LMS vs ROON

Let me add some arguments that in the end counted for me. I have absolutely nothing to complain about when it comes to sound quality of LMS. But I struggled with the reliability of the software setup with LMS. I needed to quite often go to the server setting and correct something for it to work. I tried to install LMS at some friends several times, who were not computer nerds, and I had to stop that again, because af ter 14 days it did not work for them. I ended by giving them an Airplay solution on Raspberries, that apparently is rock solid. Am I the only one with such experiences with LMS?

Another problem that made me try Roon was that I found it unreliable about synchronisation between two sources (kitchen and dining room) did not work well and was in practice so much out of sync that I had to drop it. Again - am I the only one with such experiences?

Finally, and this is made a significant difference - I use Tidal quite a lot, and the user interface that was possible to get over LMS was really poor. While with Roon it works quite well - also with several channels. But - as mentioned the sound quality one can get with LMS is very good, absolutely no complaints there. When I say that I do find the price of Roon "cheap" it is when I compare with closed systems like Sonos, which to my experience also cannot deliver same quality as any of the two here mentioned.
 
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Let me add some arguments that in the end counted for me. [...]
Thank you for posting your experience.

This kind of hassle is exactly what has driven me away from too much DIY and open source regarding software in the last 5 years. The ratio between setup and maintaining work to effectively using the product as intended leaded always to eat up too much time (and my and my family's nerves).
At least at my skill level wrt software setup and command line mastering.
 
it might have been me that have had particular problems at certain times. And it is said on top of having used squeezeboxes and raspberries in a LMS system for quite some years, so I do not want to scare anyone away from LMS. In my first post I just explained why I was interesting in trying Roon, and my reasons for ending up buying it.
That said, most of the software is developed to a degree where command line mastering is not necessary. Software as Moode, Dietpi, and LMS is not in general demanding that. And raspberries with dac hats is quite easy to set up as players, so I can only encourage you to start playing with it. The beauty is that there is now several ways of using the same hardware with different software systems.
 

TNT

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I took a ROON trail and compared it to my local LMS. Reason was the dithered volume control in ROON. My evaluation ended with that I did not find the SQ of ROON better than LMS (maybe the contrary) and I did not care at all for the user interface of ROON. Considering also the increased cost with ROON this was not an option for me. Very forthcoming support form ROON I must admit - offered to extended my trail as well as connection with dedicated suport technician.

//
 
I am a happy LMS user . with a massive 1TB library. Short question on the room correctin capabilities of LMS, I don't think they're there, in fact I couldn't find any kind of support for equalizing, or FIR within LMS. What am I missing.
Oh yes, paying 500 $ for Roon is simply moronic, as long as there are free options doing a better job. I do have High Resolution Audio files (>10.000 kbps) that won't play through Roon,
 
A big advantage of Roon over other similar software is that it doesn't rely on UPnP/DLNA.
With Roon certified endpoints (the cheapest ones being RPi's) you are able to play the same program material synchronously in several different rooms / zones. You are not tied to one manufacturer as with Sonos, Bluesound and whatnot to perform this.

I use a QNAP NAS with MPD/DLNA. Endpoints are SOtM sMs-200 music renderer, two laptops, two Vizio TV's and a couple of Chromecast Audio dongles. I can play any system independently of the others. I can play Chromecast Audio in groups, which cover the main floor and lower level. I use free QNAP software for streaming, QMusic for Android and Music Station for Windows. I see no reason to pay for Roon just so I can listen to my own music.

Connecting Chromecast Audio to a better DAC via glass Toslink gives pretty decent sound quality. PCM plays natively up to 96/24. DSD and 2X DSD are downconverted to 48/24.
 
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Hi

I am an old LMS user. I am also trying roon under trial period. I globally prefer LMS over Roon but that's not black and white.

Set up:
Dac lindeman musicbook
LMS 7.8 in a container in a Qnap ts253B
Roon Core in the nas, app from qnap store
Squeezebox Touch Logitech connected to the nas by coax
Roon playing files from the nas, usb to the dac

My LMS pro:

-free and open source 😁
-possibility to browse and play directly folders (and that's a huge pro for me!!)
-lots of additional plugins
-remote interface nice regardless the OS (while Roon remote is a lot better on IOS than Android.

Pro Roon
-can output music directly from the nas through usb to the dac (couldnt do it with miniserver)
-can play DSD
-lots of visual informations while browsing (ex looking at playlists, can see how many tracks and how long) and album or artists info

Cheers
 
Pro Roon
-can output music directly from the nas through usb to the dac (couldnt do it with miniserver)
-can play DSD
-lots of visual informations while browsing (ex looking at playlists, can see how many tracks and how long) and album or artists info

Just to comment "Pro Roon" above:

1. LMS can also output local music on the server/NAS. There's a local squeezelite plugin
2. LMS can play DSD native/DOP too
3. Yep. I'd agree that visual effects are not the strength of LMS.
We're talking audio though, aren't we. ;)
And in the rare event of looking up artist/album related info I rather
google them.


After all. I still havn't seen a single argument that would turn me over towards Roon - even if it would be free of charge.


Enjoy.
 
Here is a question for the LMS guys: If I want to do multi-room streaming and I want to do DSD upsampling in the living room but not the kitchen (the hardware doesn't support it) on top of room correction and later active crossover - what do I need to setup to make LMS work?
That's really the only thing left I want in order to do a trial run of LMS at home.
 
Yea, right. But in my case i am using a Logitech Squeezebox Touch.

It wasn't me mentioning a NAS as streamer!?? ;)

And in Roon DSD is decoded as true DSD, isn't Squeezelite DoP?

LMS can handle both. DoP and Native DSD.

DoP is actually also "true" DSD. The DSD data just gets encapsulated in PCM frames for transport/handling purposes. The DAC unwraps the DSD data again.

I describe the setup for LMS DSD/DoP for piCorePlayer on my blog.

********

Look. The Roon folks just nicely wrap stuff that mostly can be found elsewhere free of charge.

LMS is the most flexible audio network solution around.

For special applications it might require a little tinkering from your side.

That's IMO one of the very few areas where Roon might have a slight advantage. You'll get some stuff served on a silver plate. Not many people will make use of special features though. However. They all will have to pay for those.

Enjoy.
 
Here is a question for the LMS guys: If I want to do multi-room streaming and I want to do DSD upsampling in the living room but not the kitchen (the hardware doesn't support it) on top of room correction and later active crossover - what do I need to setup to make LMS work? That's really the only thing left I want in order to do a trial run of LMS at home.

LMS allows to convert and route the traffic on a MAC address basis. Basically each client can have a different DSP running.

These DSP chains can have access to all kind of applications on the machine. flac, sox, ffmpeg, brutefir you name it. You can even make use of wrapper-scripts to run more complex DSP tasks - such as synchronous upsampling.

There's a config file called "custom-convert.conf" - that's where all the magic happens.

MultiChannel DSP for e.g. crossover DSPs is a different thing though. More complex. Usually that'd be done on the client. Basically you'd feed squeezelite a stereo (resampled) stream through LMS and then you'd pipe the stream from squeezelite into brutefir to apply the filters. (I've done all that in the past - but - you'd have to accept several compromises - not related to LMS! After a while I left all this room correction stuff and active crossover stuff alone)

Enjoy.
 
It wasn't me mentioning a NAS as streamer!?? ;)

my bad then, my LMS is setup in a NAS (via a container) and the player is a separated Logitech SB. Coax to amp
Roon however was also installed in the NAS and playing through NAS Usb output. usb to amp
I describe the setup for LMS DSD/DoP for piCorePlayer on my blog.
man, your blog is quite amazing! thanks for sharing it, i will definitely study it :)