Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Hardware with Roon Application Roon drawbacks?

I couldn't agree more.....

Since Sooloos, I have even upgraded my internal network so it now runs at 1.2Gbps rather than 400Mbps. Even with that, Roon drops the connection to my ID41 about every 15-20 mins. It then "re finds" the ID41 after about 10 seconds and connects again automatically but has stopped playing any music; it's not only non family friendly but just really annoying for me!! And for those with another suggestion it also drops when I connect directly with a giant ethernet cable across the room.

Add to that the fact that, Roon just crashes sometimes, or hangs, or maybe the dedicated PC just decides something isn't right, and I find myself thinking of Sooloos....

While I've sold my C15, I am already wondering whether I go back to the new Sooloos / Touch PC / QNAP when it all comes together. Sometimes I have to admit I even think of a C15!!! Roon is awesome as a piece of software, but as a "plug n play and leave it" so that you get on with just listening to music, stability and consistency still isn't there yet.

Not only do I now have a PC in my house for the first time in 15 years (all Apple here) with all the fun and games of slow boot up times and endless microsoft updates that just take years off your life, but I'm finding the frustration of Roon crashing or losing endpoints for no apparent reason at all is now REDUCING my music discovery rather than INCREASING it.

When I switched to Roon, the initial emotion was one of excitement and interest in so many new ways of exploring and discovering my music. I found is fascinating and would spend hours just sitting and exploring. Now I find the emotion is more of frustration or just wondering when I walk over to the screen and touch it whether it will even be on, or just frozen at best as some update didn't go to plan.

I have become annoyed with both the PC (how many Windows updates do you need - please at least make it seamless behind the scenes) and the inexplicable way in which Roon drops connections to the ID41. I' m a bit of a techie and certainly can be a geek so I'm sure I can figure it out eventually but that's not the point.

The point is, this should be about the music and not about the technology.

Sooloos was cool because it was about the music. We can sit and debate endlessly about all the new things it should have done or track level metadata or even what we'd do differently if we were software programmers (I'm not BTW) but at the end of the day when my 71 year old mum came to visit, she intuitively walked over to the screen, and after a minute of trepidation about "ooh what's this, I'm not into computers" was tapping away exploring and playing music 'til her hearts content.

With Roon that is not the case..........yet.

I'm a true supporter of Roon, I really really want it to work, I think it's a staggering piece of software. But as someone who has spent the last 25 years building new companies in software and technology the basics are so, so important.

A product that works all the time, every single time without fail, with only 60% of the features that we want is more likely to succeed in the long term over a product with 95% of there features that has bugs and glitches. The whole KISS mantra is critical. Do a few things really well rather than a lot of things "so so"....

Sooloos and in my case the C15 did that. I wasn't thinking one bit about the technology (unless I came on here and we could all debate it). It was my hifi, my music system, the place I went to listen to something. It just worked. All the time. Every time.

......I genuinely hope I don't have to go find myself another C15 .... then again that rate at which they're falling in price means I could pick one up that's a steal!