a subscription. Roon's $699 price tag is a little tough to swallow when free, or virtually free, software is available that provides the vast majority of Roon's functionality that I use, as well as other functionality I like that Roon does not provide.

Don't need to jump to the Roon extreme.

I can 'cast' direct from Amazon Music UHD app , bit perfectly, up to 24/192k, to a WiiM Mini streamer. Optical output to DAC of choice.

Also Tidal Connect from the Tidal app.

These have very nice UI's that are continuously improving.

Do you use music streaming services or only play your hard drive files ?
 

mglobe

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Terry,

Comparing Roon to anything out there in regards of user experience and features is unfair imho :cool: Nothing comes close to Roon. That experience comes at a (somewhat premium) price. I first was very reluctant to commit to Roon, but after using countless hours and burning brains cells on forums, to find something cheaper, I eventually went with Roon. We (I) spend so much money on crap in our lives, so the cost of a monthly subscription to Tidal, Qobuz and Roon is OK for me. Buy 2-3 cd's a month, and the digital subscriptions are actually cheaper - with a black hole of music archives included. If I consider my hourly income in my day job vs. the time I've spent searching for a cheaper alternative to Roon, I could have bought a Roon lifetime subscription, and streaming subscriptions for a year or two :-D
What you get with Roon is quite unique, and I can reveal that with version 2.0 things get even better. I have to add, that I only stream music on Roon, and have no digital local archive (except CD's - that I'm not going to rip, when I can stream them with the same quality in sound online). I do like the rituals on putting on a CD or LP, and look and red/study the cover info though.

But again. If all you want to do is listen to music, an you mostly just press play, and listen to an entire album, I would 100% go with an Apple subscription, an Ipad 12.9" and a USB DAC and call it a day.
I'm with you 100% on Roon for all the reasons you've stated. In addition, I have a sizable digital archive, which it integrates beautifully. I subscribed to Qobuz and browse through it with he Roon interface, which works fine. Also really love being able to look at the personal on a recording I'm listening to, and then explore other music that they have recorded.
 

BDWoody

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I hope my Docker image of Roon on my NAS will automatically update so I can test it out. Who knows, maybe I will again change my mind. The two features that I want for that to happen are
...
2. Allow me to synchronize music streamed to my different systems that use different streaming protocols, i.e., assign to the same zone my system using UPnP/DLNA, my system using Airplay and my system using Chromecast Audio.

I hope that works properly for you.

I ended up basically spreading CCAs all over the place so I could sync things the way I wanted. Would have been more convenient for it to be able to work between protocols, but I got a pile of them when they were closing out at $15 so no big deal.

Your comparisons are certainly worth reading. Roon isn't for everyone, but I have appreciated how slick it is, and how well it does what it does without me needing to piecemeal something together that might be roughly functionally equivalent, but I don't mind rewarding their ongoing efforts. Based on the apps available now, it does look like they are adding full remote functionality, so that's pretty slick, and it comes as just another update.
 

Phorize

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I hope that works properly for you.

I ended up basically spreading CCAs all over the place so I could sync things the way I wanted. Would have been more convenient for it to be able to work between protocols, but I got a pile of them when they were closing out at $15 so no big deal.

Your comparisons are certainly worth reading. Roon isn't for everyone, but I have appreciated how slick it is, and how well it does what it does without me needing to piecemeal something together that might be roughly functionally equivalent, but I don't mind rewarding their ongoing efforts. Based on the apps available now, it does look like they are adding full remote functionality, so that's pretty slick, and it comes as just another update.
That’s interesting Brad, have you used the new app yet? I used roon for a year or so, but eventually went to mconnect/moode audio again as despite it being very slick I still had to switch to the qobuz app when on the move. Now if the new app means I can do it all in roon I’d be tempted to go back. Do you know if the mobile app does eq whilst mobile? -that would be a killer feature.
 
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terryforsythe

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Don't need to jump to the Roon extreme.

I can 'cast' direct from Amazon Music UHD app , bit perfectly, up to 24/192k, to a WiiM Mini streamer. Optical output to DAC of choice.

Also Tidal Connect from the Tidal app.

These have very nice UI's that are continuously improving.

Do you use music streaming services or only play your hard drive files ?
Both Tidal and files stored on my NAS.

The Tidal app doesn't connect to my SHD via UPnP, which is why I want another solution. Also, it is nice to have one app to access Tidal and my ripped CDs, rather than jumping back and forth between apps.
 

BDWoody

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That’s interesting Brad, have you used the new app yet? I used roon for a year or so, but eventually went to mconnect/moode audio again as despite it being very slick I still had to switch to the qobuz app when on the move. Now if the new app means I can do it all in roon I’d be tempted to go back. Do you know if the mobile app does eq whilst mobile? -that would be a killer feature.

It is just rolling out as we speak, and I'm getting it set up, but so far I'm pretty optimistic that this is the mobile accessibility I've been waiting for.

It's going to have some bugs no doubt, as my core shows it can't set up a connection while the Arc app is happily playing some Steely Dan, but I'm sure the worst of it won't last long.

Screenshot_20220920-141923_copy_432x936.png
 

Phorize

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It is just rolling out as we speak, and I'm getting it set up, but so far I'm pretty optimistic that this is the mobile accessibility I've been waiting for.

It's going to have some bugs no doubt, as my core shows it can't set up a connection while the Arc app is happily playing some Steely Dan, but I'm sure the worst of it won't last long.

View attachment 232192
Any idea of what it’s doing to ser up port forwarding?
 
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terryforsythe

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While testing on my Linux Computer, Tidal worked with LMS vers. 8.3 (LMS vers. 8.2 would not even run on that computer).

I now have the latest version of the LMS docker image, (vers. 8.2.0 provided by lmscommunity on dockerhub) installed and running on my NAS. But, Tidal is not working. The plugin is installed, but it is not showing up under Apps.

Does anybody know how to get Tidal working?
 

Phorize

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terryforsythe

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Did you install the Material Skin plugin? I use its interface in my browser and on Android. Pretty sure it works in iOS as well.

In the Docker image I installed on my NAS (version 8.2.0), under "My Apps" I can link to Tidal on squeezebox.com when using the "Default" web interface.

When I switch to the Material Skin interface, Tidal does not show up under Apps. Any idea how to solve this?

(I tried a Docker image of version 8.3 I found, but it would not start up. It was caught in some sort of endless loop.)
 

mrbungle

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BDWoody

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Any idea of what it’s doing to ser up port forwarding?

Seems to be hoping you are using a cooperating UpnP router, and if not they have some port forwarding help links.
 
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terryforsythe

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Material Skin is a "modernized" web UI for LMS. After plugin installed, you reach it at:

It will render in any browser and automatically adjust its layout to screen orientation/dimensions. On Android, there is an app available which will launch Material full-screen. I don't know if anything similar exists for iOS; just open Safari, input address above, and see what happens.
I used my browser on my iPad as you suggested. It works great, and actually controls the internal volume on my SHD properly (as noted, squeezer varied the stream volume rather than the internal volume). Now, if I can just get Tidal to show up in the Material Skin interface, I will be set. I suspect I will need until vers. 8.3 is officially released. I hope it comes soon.
 
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terryforsythe

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Sorry, no. Your might get more help over at the Squeezebox forum.
I got it figured out. The problem was that my Sqeezebox account had information from all of my various installations of LMS testing versions 8.2 and 8.3 on both my Linux computer and my NAS. I noticed it had each of my players listed multiple times when I logged into squeezebox.com. I deleted them all, turned off all of my players, restarted LMS, then turned the players back on and let them re-sync to LMS. That fixed it. Why that fixed a problem with apps not showing when the skin plugin is active is beyond me, but it did.
 
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TSX

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What would be the purpose of an Apple subscription?
Apple Music. My mistake. The largest catalog by far, and no BS highres extra pricetag. Unfortunately you’re “stuck” with airplay if you stream from an I-devices. By stuck, I mean no one really knows what’s going on with the airplay stream except Apple. If Roon could somehow integrate support for Apple Music, Tidal and Qobuz would become history.
 

TSX

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Also really love being able to look at the personal on a recording I'm listening to, and then explore other music that they have recorded.
That’s the main reason I’m using Roon. First time I tried it, hours went by browsing music, and discovering new info/artists. That hasn’t happen in a long time.

I never thought about the multi room features, before becoming aware of my sonos speakers being able to work with Roon. I like the Roon app way more than the S2 from sonos.
 
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terryforsythe

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Apple Music. My mistake. The largest catalog by far, and no BS highres extra pricetag. Unfortunately you’re “stuck” with airplay if you stream from an I-devices. By stuck, I mean no one really knows what’s going on with the airplay stream except Apple. If Roon could somehow integrate support for Apple Music, Tidal and Qobuz would become history.
Understood. My understanding is that Airplay uses a lossy compression, whereas UPnP/DLNA is lossless.

Interesting note related to my testing: Roon streams to my Yamaha receiver via Airplay. LMS is able to do it with UPnP/DLNA or Airplay, whichever I chose.

I had thought that Roon was streaming to my miniDSP SHD using UPnP/DLNA, but I was incorrect. It is using Roon's protocol, which also is lossless from what I can gather. In order to stream using UPnP/DLNA, evidently a Roon Extension called rooUPnP is required, which is another $35.
 
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terryforsythe

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That’s the main reason I’m using Roon. First time I tried it, hours went by browsing music, and discovering new info/artists. That hasn’t happen in a long time.
That's a feature I thought I would not use, but I ended up liking it.

Roon just updated on my system yesterday. I haven't really played with it too much yet (I was messing around with LMS). I briefly looked at Roon's ARC, but it through an error when I accessed it, which is expected due to the way I have my router/firewall setup. Anyway, ARC would be nice to be able to access Roon from outside the house but, for security reasons, I'm not sure I would want to open for Roon a port on my NAS to the Internet until I have a much better understanding of the security being implemented.
 
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