I use Roon myself, but not direct on B&O speakers.

B&O speakers have no Roon endpoint build in right now (which is real shame ;-)

I use a streamer in between.

Another option is to use airplay of chromecast (not airplay2) to directly connect to B&O speakers.

steve1977 wrote:

I’m a bit less clear how it actually works alongside of b&o products

the connection to B&o can be handled 3 ways:

1. Chromecast

2. Airplay

3. A Roon ready/compatible device or Mac/PC connected to B&o

steve1977 wrote:

what gets people excited about it?

Over your music collection and the connected streams, Roon places a shell with info about artist, albums, genres, etc. Just this additional info is the PLUS of Roon.

steve1977 wrote:

It seems fairly pricey for what it does?

So true

steve1977 wrote:

so the b&o app cannot access the roon server over dlna

Roon is not a DLNA server. It can read from DLNA servers but it uses its own protocol for renderers/players.

steve1977 wrote:

How does the roon multi-room work and does it work with b&o speakers?

Roon is compatible with Airplay and Chromecast (1 & 2). So you can Multiroom your music that way. If you have a Roon ready/compatible divice connected to B&o audio/video you can use B&o own multiroom.

I’ve been using it for 6 months and love it

As others have said - it requires something running the Roon server , and then you use the control app on tablet, phone, computer or whatever

So in two parts like the Moment, but miles better

Beolab speakers need Roon ready hardware to feed them. For my BS2 and A9, Roon sees them as Airplay or CC speakers

If you just use streaming music services then Roon is probably overkill

If you combine that with a local library then it makes more sense

But a lot of the benefits come from its UI, which is magnificent, and it does discovery and Roon Radio (its version of MOTS) very well

It’s not perfect but it’s night and day compared to the Moment

Something to read and check out:

https://land.roonlabs.com/introducing-1-8?utm_source=email_blast&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1_8_software_launch&utm_content=e

https://roonlabs.com/?utm_source=campaign_land_page&utm_medium=campaign_land_page&utm_campaign=1_8_software_launch

And I really have to say that Roon's own RAAT protocol appeals to me much more than chromecast or even airplay. RAAT via a Roon ready device just sounds much better ... try it out!

Even my BS2, which now runs via RAAT instead of Chromecast, gives me more pleasure now in terms of sound.

What is also outstanding, where else can you find that?, I can listen to all my CDs in a library together with the albums / tracks streamed from streaming services, create playlists ... for me this simply is great :)

 

No Deezer but otherwise great.

steve1977 wrote:

I’m a bit less clear how it actually works alongside of b&o products and what gets people excited about it?  It seems fairly pricey for what it does?

It is a tiny bit pricey because it rents two (or more?) commercial databases, including the entire AllMusic editorial database and some huge full-album-credits database.  But the key point is it *integrates* your own local music library with a subscribed service (Tidal or Qobuz).  The click-thru, multi-linked, "magazine article" Roon creates for you, when you start playing a song, is incredibly detailed and way better than your crummy album-front-cover scan and your own metadata.  Just look at the photos in their website "Features" page -- you don't even need to read! -- that will give you a better feel than anything which could be written on this forum:

https://roonlabs.com/features

The big Roon 1.8 update next week is supposed to be much nicer for classical music from I read.

Might be of interest to you good self

(feel free of course to disregard my musings!)

 

seethroughyou wrote:

No Deezer but otherwise great.

 

One final parting shot.....

For those who stream casually from their hone using a streaming service to the odd Beosound / Play speaker here and there, I would say Roon is far from essential.

Now that I have a set of 50s, bought primarily to get more out of music than my previous 18s, and to spend more time listening to music,  Roon was essential for me and has been superb for discovery and rediscovery.  I have inserted a pretty decent (Roon Ready) streamer / DAC to feed the 90s, as an optional extra.  My Roon server (the Roon Nucleus) could have fed the 50s w/o the need foe the streamer / DAC, but then that's just me. 

So Roon can be used a simple or more involved setups.

After while it comes with a cost,  its not as if the Moment was cheap - and that was not a great experience being just a limited jukebox. 

So, if you're frustrated at your music experience using the services native apps or the B&O app, I'd investigate Roon.

If you're not, then I'd carry on as before.

 

 

steve1977 wrote:

It seems many of b&o fans are using roon.

 

 

I’m a bit less clear how it actually works alongside of b&o products and what gets people excited about it?

 

 

It seems fairly pricey for what it does?

 

 

It’s a proprietary protocol, so the b&o app cannot access the roon server over dlna?

 

 

How does the roon multi-room work and does it work with b&o speakers?

 

Sandyb wrote:

So, if you're frustrated at your music experience using the services native apps or the B&O app, I'd investigate Roon.

Or look at other alternative such Plex which also brings what the Moment was intended to provide and much much more. Plexamp became my main music source to dig my 59k tracks library and expose it with unlimited angles