Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

The setup you're considering is brilliant. It's only drawback is the expense. I do have some occasional niggles with Roon running on an NUC but I've also got quite a bit going on on my network.

I've been using it for a few years and it does everything you've realised it does and more. It's great for finding related music and the reviews and metadata are extensive.

Your NAS may be able to run the Roon core too. Apparently it's a a bit slow on larger libraries running on a NAS but a large library in Roon terms is huge, I would guess that some Roon users have more hours in music in their libraries than they have hours left on earth.

I ran a little test for a year with Tidal and Qobuz side by side. Qobuz had 3 titles I added to my library that couldn't be found on Tidal after a year of searching. With Qobuz you can also buy digital music if that's your thing. I settled on Tidal because they provide slightly higher quality files as their baseline. If I wasn't using a decent size library to start with I might have gone with Qobuz.

Qobuz only albums were all electronica, I'm guessing Tidal can't get one or 2 electronic labels to play ball.

A couple of background facts about Roon :-

It's name doesn't mean anything, the CEO has form for choosing oddball names for their products.

Roon grew out of the Sooloos system which the company had written for Meridian, Sooloos systems had touch screens and integrated storage/dacs. They were very expensive.

I do this, without Tidal.. if I want to listen t an album to check it out i just use spotify free on my phone (or get my GF to airplay it to the hifi on her premium)..

if i like it, i buy it and add it to roon.

I used to do my auditioning with YouTube. The Qobuz/Tidal integration means you can add the track or album to your library and consequently playlists so it appears in your library almost as if you own it. I've found that means a few albums that ultimately don't get played also don't get bought. It's worth noting that you can limit Roon Radio to library only so you get to hear some of the tracks you don't yet own in rotation with the rest of your library.

It's a small change in the auditioning process but I've found it's really effective for the way I buy music.

It's also good at handling multiple versions of an album if you like to compare mastering/format of the same album. You can assign a primary version and decide whether only primary versions are shown.

Sure its definitely the ideal, i just dont want to fork out £20/mo for it.

If im paying for Roon, and I buy most of my music on vinyl (99% of which comes with a FLAC download), im not also going to spend £20/mo on tidal

I'm buying about 30 records a month but I do still have tidal at £10. I didn't find the higher quality version worthwhile but that's just cost cutting and largely due to the fact that I'm listening to a lot of music on vinyl as well as searching for decent versions even on CD.

One thing that annoys me about Tidal is that they can change an album after it's been released. Dropping tracks etc.

I'm also recording all my albums at 96/24 so I don't use the download codes. I don't get them in anywhere near 99% of the releases though. Leaving 12" and 7" aside I still only seem to get download codes with 50% of the LPs if that. I am buying quit a bit of Analogue Productions/Mofi/Speakers Corner though so that might skew the numbers.

Just had a look at the albumI have on the turntable at the moment. Dee Dee Bridgewater - Afro Blue on Mr. Bongo. No download code that I can see, I would have thought Mr. Bongo would be doing that.

Thanks, very useful reply.

Your NAS may be able to run the Roon core too.

My NAS is a bit clunky. Ideally I'd get a QNAP and run Roon on that, however I have a fairly new, cheap but adequate laptop which I currently use solely as a music server, so I'd run it on that at least for the time being.

Guess it depends where you get them/what you're buying, most of the ones I get are from record labels and buy directly through their bandcamps, or bigger labels i buy from Banquet and almost always get a DL code

One thing that annoys me about Tidal is that they can change an album after it's been released.

sounds a bit odd - any idea why this happens?

I'm up and running with Roon + Tidal now. Haven't played around with it extensively yet but initial impression is very positive.

The DSP in Roon is fun!

Rights on samples maybe. Explict lyrics possibly. Artist discretion or the record company I guess. I think it's going to be a constantly shifting landscape as artist and labels try to get a better deal from streaming.

I'm not even sure that music without videos isn't a bit niche for the money side of the music biz.

I'm getting them direct from a distributor. It's probably just the kind of thing I'm buying because I definitely get the cards in LP's but they just stay in the sleeve most of the time. Occasionally one gets in the fold of a gatefold but otherwise I don't go looking :)

I usually warn people not to try the trial unless it seems affordable because it's a good product. It took me a while to look at it but I was sold in a couple of weeks.

There's constant expiration and renegotiation of contracts, labels distributing stuff digitally they don't explicitly have rights to, etc

Yeah, I've had it for all of 4 hours and I don't think I'll be going back.

Interesting; thanks.

They made the lifetime option such a high bar money wise but it hangs there tempting you. Obviously I'm happy I took the plunge though, over the last few months I've been able to really get into late 50's early 60's jazz and find some albums I really enjoy.

I've got a good example of where streaming can be a let down. Yesterday I got a copy of Ladies Of Too Slow To Disco Pt. 2 the Tidal version I found had all but 4 tracks unavailable I assume for rights or licensing issues.

On another topic, anyone after a pair of decent stand mount speakers?

My Cyrus CLS70s have come back to me after being out on permenant loan for the last decade or so. I'm looking at some stuff on eBay so I need to move these on.

They are in pretty good nick and do what they do very well. They come with dedicated triffid stands which I painstakingly filled with kiln dried sand when I bought these new a long time ago.

The silver and black aesthetic won't please everyone but I'm going to offer these at a forum friendly price. Let's say £280 collected.

Yeah, 700 bucks is quite a bit.

I've got a good example of where streaming can be a let down

I might start buying vinyl again.

Yeah, I think I've also become a Roon convert in the last day. Solves my Tidal to KEF LS50w problem and it is a really nice bit of software.

Now seriously considering a NUC server to home the Roon core and my bandcamp purchases...

Used to be you could club together and buy 3 life licences together and get a discount. Not sure if that's still a thing.

Roon plus Tidal is really very good.

However I can't help thinking that Tidal is bringing a lot more to the party than Roon, and Roon is seems really expensive for what it is. But then, it's really good...

Any DAP recommendations?

I have limited storage on my phone so thought I could get a dedicated music player, but the options are so expensive for android DAPs, which would be tolerable were they not all enormous ugly clunky designs each with a major flaw. Each time I settle on a player I see it's got an overheating issue, or persistent wifi interference or even that they hiss!