Muso versus Roon

Discuss Muso, or get help
jazzfan
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:41 pm

Muso versus Roon

Post by jazzfan »

Now that the Roon software has been updated it seems that Roon will be to work with the Squeezebox line of music streamers.

See this recent review: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/article ... -software/

From what I can gather it looks like Roon and Muso have many similar features, with Roon having access to more robust online metadata, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how customized one's file tags are. Right now my feeling is that Muso is the better program to use when one has an existing well tagged digital music library and Roon would be a good program for a someone new to computer based audio.

The reason that I am asking all these questions is that I currently have a very large music library with over 550K tracks and nearly 42k "albums" and Muso is able to "handle" my music library with no problems. Whether or not Roon can handle a music library of this size remains to be seen.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
musoware
Site Admin
Posts: 1847
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 6:50 am

Re: Muso versus Roon

Post by musoware »

I see Roon is many many times the price, but is I suppose a "professional" solution. Muso is more of a "hobbyist" solution albeit built by a professional software developer. You may get a few more software glitches with Muso as I don't have access to dedicated testing resources, but I like to think I react to these glitches quickly. Plus I think you're much more likely to get requests for enhancements considered with Muso - many of the existing features have been requested by the small but enthusiastic Muso community.

I don't intend to try Roon as Muso is exactly what I need, but I'd be interested to hear other's opinions, especially whether it can handle such large libraries as jazzfan has (happy to hear that Muso can).
jazzfan
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:41 pm

Re: Muso versus Roon

Post by jazzfan »

Don't get me wrong - I love Muso and use it daily plus for the price it can't be beat. In fact I strongly suspect that Roon's high price is the result of both the "professional" nature of the software and the various licensing fees needed to access the online metadata. That said, as far as I can tell from the various screen shots I've seen, Roon's main music library display looks quite a bit like Muso's display. And Muso allows me to quickly access the information and image files located in the album's folder, a feature that I cannot live without since I often have lots of scanned images in my music library.

As I wrote in a similar post on another forum, I think that Muso is good solution for someone with an existing large and well tagged digital music library and Roon would be better for someone new to the world of computer based audio.

I am also rather leery of Roon's ability to scan and manage my existing large music library. If I decide to give Roon a try (there is a 14 day free trial) I will report back the results.
MDE
Posts: 479
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2013 12:05 am

Re: Muso versus Roon

Post by MDE »

musoware wrote:I see Roon is many many times the price, but is I suppose a "professional" solution. Muso is more of a "hobbyist" solution albeit built by a professional software developer. You may get a few more software glitches with Muso as I don't have access to dedicated testing resources, but I like to think I react to these glitches quickly. Plus I think you're much more likely to get requests for enhancements considered with Muso - many of the existing features have been requested by the small but enthusiastic Muso community.

I don't intend to try Roon as Muso is exactly what I need, but I'd be interested to hear other's opinions, especially whether it can handle such large libraries as jazzfan has (happy to hear that Muso can).
I did look at Roon when it came out and if it now supports LMS that would be interesting, but it is pricey. As for Muso being "hobbyist" rather than professional, I must disagree. I think that the support is very professional and much more responsive than most so-called "professional" solutions. The glitches are rare and minor and rapidly fixed. Unlike much software from the major vendors.
jazzfan
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:41 pm

Re: Muso versus Roon

Post by jazzfan »

I completely agree - the line between Muso and "professional" software is very, very thin and often nonexistent. I tend to keep my file tags to a minimum and therefore many of muso's various sorting abilities go used but less about muso and more about file tags. One of the things I don't like about many music library programs is the automatic, and all too often incorrect, file tagging. Muso works with the existing file tags, which is what I like.

As I've learned after almost 10 years of using computer based audio is that it's all about proper and consistent file tags, information files, good cover art and other scans/pdfs - all things that muso handles beautifully.

jezbo you are way too modest. :)
RichG
Posts: 215
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 4:46 pm

Re: Muso versus Roon

Post by RichG »

"$499 one-time lifetime subscription"

:shock: That's all I need to know.


And when the reviewer started talking about it's sound quality I had to really start shaking my head. (At least the company themselves don't go down that path beyond 'delivering bit-perfect').
jazzfan
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:41 pm

Re: Muso versus Roon

Post by jazzfan »

Check out the review's comments section. I commented on the whole sound quality nonsense under "Ralph Pantuso". The reviewer's answer is the classic audiophile "well that's what I heard" mumbo jumbo, which is completely meaningless. A music server should just simply "serve" the music, not "season" it.
musoware
Site Admin
Posts: 1847
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 6:50 am

Re: Muso versus Roon

Post by musoware »

jazzfan wrote:Check out the review's comments section. I commented on the whole sound quality nonsense under "Ralph Pantuso". The reviewer's answer is the classic audiophile "well that's what I heard" mumbo jumbo, which is completely meaningless. A music server should just simply "serve" the music, not "season" it.
Agreed, there's alot of nonsense spouted in the audio world. There's a similar argument for the hi-fi amplifier - the hi-fi press are always claiming that amplifiers have a "sonic personality" and the ability to "reveal detail", "widen the soundstage" etc. All an amp is is a "straight wire with gain", it's sole purpose is to amplify the input signal and send that to the output terminals, a very simple electronic function - there's no sonic magic going on.
MDE
Posts: 479
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2013 12:05 am

Re: Muso versus Roon

Post by MDE »

Now that I've had time to read the review in full, a few thoughts occur:
I can't see where it says that it will work with squeezebox. Rather it seems that it will have its own multi room solution.
A lot of it still seems to be "promise-ware".
It is VERY expensive given the limited functionality (e.g. No cd ripper, no multi-room yet).
Its only USP seems to be the integration of different music sources, which might be quite useful if you stream a lot. With my "broadband" connection, that is unlikely, particularly for hi-res files!
Without doing a trial, it is difficult to compare the metadata with dbpoweramp, which I currently use. Unless the metadata is very good (and the review wasn't convincing on this) then manual editing will be necessary to get it right (particularly for classical and jazz fans).
Overall, for music that is on a home server, it would appear to be inferior to the (much cheaper) combination of Muso, LMS and dbpoweramp. This combination is also (imho) better than the, more expensive and hardware-bound, Sonos system. The difference is that it is not packaged together and sold with hardware which, as one commenter pointed out, makes a big difference to sales.
As regards the "audiophile" comments, I agree with the posts except to remark that there is a difference between a good and a bad amplifier in that a bad amplifier does not faithfully reproduce the input. My experience is that speakers/headphones make the biggest difference. Except of course that the ears (or brain?) of the listener is the most fallible element in the system. If you want to reveal detail, just put on some in-ear headphones.
musoware
Site Admin
Posts: 1847
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 6:50 am

Re: Muso versus Roon

Post by musoware »

MDE wrote:As regards the "audiophile" comments, I agree with the posts except to remark that there is a difference between a good and a bad amplifier in that a bad amplifier does not faithfully reproduce the input. My experience is that speakers/headphones make the biggest difference. Except of course that the ears (or brain?) of the listener is the most fallible element in the system. If you want to reveal detail, just put on some in-ear headphones.
It's really not that hard or costly to make a decent solidly engineered amp though, so a bad one would have to be very bad, or just under-powered for the speakers they are matched to and so over-driven.

Must try some decent in-ear headphones some time.
Post Reply