Regardless of whether you listen to music from files or not, the name Roon will surely be familiar to you. A few years ago, when another revolution in the music distribution market became a reality, there were people who decided to take advantage of this change. Most of them focused on creating devices that were supposed to provide high-quality sound for music played from files. First there were USB D/A converters and USB-S/PDIF converters, then music servers, audio file players, streamers, end-to-end local memory solutions with DACs in one box, and so on.
What is Roon? Probably in 2015, another program appeared on the market, this time dedicated exclusively to the reproduction and cataloging of music – Roon.
The first reaction to its price was not very positive – $499 seemed to me an exaggerated amount. Until advanced users began to count: we had to take into account that we were buying a lifetime license. In a word, we will receive every fix of the program, every new version without additional fees, as long as the company is in business.
It is also important that this program is not tied to a device (for example, Windows). After updating or even changing the device on which we use Roon, we simply install the current version to the new one, enter our login details and use as usual.
You can even test other devices, for example with the Nucleus we’re talking about this time. Roon can only be used simultaneously (one license) on one device, but it’s just a matter of one click, ie. deauthorization of the device used so far and entering data to enter the new one. After the test, in the same way, you can return to the previous one.
From the very beginning, when files began to conquer the world, ignoring the question of the sound class itself, many audiophiles unanimously complained about one issue – the intangibility of music. They couldn’t pick up the media, its cover, couldn’t read about the CD or recording, information about which is often found on CD or vinyl inserts, couldn’t view photos or graphics, which in many cases, especially with older releases were small works of art that accompanied the recorded music.
The uniqueness of Roon lies in the fact that we get a huge amount of information about a particular record with a few clicks of a computer mouse.
In terms of files, Roon by design, as an audiophile software music player, is primarily designed to play lossless file formats. Usually these will probably be FLAC or WAV files, but there is built-in support for files.
The advantage of Nucleus was not only instant startup, but also smoother handling of Roon. Nucleus is, of course, still a computer, not a file playback device invented from scratch, but completely optimized in this regard. Its operating system is much simpler, more stable, requires no drivers, and is integrated with Roon itself, so this application works optimally.
