Finally some real competition for the WiiM lineup?? 👀

[castalla]

I might get some grief for this, but the Sonos app used to do this. I could build playlists from my home library, plus anything from any service.

Nothing of what I built is gone, and there’s a third part app that still works with my playlists.

And only play on Sonos devices, while LMS can play to a wide variety of endpoints, including Sonos.

 

[BrooklynNick]

OR the free Lyrion Music Server on a €35 raspi - does the same streaming & local files integration, plus a lot more.
View attachment 7871

Sure, whatever works for you! I am by no means suggesting that Roon is the only option or even the best option for everyone.

Roon of course has a ton of useful features. I was just listing two that really sold it for me personally. I bought it back when it came out and got a lifetime subscription ($550 back then). Since then, I've gotten dozens of free updates with new features. I listen to music with it every single day and I really enjoy using it to browse. So for me, it is worth the money.

 

[BowsAndArrows]

According to this they aren't totally different companies.

Harman International - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

lmao, and the whole of HKI is just the tiny HiFi wing of the super giga Samsung Chaebol! so yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see how it all pans out for roon. i would love to see them innovate here with all the brands under one roof. they could maybe offer roon lifetime with some products. or a cheaper monthly fee if you own the hardware. etc...

i do personally like roon - the metadata and all the cross platform searching and everything is executed brilliantly. but it's still doesn't feel complete somehow. i also have LMS running on my NAS which really cool - only started using it cos of everybody on these forums - been a couple months... but yeh - i can't really look past the WiiM home app just cos integration of streaming is good, and overall the pace of development is really impressive.

never gave sonos a try but i have many friends who stil swear by their ecosystem approach. it's sad to see them go mess up the amazing lead they had in multiroom. but it's their own fault for resting on their laurels and recently they've made some questionable decisions according to their biggest fans even. this has allowed new players to enter the market so i don't really care. but i just hope that the new entrants grasp the importance of the software side of things when trying to understand the value proposition they are offering their customers the same way sonos did in the early days...

and also like i keep repeating - hope the new players are not afraid to experiment with the business model. if it doesn't work and the community pushes back in any way and plans have to be scaled back - it's not a big deal. we'll forgive you - as long as you seem to be trying to get to a mutually beneficial aim... i'm not sure that many brands in electronics understand this

 

[hoohoohoo]

Harman International purchased Roon, not Harmon Kardon. Two totally different companies. Roon has always required a subscription (with monthly, annual, and lifetime options).



Roon has offered free trials since day one. You can get one right from their website without buying any hardware: https://roon.app/en/

Yeah...I conflated the Harmon Kardon brand with Harman International which is the evolved current corporate structure. Harman International owns the Harman Kardon brand (which was the granddad of it all). And Harman International is a subsidiary of Samsung. Agree that the ownership level in the company structure matters for the operational control aspect.

Harman International - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Harman International Industries, Inc., commonly known as Harman (stylized as HARMAN), is an American audio electronics company.[3] Since 2017, the company has been operating as an independent subsidiary of Samsung Electronics.[4]

Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, US, it has its own executive leadership team.[5] Harman maintains major operations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Harman markets its products under various brands, including AKG, AMX, Arcam,[6] Bang & Olufsen Automotive, Becker, BSS Audio, Crown, dbx, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon, Mark Levinson, Martin, Revel, and Soundcraft.

 

[Brantome]

This is all very interesting but rather diverging from the original topic…

 

[D1N0]

Just airplay so likely compressed if using airplay 2. No high res for streaming. Pass.

 

[BowsAndArrows]

Just airplay so likely compressed if using airplay 2. No high res for streaming. Pass.

I'm sure it can do with roon. But yeah, I agree - seems a bit of a beta product almost. Not as complete as the WiiMs

 

[D1N0]

I'm sure it can do with roon. But yeah, I agree - seems a bit of a beta product almost. Not as complete as the WiiMs

Just Roon via Airplay

 

[BowsAndArrows]

wow, blink once, and the competition appears to be heating up big time. same DAC as the WiiM ultra. balanced analog output + digital I2S output. also bluetooth aptX + apparently samba (nas) support.

all for the same price as the ultra?!!

question marks about the software though. does anyone here have experience with hiby link??

 

[jfbuk]

Hiby Link will allow you to control the player via the Hiby Music App.
You can download the Hiby Music app for Android or IOS and it will scan your android device for music content. You can also connect to what they term a "private cloud" for network attached storage. It has Qobuz and Tidal integration (only one active at a time)
I have not played with it much but was just curious to see what is was like.
I could not see a way to choose 3rd party networked renderers though.