Why I Stopped Using Roon

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nicoff

Well-known member
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Nov 3, 2014
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After being a longtime Roon user, I recently realized something surprising: I haven’t used it in months—and I don’t miss it. Who would’ve thought?

Since I’m a lifetime subscriber, cost isn’t my issue. But if I were paying monthly or annually, I’d definitely be questioning the value. Why pay more for the software than for the actual music service? That just doesn’t make sense to me anymore.

Over time, a few things have pushed me away from Roon:

- Cost – While I’m not paying ongoing fees (lifetime subscriber here), those on yearly or monthly plans should really ask: is it worth paying more for the software layer than for the streaming service? Especially when so many alternatives offer simpler, more integrated experiences for less—or even for free.
- Frequent software updates became a chore. Too often, when I just wanted to listen to music, I’d end up downloading updates and restarting my computer instead.
- The metadata overload—artist bios, album details, etc.—felt excessive. I know that’s a major selling point for some, but I found it more distracting than helpful.
- Focus was a great feature back when I primarily used my own music library. But now that I mostly stream via Spotify, it’s irrelevant.
- Limited streaming support is a major downside. Roon only works with Qobuz and Tidal—no Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music. I get that it’s not entirely Roon’s fault, but it still limits its usefulness.
- No-fuss alternatives like Spotify and Sonos have made me appreciate how seamless things can be. No constant updates, no reboots—just hit play and go.
- I also used to run HQPlayer with Roon, and while I enjoyed it, I eventually lost patience with even occasional tech hiccups.
- Roon requires a computer running in the background at all times. At this point, I’m asking myself: why bother, when streaming services let me access what I want instantly, without the overhead?

Ultimately, I don’t feel like I’m giving up anything meaningful. I can still stream in high-res when I want (Qobuz → Streamer → DAC), but more importantly, I can play whatever I want, whenever I want—without wasting time on updates, reboots, or troubleshooting. I might give up Qobuz next and replace it with Apple Music (they have an excellent Classical add-on now).
 
I'm glad you enjoy low-rez music and no longer care about the SQ of the music you are listening to.

Congrats on ditching Roon even though you have a lifetime subscription. It's great you will no longer have to deal with those pesky Roon upgrades and the annoying album data that provides you with too .much information.
 
mep said:
I'm glad you enjoy low-rez music and no longer care about the SQ of the music you are listening to.

Congrats on ditching Roon even though you have a lifetime subscription. It's great you will no longer have to deal with those pesky Roon upgrades and the annoying album data that provides you with too .much information.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the snark—I get it. I obsessed over resolution and sound quality for years (probably more than was healthy), but at some point, I realized I was spending more time tweaking and managing my setup than actually enjoying the music.

These days, I’m more interested in the emotional connection and ease of access than chasing perfect resolution. I still appreciate good sound, and I still use high-res when I want to—but it’s no longer the priority. For me, convenience and spontaneous listening have become more important than constantly optimizing playback chains.

Different paths for different people. I'm glad Roon works for you—honestly.
 
"Emotional connection and ease of access" are part and parcel of the Roon experience for me. I don't have to chase "perfect resolution" either.

By default I play the 16/44.1 version of albums. If there are other versions of the album available, I will only check out the "hi-rez" versions if I think the 16/44.1 is subpar. It only takes seconds to switch between the same cut AND determine which version sounds better. 99% of the time I find that the RBCD 16/44.1 version of albums smokes the "hi-rez" versions. It's a 100% if you love jazz and play any RVG remastered recording and compare it to other "hi-rez" versions.
 
Nicoff,

I read through your list of ‘reasons’ and thankfully, I am not afflicted with any of those issues.

I will comment that at some point, how many music services do you need? I am quite happy with Qobuz and my own library and have no need for any other service. There is already more music on my hard drives than I will listen to in my lifetime. Add Qobuz to it and I am over the top, buried in hi-res music.

The loss of Apple Music and Amazon music or Spotify is no loss to me.

To each their own.
 
I also had that idea, why bother about Roon, while the same stream can be achieved by a direct Qobuz/Tidal connection. Here my thoughts:

What I like

- DSP - conversion to higher resolutions
- Multiroom, you could send to streams at a time to different rooms
- free radio stations, here in my country something like tunein costs money. Especially here, those streams come into the house in mp3 format and an upsampling does wonders
- Adding my own cd's to the roon library
- Roon arc. Streaming my own unique albums which are on no other streaming service, except your own roon server with your version on it stored on the harddisc

what I don't like

- the short library in Tidal/Qobuz, more and more of my favorite albums and tracks disappear
-the server does need to have a descent processor up to intel i3, while a direct stream can be achieved with small processors, size raspberry pi. Most high end streamers have such small processors, which makes an extra roon server mandatory.
 
crwilli said:
Nicoff,

I read through your list of ‘reasons’ and thankfully, I am not afflicted with any of those issues.

I will comment that at some point, how many music services do you need? I am quite happy with Qobuz and my own library and have no need for any other service. There is already more music on my hard drives than I will listen to in my lifetime. Add Qobuz to it and I am over the top, buried in hi-res music.

The loss of Apple Music and Amazon music or Spotify is no loss to me.

To each their own.
Click to expand...

I agree 100%. I had Tidal and Roon once upon a time until I figured out Tidal and their sheep-dipped MQA files weren't my cup of tea.
 
I go through this calculus every year at ROON renewal time. So far I’m still a ROON user and like the seamless integration with my local content and streamed content from Qobuz.

But I totally get where you are coming from as ROON seems to be concentrating on features I don’t use.
 
Bought lifetime Roon when it came out. Such a simple setup - NUC with ROCK and a Renderer V2 in my DAC. Controlled with whatever I am sitting at, or whatever is in my hand.

I agree that developments to Roon over the last couple of years have not been particularly beneficial to me. Despite the simplicity of the physical system, Roon can wreak havoc on your network, because of the many internet asks to display all the metadata, and contextual information offered. I had several episodes of network issues. These went away with a small dongle in the closet with the EdgeRouter, which did an on/off sequence at night for the router + cable modem + switch.

I would like to see Roon continue development, but I would like more options to turn off many of the functions. That way someone configure the process to allow a custom setup. Feature rich if desired, or light weight, and easy on the server hardware and network. One part already works like this - the equalizer system can be run in a complicated fashion, or turned off. I don't use the equalizer segment, and I don't want to stream from my NUC to access my music on my phone outside of the house. Qobuz (and mainly Audible) has enough content for me away from my room. It would be nice otherwise be able to switch a toggle to turn off the contextual part of the system, and minimize the extraneous network activity, and improve the SQ + perceived responsiveness of Roon itself, when just wanting to hear the music.

I am hooked on being able to call up music from my desk computer, or any iOS device I have in my hand at the moment. I bought the Black Friday sale BOGO for Audirvana, and will be experimenting with it after I get my system up. (mid May) Running the ROCK OS on a NUC is just so simple, and rock solid. Running another server OS, and maintaining it would be so much work.

Of course buying a dedicated device like Aurender, or Lumin, or the like would simplify the server end of things too.
 
crwilli said:
Nicoff,

I read through your list of ‘reasons’ and thankfully, I am not afflicted with any of those issues.

I will comment that at some point, how many music services do you need? I am quite happy with Qobuz and my own library and have no need for any other service. There is already more music on my hard drives than I will listen to in my lifetime. Add Qobuz to it and I am over the top, buried in hi-res music.

The loss of Apple Music and Amazon music or Spotify is no loss to me.

To each their own.
Click to expand...
For me, music is all about sharing and having fun with friends—it’s no longer just a lonely pursuit in an audiophile setting. Hardly anyone I know has even heard of Qobuz, so it’s tough to collaborate or have group sessions there. Meanwhile, Spotify makes it super easy to create shared playlists and listen together. As for so-called high-res music, most of it is just the same standard tracks originally recorded in lower resolutions, repackaged without anything truly new. That’s all there is to it.
 
While I'm no professional, and my equipment is not mega expensive, I can say that I go to a Christmas party every year with my Peachtree Audio deepblue2 Bluetooth box. And I can say that without a doubt, my music (or anyone's) streamed from Qobuz sounds far superior to my brother's (or anyone's) music streamed from Spotify.

Another example: I remember many, many times listening to music from iTunes on a close friend of mine's reasonably good system and always wondering why it consistently sounded so crappy. Side note: his wife even notices how much better it sounds now that they finally have Qobuz, and she, like most people, either doesn't typically notice SQ differences or doesn't care. In this case, she noticed a significant jump in SQ.

Same thing with WWOZ, one of my favorite stations. I can't figure out how to get a stream quality higher than MP3, and it sounds flat-out horrible on my main rig compared to the other internet radio stations that I listen to in the Qobuz App (Radio Paradise is one great example of the latter.)

I get it - the UI is very nice with Spotify, but I can't get over the consistently lousy SQ of MP3's. I'm guessing that users have found ways to make it sound acceptable, or maybe they're just OK with MP3's. I am not one of those people.
 
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JCS123 said:
And I can say that without a doubt, my music (or anyone's) streamed from Qobuz sounds far superior to my brother's (or anyone's) music streamed from Spotify.
Click to expand...
I agree on my system Qobuz sounds superior to Spotify.

I love Spotify for finding new music initially, then I go over and add the songs in Qobuz for serious listening.
 
Comparing Spotify SQ to Qobuz is like comparing a McDonalds hamburger to a filet mignon.
 
Bones13 said:
Bought lifetime Roon when it came out. Such a simple setup - NUC with ROCK and a Renderer V2 in my DAC. Controlled with whatever I am sitting at, or whatever is in my hand.

I agree that developments to Roon over the last couple of years have not been particularly beneficial to me. Despite the simplicity of the physical system, Roon can wreak havoc on your network, because of the many internet asks to display all the metadata, and contextual information offered. I had several episodes of network issues. These went away with a small dongle in the closet with the EdgeRouter, which did an on/off sequence at night for the router + cable modem + switch.

I would like to see Roon continue development, but I would like more options to turn off many of the functions. That way someone configure the process to allow a custom setup. Feature rich if desired, or light weight, and easy on the server hardware and network. One part already works like this - the equalizer system can be run in a complicated fashion, or turned off. I don't use the equalizer segment, and I don't want to stream from my NUC to access my music on my phone outside of the house. Qobuz (and mainly Audible) has enough content for me away from my room. It would be nice otherwise be able to switch a toggle to turn off the contextual part of the system, and minimize the extraneous network activity, and improve the SQ + perceived responsiveness of Roon itself, when just wanting to hear the music.

I am hooked on being able to call up music from my desk computer, or any iOS device I have in my hand at the moment. I bought the Black Friday sale BOGO for Audirvana, and will be experimenting with it after I get my system up. (mid May) Running the ROCK OS on a NUC is just so simple, and rock solid. Running another server OS, and maintaining it would be so much work.

Of course buying a dedicated device like Aurender, or Lumin, or the like would simplify the server end of things too.
Click to expand...
give Volumio a chance, Nowadays there is a desktop version which also can install on your nuc. The paid version has oversampling.

The only reason I don't use Volumio is because of the Roon lifetime membership.
 
I like having all the choices we have to source music and then on how we reproduce it. It’s a rich market for audiophiles these days.

I understand what Nicoff is saying as the benefits he sees with Spotify. Cool. They just aren’t benefits to me.

Likewise, there are benefits of Qobuz and ROON that many of us enjoy which Nicoff does not.

That’s what makes the world go around.

I do wonder why you start a thread highlighting on why you don’t use something. Why not start a thread stating why you do like your method and sources. A bit of gaslighting in my opinion.
 
mep said:
Comparing Spotify SQ to Qobuz is like comparing a McDonalds hamburger to a filet mignon.
Click to expand...

Not everything needs to be gourmet to be good. Like the old commercial says: sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t.

Qobuz is great for critical listening, no doubt. But let’s be real—Spotify nails it for most people. It sounds great, it’s ridiculously easy to use, and it actually helps you discover new music instead of just flexing your gear rack.

At some point, it’s not about fidelity—it’s about knowing when to stop pretending your lunch is a tasting menu.

Wagyu beef, anyone?
 
I got Roon lifetime subscription years ago, maybe not the first tier but definitely 2nd tier pricing.

I have the Aurender N20 and ACS10 and before that had the N10. Haven't used Roon in years, as the Aurender software is superior. I have done various network optimization and my DAC is a MSB Reference. I have over 11K albums on the ACS10 and it sounds much more analog than streaming the same album online.

I have Tidal, Qobuz and Amazon Music, if I was going to do it today I would definitely not be buying Roon with so many free and better options available these days!
 
nicoff said:
Not everything needs to be gourmet to be good. Like the old commercial says: sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t.

Qobuz is great for critical listening, no doubt. But let’s be real—Spotify nails it for most people. It sounds great, it’s ridiculously easy to use, and it actually helps you discover new music instead of just flexing your gear rack.

At some point, it’s not about fidelity—it’s about knowing when to stop pretending your lunch is a tasting menu.

Wagyu beef, anyone?
Click to expand...

Roon doesn't help you discover new music? Really? I'm glad you got off the high fidelity train and jumped on the low fidelity bus and that makes you happy.

You are living proof that not everyone who joins high end audio forums actually cares about high fidelity.
 
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