Not sure what this means. I cast BBC Sounds from the phone to WiiM/Chromecast units. Likewise YouTube Music or Pocket Casts for podcasts. Never though of it as a hardship not having Roon do this. It's for high fidelity music.
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Why Roon?
- Thread starter Kampernaut
- Start date
castalla
Major Contributor
The original point was that Sonos has a larger number of services than all the other streaming services - some are only available via Sonos (eg. Apple music, Audible, etc.). The question is the absolute number of offered services is irrelevant if you don't use them. Recent developments involving casting makes inbuilt services less crucial than previously was the case.
Agree there.
MarmiteSandwich
Member
So actually, yes, you could use (free) UPnP instead of Roon, subject to some minor limitations. BTW, gapless playback is a function of the renderer (Wiim), not the control point (Bubble).
I use XM, Spotify, Hearts of Space, Amazon, Audible, and my music library consisting of 1300 CDs and 200 converted LPs.
What’s available?
Services on Sonos
Learn about all of the streaming services available on Sonos. Browse by features, types of content, and more. We’ll help you find your next favorite service.
The number is less important than whether the service you want is available without casting from your phone.
slartibartfast
Major Contributor
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- Apr 18, 2024
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I see. You are counting radio stations as services.I use XM, Spotify, Hearts of Space, Amazon, Audible, and my music library consisting of 1300 CDs and 200 converted LPs.
What’s available?
Services on Sonos
Learn about all of the streaming services available on Sonos. Browse by features, types of content, and more. We’ll help you find your next favorite service.support.sonos.com
My two cents about Roon. I subscribed for a few months and then converted to a lifetime license, oh maybe 5 years ago. At the time it really helped integrate my streaming and large library of rips from my cd library, and I was a happy user for long time. I can’t say I compared it to every similar service, but I certainly preferred it to Audirvana. It is a resource hog, and eventually my Fusion Drive IMac groaned under its weight. In the meantime the best I could muster for it was a (late intel) MacAir, and it works ok on my home setup, but SOMETHING in my work network drives it nuts, and I find the support community hasn’t bent over backwards to figure it out. I really didn’t use it much for the past year or so, but fast forward to 2024 and the Wiim Ultra. I have to say, it’s fantastic with that, and I’m a happy user once again. Does that mean I would plop down cash for it if I were buying it now? I don’t think so, actually. There are other ways to get 98% to their experience. Also, the lifetime price has shot up over $300 since I got mine. Back then I figured it was about 4 years of paying in advance, but over $800? No, I don’t recommend it. At the very least, make really sure you’re going to make use of the library management capabilities. It’s too heavy a computing load, and a bit too finicky to deal with just to have a pretty interface for streaming service favorites.
Too heavy a computing load? Roon server running flawlessly on a 7 year old Thinkpad as it did on the 11 year old Thinkpad it replaced. No network issues , only issues have been with the remote app ARC which seem to have been sorted, at least for me.
Over 50 on demand services.
Everyone has a different wish list. I have eight relatives who regularly visit, five first floor rooms that are essentially open plan, and four bedrooms. With Sonos, any or all of these areas can have synchronized music, and guests can have private music, or audible books.
As I say, these may not interest you, but they answer the question, why would you want to ride out the current screwup?
castalla
Major Contributor
Something like Radio France actually has a subset of different streams (such as the various FIP streams). A bit like a French version of BBC Sounds, or Radio Paradise. Some services are very specific, others are more like mini-aggregators.
slartibartfast
Major Contributor
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- 1,321
Well yes we have Radio France available on the server that shall not be named
It is perfectly fine to say this; however, they keep breaking my system. Just now while I’m trying to watch football, the PlayBase is now having the same audio dropouts that I had in the first two weeks of the release of the new app several months ago, requiring me to listen to the game on my projector’s built-in speaker. I really need to get rid of the rest of my Sonos stuff and just deal with WiiM’s limitations I guess.
I started buying WiiM because of the new app and firmware update a few months ago. In fact my PlayBase is having audio dropouts again—the same dropouts that never happened until the first two weeks of the new app. I’ve gotten rid of a few things, but I need to finish replacing the rest of my Sonos system.
I've just spent a couple of hours with a Roon free trial, purely for local music, and MinimServer and BubbleUPnP have nothing to worry about (nor do LMS, Plex etc).
It does a decent job pulling metadata (overriding local), although occasionally for the wrong release, but it doesn't appear to have any concept of box sets or disc subtitles, and only offers Album, Artist and Genre indexes (I assume recently added if I used it long enough) which surprised me.
One thing I did like was how it grouped albums for which I had multiple versions/remasters.
All the AllMusic metadata is nicely integrated although it's a little overwhelming at times, especially on the phone interface.
I've never felt the need to integrate my local content with a streaming service so maybe I'm missing the point.
castalla
Major Contributor
I've never felt t6he need to integrate my local content with a streaming service so maybe I'm missing the point.
LMS can do this also (for zero cost!)
LMS can do this also (for zero cost!)
If it's free it mustn't be very good at all. Ie Linux versus Windows.
castalla
Major Contributor
Couldn't be further from the truth
