Does anyone use music server thingies such as Roon or Plex? I am using Plex at the moment but although it has some good features it can be a bit flakey, particularly playing nicely with my Sonos system. Roon is more recent, is a lot more expensive than Plex but is supposed to offer great navigation and discovery possibilities. It also operates differently from Plex, in that you control audio output (eg to Sonos) from Roon itself.
It would be useful to hear from anyone who has experience of these services, particularly Roon.
ATM : Roon or Plex
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I don’t use Roon personally, but I know a few who do, and I only hear good things. I’m more of a vinyl man myself.
If I remember correctly, @chrisf runs Roon.
I use Plex for video, less so for audio. For audio I have various (now defunct) Squeezeboxes using the Logitech Media Server, it doesn’t always work as well as I would like to, but is great when everything running smoothly.
Recently installed Emby and am trying that out. But I then (like Plex) need to switch the TV on to use it. I don’t need to do that with Squeexeboxes and that is what I prefer.
I hadn’t heard of Emby. From their website it looks fairly similar to Plex.
I had been thinking about starting a thread on Plex and Sonos. My Logitech Squeezebox had given up playing music from my Mac, so, for a special birthday, I have just upgraded to Sonos. Of course, had Sonos publicised that they only supported a certain number of tracks, I wouldn’t have wasted my money. Then I saw that Plex, which I had never heard of, would get round this.
I downloaded Plex last week and started to load my music into it. It took over 100 hours to load 71,500 tracks. Whilst it was loading, it was clear that the Plex library, which they seem to be so proud of, was renaming the artist on thousands of tracks which will make them almost impossible to find. However, now it has finished, it doesn’t matter because it is impossible to use on any device, including Sonos. It just says it can’t access the library. Even the Mac can’t access the library on itself. It just says that I need to go to the forums which hasn’t got me anywhere.
So, like the OP, if anyone knows how I can listen to all my music on Sonos I would be pleased to know. Roon sounds like it might work, but not at $700 I’m afraid.
You do read people moaning about the Sonos app but I’ve never had an issue with it – but I’m still about 15 thousand tracks short of its track limits.
I think I would probably bite the bullet with the cost of Roon if I was in your position.
I started using Plex because I have loads of FLAC digital files and this seemed a good way of playing them via Sonos. And it is, up to a point. It can be a bit unreliable with my computer unable to find the server occasionally but it just needs a little patience and a decent home network. I haven’t had too much trouble with artist renaming although it does need some maintenance.
Roon is very expensive but I might give it a (free) trial to see if it is a bit more useable.
Sounds like a nightmare.
Glad to rely on my cd player, turntable, mac and dab radio. Don’t need any more confusion.
I was thinking that. I just put CDs or vinyl on and listen to them. I have always had a suspicion it’s all about the shiny kit but I’m probably being grumpy.
I’m sure you’re right about the shiny new kit. However, large (very large) music collections do require proper management and the ability to find what you’re looking for, plus useful extras like discovery, bios etc. I’ve uploaded a lot of my CDs to Google Play Music where you can store up to 50k tracks. Saves me having to traipse out to the garage whenever I want to find a CD.
Having said all that, how much longer I’ve got to play all this stuff before I go up to the Great Jukebox in the sky is another matter!
Sure I can see the practical benefits. Less grumpy now I’ve had a coffee. 😁
What’s wrong with a nice A-Z then eh?
A-Z is fine for single-artist albums, but stops being so useful when you get into classical music, soundtracks and multi-artist compilations.
A lot of classical albums have works by more than one composer and may even have more than one ensemble, conductor or featured soloist. Soundtrack albums often have songs by a few different artists so you have to file by title and then try and remember where particular tracks are. Multi-artist compilations can also only be filed by album name. Once you have more than a handful of either it gets hard to recall which one a particular song is on.
For me the value of software like Roon (and it’s by far the best I’ve seen) is to imagine standing in front of a massive set of shelves containing all your music in various formats and not having a clue what to play next. The discovery features, artist radio and links between artists are an invaluable aid. Even better, with my LPs which I’ve digitised (including artwork), I can even read the sleeve notes while listening to the music. Just like the old days – without the fluff on the stylus!
Some of this might be useful:
I use Plex but only for video, for which it is fantastic. I use the Sonos app and the music is on a Synology NAS (as are the films) and it works great – Roon looked fantastic but just didn’t add enough to justify the fee.
I can fully imagine Plex messing badly with titles, covers etc – it doesn’t matter for films as I WANT it to get the metadata but it would do my head in if it messed with the embedded data in my music files.
I haven’t had too many problems with Plex renaming stuff etc as I only upload FLAC files that are not anywhere else on my Sonos setup. Occasionally I have to edit files but it’s not a big deal.
Most of my own music (ie from CDs, vinyl) is on my NAS or uploaded to Google Play Music (50k tracks). Like you I’m not too sure how Roon would handle all these files but I’m tempted to give it a trial.
I have played around with Volumio (free software) on a Raspberry Pi 3B with an IQAudio DAC fitted. It worked OK but the web interface it runs from is rather ugly and every time they update the software a complete reset/reconfiguration and rebuild of the library database (which takes a VERY long time) is required.
I’m just now (started a couple of hours ago) trying out Rune Audio (also free software) on it and the interface looks much better. Just waiting for the music database to build (lengthy process once more) before I check out how it plays.
The likes of Sonos etc. are of no real use to me in my 1-bed flat. I don’t need to stream to other rooms.
Currently my digital music plays via a dedicated Windows 10 laptop into my Denon receiver & Mission speakers via a Cambridge Audio DAC. I’m hoping to do away with that laptop if I can get a reliable setup with the Pi, controlled via smartphone and/or Kindle Fire to replace it.
I’ve been using Roon for a few years now and am a big fan.
It’s both a great music database (with great hyperlinking within your collection) and takes care of all my streaming to all devices – all in hi res audio and controlled by an app on my phone / iPad or via the computer.
I use a headless MacMini with connected DAS drive to serve all my music (and movies which are still served by iTunes). This runs the Roon server app and connects to both HiFi and the kids Sonos speakers.
The only downside is that it is expensive – I got the lifetime subscription at a few hundred dollars. However, putting this in context with the value of my music collection and the hifi it’s playing on, I think it’s worth it.
They do offer a free 14 day trial and I would recommend you give it a try. Roon does not mess with any of your music data / tags etc – you just point it to where you music is stored.
And, even at a few hundred quid, it’s a scale factor cheaper than the Meridian music server it was written for (which was basically a Linux PC with a touch screen).
Thanks Chrisf. I’m tempted to give it a try.
his streaming caper has made the function of delivering quality sound incredibly complicated and has spawned an entirely new vocabulary.
So, just started my 14 day trial. First thoughts are 1) Roon seems a lot more stable than Plex, 2) the interface is excellent with great discovery features, artist radio etc, 3) the setup is very straightforward – no need to be a tech whizzkid. It helps to have your music files on your computer properly organised – mine are a bit of a mess so I need to consolidate files on to one hard drive.
It’s not perfect though. It’s not quite as easy to group Sonos speakers and zones as it is with the native Sonos app. Not necessarily a deal breaker but I just need to work out whether it is worth the money.
Roon won’t work for me any better than Plex does. Here’s why. I installed a mesh network because the main wifi was flaky in the kitchen and, more importantly, my office. Job done.
But now my computer, where all my tunes are, is on a different network from Sonos Beam (also TV and Apple TV), which are wired into the original router and are completely rock solid, and that includes the Sonos One in the kitchen because Sonos sets up its own network. I can’t switch them over to the mesh, because the base station doesn’t have any spare ethernet ports and I’m reluctant to switch to wifi in case it all goes pear-shaped. I control Sonos with my iPad, which I have trained to ignore the mesh.
I can put my computer back on the original network of course, but I tried streaming via Roon yesterday and it was cutting out most of the time – for the same reason I installed the mesh in the first place. It’s a shame, because the Beam is if anything a better music player than it is soundbar. There’s always Spotify…
Buy an Ethernet switch, connect one port to you base station, and extend your wired network? You can get a Gigabit switch from about 15 quid which is so fast you won’t notice it.
I’d need to get an ethernet/USB-C adaptor for the MacBook Pro, but that’s ok. More concerning is the 50-60 feet distance (including 2 doors) between router and computer, probably half that again if the cabling is going to be reasonably unobtrusive.
My thoughts are turning to using my old Mac Mini as a server, though I’d still have to get a switch since the router has no more free ethernet sockets. But I’d still have the two networks problem.
Final option: my ISP (Zen) are now offering their own mesh solution, called Zen Everyroom. If I got rid of the current setup (tp-link) and opted for that, presumably everything would be on the one network? Downside: it’s another £7.99 a month.
Yep. I use a gigabit switch to connect my two laptops, the smart TV and my Raspberry Pi to my home network.
My home network is all wired apart from my smartphone and my Kindle. No dropped connections unless individual pieces of kit throw a wobbly. Very occasionally one of my Windows laptops will refuse to connect and require a reboot. Once in a blue moon my router will lose it’s Internet connection and need to be restarted but the router has never yet lost the internal network connection.
My music is all on a Raspberry Pi NAS next to the router in the hall, with three backup drives in the living room in case of HDD failure.
I’ve been thinking about doing this for my music room which is at the end of a long extension. The PowerLine adaptors are struggling by then and it’s s bit crap. En route we pass Boy Central with the XBox, monster TV and his PC where the broadband “never” works. So I’m thinking to run an ethernet cable to some sort of distribution box then 4 cables from that?
Years ago, I ran ethernet cable to upstairs where I work from the router downstairs. I have an 8-port ethernet hub in that room, with all the computers plugged into it. Cable runs under carpet mostly.
I’m tempted to do the same in the sitting room, for the IPTV box.
Wireless devices seem to run ok throughout the house, with one range extender in the sitting room. We installed that because my partner’s Kindles kept dropping off the network. Phones were fine, as was the Windows tablet.
OK, well into my 14 day trial of Roon and I’m seriously impressed. I’m discovering tons of music, mostly digital files that would otherwise lay there unplayed or difficult to access. It’s very easy to add music, surprisingly quickly. Plus, Roon integrates with Tidal so you can massively enhance your own library. Very good support as well and a nice online community site.