HARMAN Acquires Roon

[Brantome]

HARMAN Acquires Roon, a popular Multi-Device, Multi-Room Audio Technology Platform

STAMFORD, CT – November 27, 2023 – HARMAN, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. focused on connected technologies for automotive, consumer, and enterprise markets, today announced the acquisition of Roon, the music management,...

news.harman.com

 

[castalla]

So, in effect, Roon is now Samsung. They could easily demonstrate their commitment to music by making roon free.... But possibly ad supported for harman Samsung products. No thanks. Long live LMS.

 

[Mr Smith]

Who really cares?

 

[Balthazar B]

Could be interesting -- not necessarily in a good way -- for Tidal and Qobuz.

What's next? Samsung acquires Spotify, and then everyone who wanted Spotify via Roon will get their wish? As long as they don't want any other content provider *besides* Spotify...

 

[Achim1811]

Follow the money..
If I was one of the initially derided founders of Roon it would be an easy choice for me to become a retired rich young guy

 

[Achim1811]

And it is so easy to react if things are not in one's favor. Quit or agree.

 

[BrooklynNick]

If I was one of the initially derided founders of Roon it would be an easy choice for me to become a retired rich young guy

The founders of Roon are not young guys. They previously founded Sooloos around 2004 and sold it to Meridian. I know at least one of them worked at Bloomberg before that. Roon itself is eight or nine years old. I never heard of them being "initially derided." I got a lifetime subscription shortly after their 1.0 release, based on glowing reviews in Stereophile and elsewhere, and have never regretted it in the slightest.

 

[Achim1811]

The founders of Roon are not young guys. They previously founded Sooloos around 2004 and sold it to Meridian. I know at least one of them worked at Bloomberg before that. Roon itself is eight or nine years old. I never heard of them being "initially derided." I got a lifetime subscription shortly after their 1.0 release, based on glowing reviews in Stereophile and elsewhere, and have never regretted it in the slightest.

No idea how old the guys are. My wife and I are "Rooners" from the very first day with lifelong subscriptions, a Nucleus and a Rock.
And I still remember that a lot of the hifi people did not give a dime for that idea. So they surely did not make the deal without earning a few €/$/£. And they earn it.

 

[d6jg]

This news must put something of a question mark over Roon. If not in the short term but medium to long.

Meanwhile over in the LMS world there is constant fast track evolution and development. I can tell you that a clever soul is currently modifying the way LMS displays / presents Classical music. I'm not a Classical guru of any sort but I do get that those people who listen to it don't subscribe to the Artist / Album approach that works for Pop, Rock, Jazz etc but want Composer / Work / Performer. Well it is in alpha development and so far it looks very promising.

For those of you concerned about what the Roon future may hold perhaps give LMS a try. The WiiM Pro/Pro Plus and Amp all have Squeezelite on board. The Mini does not but can be used with the LMS UPnP/DLNA Bridge as a lone player (no sync).

 

[Balthazar B]

This news must put something of a question mark over Roon. If not in the short term but medium to long.

Meanwhile over in the LMS world there is constant fast track evolution and development. I can tell you that a clever soul is currently modifying the way LMS displays / presents Classical music. I'm not a Classical guru of any sort but I do get that those people who listen to it don't subscribe to the Artist / Album approach that works for Pop, Rock, Jazz etc but want Composer / Work / Performer. Well it is in alpha development and so far it looks very promising.

For those of you concerned about what the Roon future may hold perhaps give LMS a try. The WiiM Pro/Pro Plus and Amp all have Squeezelite on board. The Mini does not but can be used with the LMS UPnP/DLNA Bridge as a lone player (no sync).

I've liked LMS from the time it was SlimServer, and have been delighted by its continued development and support over the years. God help us all, though, if Michael Herger ever gets hit by a bus.

 

[Balthazar B]

So, in effect, Roon is now Samsung. They could easily demonstrate their commitment to music by making roon free.... But possibly ad supported for harman Samsung products. No thanks. Long live LMS.

Just saw this:

Move over Dolby Atmos, a new rival from Samsung and Google is coming

The new 3D spatial audio tech offers three features designed to supercharge your audio experience

www.yahoo.com

Now I'm wondering if Harman's Roon acquisition isn't at least partly about acquiring the audio engineering talent and siccing them on IAMF...hmmm...

 

[Mrz7kN]

This news must put something of a question mark over Roon. If not in the short term but medium to long.

Meanwhile over in the LMS world there is constant fast track evolution and development. I can tell you that a clever soul is currently modifying the way LMS displays / presents Classical music. I'm not a Classical guru of any sort but I do get that those people who listen to it don't subscribe to the Artist / Album approach that works for Pop, Rock, Jazz etc but want Composer / Work / Performer. Well it is in alpha development and so far it looks very promising.

For those of you concerned about what the Roon future may hold perhaps give LMS a try. The WiiM Pro/Pro Plus and Amp all have Squeezelite on board. The Mini does not but can be used with the LMS UPnP/DLNA Bridge as a lone player (no sync).

Can you recommend a tutorial or similar on where/how to get started with LMS? Something like for a 5th grade somewhat little tech savvy person?

 

[castalla]

First, what device would you likely use to install LMS, eg. Windows, Linux, mac?

 

[Balthazar B]

First, what device would you likely use to install LMS, eg. Windows, Linux, mac?

...or perhaps on a compatible NAS you already own (which probably runs some version of Linux under its GUI)? A number of them have a prebuilt LMS installer available.

While running LMS on your everyday laptop/PC/Mac can be fine for messing around, if you use it as your music server, you'll want to run it on something stable that stays online persistently.

 

[Mrz7kN]

I think Windows on an existing device would be a good starting point i guess.... Can go Linux afterwards or dedicated device..

 

[castalla]

Do you have a mini or a pro?

 

[Mrz7kN]

I have a pro

 

[castalla]

Okay. The pro has squeezelite built in, so it will appear to LMS as a player.

So, the best route (IMHO) would be to install LMS on your Windows PC.
LMS can be accessed by a Web browser (using the Windows ip address, eg. 192.168.1.nnn:9000). You can then investigate the various features via your browser - afaik, there isn't one guide to suggest.

You'll need to do some googling, eg, install LMS on Windows, etc.

Others might have better advice

 

[Balthazar B]

I think Windows on an existing device would be a good starting point i guess.... Can go Linux afterwards or dedicated device..

That sounds like a good course of action. If you like LMS, have a collection of digitized music you want to easily access, other content you keep on-site, and would benefit from various other services, you might consider getting an inexpensive NAS that can run LMS as well as store your library. In any case, the Windows machine you use interactively all the time is likely to be the least stable choice you have.

Probably your best resource for LMS would be the Slimdevices Forum, which remains very active. Would expect that most questions you'll think of have already been answered there.

 

[Mrz7kN]

Thats's great. Many thanks - looks like a busy weekend ahead ;-)