May 12, 2024

I spent some time today organizing my music collection. My new love affair with Roon inspired me to finally get my collection organized. It wasn’t in bad shape to begin with, but it was a bit scattered. I’ve been using Lidarr for a while, and it does a great job of keeping my music tidy, but I had other random stuff on various drives that I just consolidated. I know that Roon doesn’t care about where I keep my music, but I like to be sure I know where it is so I can find it and keep it backed up. Lidarr speaks to my mild OCD when it comes to structure, convenience, and acquisition.

Roon’s interface on the Mac.

I really like Roon. Really like. I had a hiccup or two with my server, but it’s been running solidly all morning. I’m keeping an eye on it. It’s running on a VM on a Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny (8 x Intel Core i7-6700T CPU @ 2.80GHz), which should be enough for it. I think the issue was originally trying to play music while importing my collection. Then, Sonos does not play HD tracks, so I assume that Roon converts them on-the-fly. This might put a bit of strain on my virtual machine. That said, today, it’s been flawless, converting those HD streams with no issue.

Here are a few things I like initially:

• The interface is clean and intuitive. And it contains so much information. I just wish it had actual liner notes. Still, having song credits is great.
• If I have more than one copy of an album, the interface indicates that, and I can select which I want to play: from my collection or the various bit rates that Tidal offers. I like that it defaults to my music.
• As my collection changes, Roon automagically updates, like Plex does with new additions.
• When viewing by artist, I can hit “S” to go right to my collection beginning with “S.”
• The radio from an artist or song is a great feature, so I can discover new music. I’ve not tried playlists yet, but I will. For example, a “YouTube” list for recommendations from the various audiophiles I watch.

I’ve not been able to get Arc running yet—which would let me access my server outside the house. From my reading, Arc is problematic, so it may not really be necessary. I can use the Tidal app or Apple Music on the road.