Quote:
Originally Posted by Thebenz
I like this discussion because I am confused on some of this stuff. I don't think I comprehend what Room does vs what tidal does. I assume tidal is like Spotify? And is roon more for an existing library that you already own? I'm in the same boat here where I would like to stream better than my current setup of a modded Sonos bridge that I use the Sonos app to stream through my c2500.
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Roon by itself doesn't do anything. You still need to provide the content, be it your own digital music library or a separate subscription to one or more of the available streaming services out there - Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify, Napster, etc. It's basically a splashy front-end used to curate all your different sources into a single interface. It does a nice job of adding in missing metadata and additional info about artists and albums. I used it for awhile and liked it, but didn't feel the value it added matched the monthly subscription fee. I'm just using a Node right now for streaming and the BluOS app does everything I need it to do for free, plus the cost of my monthly Qobuz subscription.
The other requirement for Roon is that you need to stand up a "core" somewhere. Either on a Roon Nucleus device (not cheap...), or you can set one up on your Mac or PC. But it needs to be up and running and on your network at all times in order to use Roon. The Roon core does all the work to compile/curate your content. Then you need a Roon endpoint, like a Bluesound Node or other such streaming device that supports Roon. In the end for me, it was an additional expense and extra "moving parts" that I just didn't feel was worth the cost or hassle.