Hi John,
Here are some quick facts about roon vs. your current solution that may affect your decision:
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Current Solution
|
Roon
|
|
Software Cost
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Free
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$9.92/month
|
|
Streaming Cost
|
Free (Spotify covered on son’s family plan)
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Spotify is not supported. Upgrade to TIDAL for $16.99/month for Value HiFi plan or convince your son to move to TIDAL and add you to his family plan.
|
|
Compatible with Squeezebox
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Streams to DLNA Renderers
|
yes
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no
|
|
Smartphone and tablet Apps
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Index library on NAS
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yes
|
yes
|
|
Licensed high quality metadata including album art, credits, artist and album reviews, and song lyrics
|
no
|
yes
|
|
Seamless integration of library albums and subscription streaming content
|
no
|
yes
|
|
Advanced metadata search (eg., by bass player or production engineer)
|
no
|
yes
|
|
Easy to export and share playlists
|
yes
|
no
|
|
Oppo BDP-93 Support
|
yes
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no
|
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Streaming degrades sound quality
|
yes
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no (see here for details)
|
|
Lossless Internet Streaming
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no
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yes (via TIDAL HiFi)
|
|
Supports MQA DACs and content
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no
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yes
|
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Transfer playback from one zone to another
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no?
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yes
|
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Group zones together for synchronized playback
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no
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yes (grouped zones must use the same protocol)
|
|
Control all zones from a single phone or tablet app
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no
|
yes
|
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Playback state for all zones is synced to all remote control apps and can be controlled from any of them
|
no
|
yes
|
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Each zone can have its own DSP and room correction filters
|
no
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yes
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Roon + TIDAL make a pretty amazing pair. Assuming the same master (I tested with Chesky albums), sound quality is identical to my local dBpoweramp CD rips. Many of the MQA master on TIDAL sound better than my CD copies.
Having TIDAL and Roon has really changed how I collect music. Since so much content is available on TIDAL, I only purchase music on physical media when it’s a rare issue (eg., MoFi, XRCD) or I just want to support the artist. Being able to search my music library and TIDAL for a particular mastering engineer is a useful feature that has helped me to discover albums that I enjoy and likely would not have found otherwise.
If you decide to give Roon a try, I recommend starting a TIDAL trial at the same time. You’ll have at least two weeks to explore the integration and features. The Roon guys are pretty friendly and may allow you to extend your trial if you need more time to make a decision.
Don’t hesitate to ping me if you have any questions. Cheers.
-- David