Plex vs Roon vs VLC ?

[What-watt]

Good Evening,

 

just discover Plex after finishing a 3 month trial Roon, and today, by typo mistake VLC, any comment on those system? is there one that you prefer? 

 

All play archived music database, some do integration, others partial integration with streamers.

 

Since i rip, my 40000 songs with itunes, for listening, seems it sound bit better with Roon and Plex, VLC (not try it, for now)

 

any comment, or suggestion?

 

best regards

and many thanks for you help, my music life is improving, since i discover your forum!

[pbphoto]

Been a Roon user for 5+ years.  It's not without faults but it offers a lot of flexibility.  I use it to stream my local library + Qobuz + live radio to a variety of end-points. Its database engine and meta-data are great. Roon Arc works well streaming your in-house Roon environment to wherever you are.  I've never used Plex or VLC so I can't comment.

[The Dude]

I have Plex for movies, but ROON for music. I agree with everything pbphoto said. I started using Plex for music originally, but once ROON came out, I preferred that over PLEX. I used VLC years ago when I had a Linux machine and external hard drive but wasn't crazy about it. I don't think it was developed as it is now, so my opinion may be mute.

[rplace]

19 hours ago, The Dude said:

I have Plex for movies, but ROON for music

 

Same here. If I took all my audio purchases in the last 20 years....speakers, amps, tubes, record cleaners DACs, heck anything but music. Roon is the single best purchase at any cost. I'm happy with Plex to manage my local video library be it purchased or phone video. Can't comment on VLC.

 

I'm a music streamer. All my 100,000+ song library of Standard Rez and High Rez music is local. Room is key to that. I spend a good bit of time over at the Roon Forums ( Since Randal/Double-Aught-1 took root here 😉 )  and I get the feeling that many like Roon for streaming as well.

[whell]

On 6/4/2024 at 7:20 PM, Zink_e said:

Good Evening,

 

just discover Plex after finishing a 3 month trial Roon, and today, by typo mistake VLC, any comment on those system? is there one that you prefer? 

 

 

Never used Roon because of the cost.  Plex much the same, and since my system is music only, Plex is more than I need.  

 

VLC - assuming you're running VLC on a Windows PC, you need to make sure to set VLC up correctly to bypass the Windows mixer and send the output directly to your soundcard or external DAC.  That involves going into VLC preferences, selecting audio, and choosing the device you want to send the audio output to.  That said, VLC is a bare-bones media player.  The advantage of VLC is that it can play nearly any media file format in existence. However, as far as I know, there is no VLC integration with Tidal, Qobuz, etc.

 

But wait!  There's more!

 

If you're tied to the MS Windows ecosystem, you might have a look at Lyrion Music Server: https://lyrion.org/   Lyrion installs in Windows, and you can then configure it for what you need it to do.  Lyrion integrates with Tidal, Quboz, Spotify and others.  It will scan your hard drive (either internal, attached or network drive) to build a catalog of your music.  You can control playback remotely from your chair on a tablet or smartphone or another PC on the same network.  Lyrion is what became of the old Logitech Media Server software, and is now maintained by a group of music enthusiasts.  

 

A kissing cousin of Lyrion is Daphile: https://www.daphile.com/.  Daphile is based on Lyrion.   The difference is that, rather than installing Daphile on your existing Windows computer, you actually replace Windows with Daphile: Daphile is its own operating system based on Linux.  Daphile also comes with operating system tweaks that favor music playback on a computer. Beyond that, Daphile and Lyrion share similar DNA (i.e., you can use the same plugins as Lyrion users have access to and configure Daphile to do what you need it to do).  I've been a happy Daphile user for a number of years.  I've compared it to other music-specific operating systems and software but at least for me, I've not found anything better.  

 

Well  almost.  The only thing that I've found that can rival it in my use case is a Linux computer running the mpd music server.  The ONLY drawback with mpd is that it doesn't integrate with streaming services like Tidal or Quboz.  If you're not a subscriber and don't need that integration, then the sound quality from a properly configured PC running mpd is really tough to beat.  

[What-watt]

8 hours ago, whell said:

 

Never used Roon because of the cost.  Plex much the same, and since my system is music only, Plex is more than I need.  

 

VLC - assuming you're running VLC on a Windows PC, you need to make sure to set VLC up correctly to bypass the Windows mixer and send the output directly to your soundcard or external DAC.  That involves going into VLC preferences, selecting audio, and choosing the device you want to send the audio output to.  That said, VLC is a bare-bones media player.  The advantage of VLC is that it can play nearly any media file format in existence. However, as far as I know, there is no VLC integration with Tidal, Qobuz, etc.

 

But wait!  There's more!

 

If you're tied to the MS Windows ecosystem, you might have a look at Lyrion Music Server: https://lyrion.org/   Lyrion installs in Windows, and you can then configure it for what you need it to do.  Lyrion integrates with Tidal, Quboz, Spotify and others.  It will scan your hard drive (either internal, attached or network drive) to build a catalog of your music.  You can control playback remotely from your chair on a tablet or smartphone or another PC on the same network.  Lyrion is what became of the old Logitech Media Server software, and is now maintained by a group of music enthusiasts.  

 

A kissing cousin of Lyrion is Daphile: https://www.daphile.com/.  Daphile is based on Lyrion.   The difference is that, rather than installing Daphile on your existing Windows computer, you actually replace Windows with Daphile: Daphile is its own operating system based on Linux.  Daphile also comes with operating system tweaks that favor music playback on a computer. Beyond that, Daphile and Lyrion share similar DNA (i.e., you can use the same plugins as Lyrion users have access to and configure Daphile to do what you need it to do).  I've been a happy Daphile user for a number of years.  I've compared it to other music-specific operating systems and software but at least for me, I've not found anything better.  

 

Well  almost.  The only thing that I've found that can rival it in my use case is a Linux computer running the mpd music server.  The ONLY drawback with mpd is that it doesn't integrate with streaming services like Tidal or Quboz.  If you're not a subscriber and don't need that integration, then the sound quality from a properly configured PC running mpd is really tough to beat.  

Flabergaster, je suis! wow, thanks!

[What-watt]

just ad, the plexamp, for the DJ choice, it plays all day to my collection and kept the mood and play a lot of my music, didn't remember have...

plexamp, really dig deep in your music, so far, much better than the genius Apple or better than what streamer offer me for discovery.
 

also there a way to join an A.I. to, but I have no A.I. so i could not try this feature.

 

i tend to prefer plex so far, compare to my last 3 month with roon...

 

the plexamp option, so far, fun fun fun with DJ feature...

 

and thanks for all, your info, plenty of reading to do, but Whell, thanks for the Lyrion, will seriously investigate that!

 

Also remote playing my plex music on my phone when i drive i must try, but iFun, seem to charge an extra to let you use Plex??? no clue why?

 

I integrated, my Tidal to Plex, will see or hear, what will be the impact on my music, also discover Plex has an sort of integration, for your apple database (the xml link require??? found it, but don't know what it serve for...)

 

Best regards

thanks

Edited June 7, 2024 by Zink_e
Typo

[What-watt]

Still learning with the logitech/lyrion, how to playback?

 

but learning, my mac finally accept it!

[robv14001]

A buddy of mine referred me to this conversation.  I wanted to add that Plex has a DLNA server (if you turn it on).  I did that, and stream my FLAC files to my AVR, which makes the sound as good as your sound system allows.  (My setup allows [correction: 192 kHz], 24-bit FLAC as well as WAV, MP3, etc.)  I tried Kodi and was disappointed.  So I will stick with Plex, at least for now.

 

(Plex is programmable if you research how to do it and have basic Python skills.  You don't really need to do this: the Plex clients on the various platforms do most everything you want.  Of course you have to set up a Plex server, e.g., on Windows, and point it at your media.)

 

I mostly use Plex for movies.  I stream to the Plex client (app) running on an NVIDIA SHIELD, which has the horses to push uncompressed 7.1 and 4K.

 

I don't expect to be back on this forum.  My buddy's sound system sounds great, but I don't own any Klipsch gear to speak of.

Edited June 23, 2024 by robv14001

[What-watt]

Final decision:

 

mediamonkey in Dj mode direct streaming to the dac bypassing all window mixer!

 

affordable, flexible and with a touchscreen on my windows server

 

I have almost an headless music solution!

 

Good luck all

[What-watt]

In case artwork is missing in your database, i found this:

 

http://reliablybroken.com/artwork/

 

regards

[What-watt]

look like Audiolab, like plex...!

 

https://darko.audio/2024/04/audiolab-adds-plexamp-support-to-9000n-streaming-dac/

[Thaddeus Smith]

Roon still stomps on all of the other solutions when it comes to native format, multi-room playback with phone/table remote control. It integrates the hi-res streaming partners wonderfully. Plexamp continues to improve, enough so that I've become less inclined to eat the cost of Roon.

 

I already pay for Plex on the video side of things.

 

I've slowly stopped caring about multi-room playback, at least as it relates to my local library. I still use Spotify a lot for music discovery and casual listening, with my local library growing as find keepers. Roon still doesn't integrate Spotify, and I pay for Spotify family so my wife and kids can do their own thing. Plexamp doesn't natively play DSD files, but it transcodes to PCM without issue. These days, that's becoming good enough for my ears. The phone/tablet remote control is fussy, but good enough for my shrinking needs.

[The Dude]

Sadly I am paying for ROON, PLEX Pass, and Spotify.  With the streamers I use, I can stream Spotify and ROON. 

 

I suppose if PLEX had this announcement a couple of years ago, I probably would have stayed with it for music as I primarily only stream HI Res on one system at a time.

[What-watt]

Any trick to ad Spotify to mediamonkey?

 

That's what I am using now since it bypass windows mixer!

 

Thanks for helping!