What is Roon?
I need to start with – I love Roon. It is easy to set up, easy to use and makes finding music much easier than ever before. But, what is it?
Roon is a music management system that connects disparate sources of music to multiple brands of audio equipment. With Roon it is possible to create a playlist that is a mix of streamed music and music stored locally. After it plays the playlist it can start a feature called Roon Radio that picks music like the music in your playlist and keeps the party going. It is not a streaming service and it is not an audio system, but it let’s you manage both.
How does Roon work?
At the heart of the Roon system is a piece of software called the Roon Core. This is the brains of the system. It can be set up on Windows, Mac, Linux or its own operating system called ROCK. In later articles I will discuss installing on Linux and ROCK, but for now we will stick to an overview. Once it is installed, the Roon Core scans your music library so that it knows what you have. To support its recommendations and the Roon Radio feature Roon has a system using the input from over 100,000 expert listeners from Valence. The Valence technology provideds much better tailored suggestions for music to try that you might not have considered before. It also makes the Roon Radio feature really effective. You can pick one song and create a Radio from it and have hours of listening pleasure.
What kind of music can Roon handle?
The Roon Core is the center of the system, but it needs a source for the music. Fortunately, it works with multiple sources. You can stream from Tidal or Qobuz, both of which are high resolution sources. That is, they are higher quality than CD. Your local music is also available. Roon supports almost every format from the highest resolution DSD recordings to MP3 compressed files. In addition to being able to play music from these sources Roon can also upconvert your files to higher resolution formats. That is not the same as having high resolution music, but it does take the burden of conversion off your audio equipment. It also means the music will sound better. Roon also supports MQA or Master Quality Authenticated formats. This format provides high resolution music is the best way possible today. Roon can also down convert if your audio equipment can’t handle the highest resolution music. The upshot is Roon can handle anything you want to play.
How do you play music?
Roon can play music on multiple devices. In fact it can group together multiple devices from multiple manufacturers with some limitations. Now you don’t need to buy all your audio equipment from the same company and still have the same music streaming to multiple rooms in your house in perfect sync. It can even play on your cell phone.
What does Roon support?
Roon supports quite a large list of devices. Airplay, Sonos and Google Cast protocols are supported. In addition, a large group of manufacturers produce products that are Roon Ready. It also supports Squeezebox for those of you who still have them (my hand is up). It is not possible to group all these devices together as mentioned earlier, but at least all the Roon Ready devices can be grouped. For instance you can run Roon on your PC hooked up to a receiver via HDMI and sync to BlueSound in the next room. It is a way to have a great sounding, easy to use, whole house audio system using a mix of manufacturers’ equipment.
As I mentioned, Roon can down convert where necessary. Sonos and AirPlay only support CD quality, so Roon down converts to a format they can use. It is also capable of managing headroom or applying filters. In order to support up and down conversion and filters it is necessary to have a more robust computer running the Roon Core.
How much is it?
Roon isn’t free though some components are. You will need a subscription to run Roon. It costs $120/year currently. Or, if you think you will stick with it you can get a lifetime subscription for $700.
To learn more or sign up go to Roon.