a remarkably basic question about Roon

Roon is comfortably outstripped by Innuos Sense/2 and, although you’d not think so reading any forum about it, the interface is not for everybody. Roon may not feel like it but it’s user base is small and more and more manufacturers will be eventually do as Innuos have done squeezing it further. A lifetime membership is a luxury some can afford but fairly dumb otherwise. Not a lot of software lasts beyond a decade. 

Roon isn't for everybody. I would do the 1 penny 3 month Roon trial membership and see how it catalogs your music and if the interface suits you. I found it far too busy for my tastes. I would personally stick with Manic Moose if not for anything then the name alone.

@mahughes what's "fairly dumb" is your assessment that Roon is small. Manufacturers are falling all over themselves to incorporate Roon into their products because it's very popular (and for good reason) and their customer base wants it. Equally dumb is concluding that Roon will remain static. It will obviously evolve and improve over time and a lifetime membership sees all the improvements with no added cost. It's also a hedge against future price increases.

@mrcorky it's fine if you don't like it, but to say that you found the interface "too busy" is fairly mind blowing. The UI is a paragon of simplicity. The only way it could be made simpler would be to remove a lot of the features that make it unique.

@shooter41 so how did that lifetime membership of Squeeze work or Limewire or Napster work out? Hey you signed up for the first Office 365 lifetime too. They all look a bargain now.
 

Far from “falling over themselves” many manufacturers are avoiding it completely especially since Roon thought it wise to launch the Nucleus in direct competition with them. The world wide user base for Roon is around 100,000 so hardly massive but also falling slowly since a few manufacturers produced interfaces that start to complete in the same ball park e.g. Innuos and which comfortably beat it for sound quality.

I don’t see anything in my previous post assuming Roon would remain static. Do point out that quote. I’m visually impaired but even with zooming in I’ll be darned if I can either recall saying it or see why I’ve said it. Oh, I didn’t. Roon evangelists are like all evangelists. Largely beyond rationality. You read what you want to read and believe what you want to believe but…

Going forward they’ve a reasonably competent UI and there aren’t a great many major leaps to be made. The gap between them and other manufacturers is going to close not increase and, again as with Innuos, a lot of people are going to look at it and wonder why they’re paying for something others are giving them for free which is more than good enough. I’ve no price increase to hedge against as Sense does more than enough of what is needed.

Not sure that slagging over others for not liking the interface makes you look any more rational either. The UI does not work for everybody. It’s as simple as that. As someone with a VI for example it falls well below acceptable accessibility standards and cannot be customised in a way which would make it workable for me or others. 

@mahughes I'm not an evangelist for anything, I'm simply defending against ignorant remarks about a product that I think is pretty great, and I'm far from alone. These threads are heavily weighted by those in the "pro-Roon" camp, and this is an audiophile forum, so 'nuff said.

Really curious about why you mentioned being visually impaired. Do you practice "organically" working that into conversations? Has absolutely nothing to do with Roon so one can only guess as to why you do that.