Behind Roon are the former developers of Sooloos. This was an audiophile music server system, which was later taken over by Meridian and still today under the name Meridian Control 15 is available. Roon Labs now offers the revised version of it as a software solution.
At Roon, there are two options for membership: the annual membership (which can also be viewed as a pro-course run) and the Lifetime Membership (Lifetime Membership). From the Annual Membership, customers can switch to the Lifetime Membership at any time. Unused months are then reimbursed. Of course, this subscription can also be terminated.
Range of use
It is not easy to keep track of a large number of programs available to users for managing and playing music. Roon claims all these solutions for itself. Therefore, a large number of manufacturers (such as Auralic, Bluesound, Bowers & Wilkins, Naim, Oppo and much more) are already working with Roon, so the high-resolution streaming technology is integrated into numerous devices, as is also known from other streaming portals. This includes network players as well as DACs and, of course, Roon runs on the common systems and devices: Windows PC, Mac, Android devices, Apple iPad and iPhone. Also working on a Linux version.
The popular HD formats such as FLAC, WAV and ALAC (up to 24 Bit / 384 kHz) are controlled by Roon and the software also plays the format DSD.
Tech Basics
The heart of the Roon system is a central media server. This is called Core and its task is to manage the music collection of the user. Over the Internet, it is fed with additional data to complete the digital music library. The core is installed on a Windows PC or Mac.
The audio files are received by the media renderer or the output and converted into a digital data stream before this is further processed by a digital/analogue converter. Roon is designed as a multi-room system, and the network is routed through the RAAT (Roon Advanced Audio Transport) streaming protocol.
Interface
The user interface is also called Control App or Roon Remote. The already mentioned core can be connected with any number of Control Apps. These, in turn, are based on a uniform program code which is independent of the device. This means that the user interface has a certain independence because it can be operated the same way on different devices by the same appearance.
When the user interface is started, the real albums, titles, artists, lyrics, biographies and images are displayed on the computer or an external storage medium. This selection is filtered through the selection menu. Thus, for example, musical forms such as arias and ballads or periods of production can be sorted.
After clicking on a particular artist, additional information such as the biography, lyrics and possible concerts are displayed nearby. This data is collected from All Music Guide, Gracenote, MusicBrainz, Rovi and Songkick.
By the way, if Roon is linked to Tidal, missing titles in his own library are supplemented by this provider. This allows you to complete your own playlist. A Tidal subscription is, of course, the decisive prerequisite.
Based on the personal music taste, the user interface develops a recommendation system that creates new artist links and thus expands its own musical horizon.
Conclusion
In usability and optics, Roon is ahead of other programs and streaming solutions because it brings a unified standard with it. The great plus of Roon Labs is, of course, the clean and vivid preparation of your own music collection. Roon can be tested in the demo version for two weeks, which gives ample time to get an impression of this provider. Above all, it will show that Roon is easy and intuitive to use. The surface is manufacturer-independent and easy to integrate into the household.