I’ve dropped Roon in favour of LMS

[mikeyb]

I’ve dropped Roon in favour of Logitech Media Server using the Material Skin on my MoOde Audio Pi, gives me direct access to Qobuz, Spotify, Bandcamp, Radio Paradise, TuneinRadio, plus my own music server

Can control both of my Pi setups, one on my main HiFi system and another one in my PC room, can be synced to work in unison or separately. PC room Pi is running PiCoreplayer as an alternative to MoOde and both work flawlessly

Roon - £90 per year

LMS - Free

Material Skin - Free ( Donations accepted )

Several photos to show what the Material Skin is capable of, designed and maintained by a Logitech Software employee

Works in Portrait and Landscape mode which is another plus over Roon as it can’t do that in iOS, the Material Skin can even work similar to Roon Radio and continue to play music similar to what you’ve just been listening to once the album/playlist is finished

[WESTLOWER]

Limited lp favourites with LMS.. I believe 500 is the limit so if you have an extensive library in Tidal or another service it won’t allow you access to over 500 .
I had this dilemma a couple of years ago

I Use Roon now.

[mikeyb]

Limited lp favourites with LMS.. I believe 500 is the limit so if you have an extensive library in Tidal or another service it won’t allow you access to over 500 .
I had this dilemma a couple of years ago

I Use Roon now.

Here’s my library scan, no idea if relevant just thought I’d show it anyway.

I should also have said that LMS is now on version 8.0.0

[WESTLOWER]

It will be interesting to see if LMS allows more now.
I wrote to their tech support gurus who said there was a 500 limit.
Things may have changed.. it only used to show A - G in my alphabetical library
let’s us know please as if things get even tighter post Covid then as much as I really LOVE Roon then LMS could be back on the horizon.

[mikeyb]

It will be interesting to see if LMS allows more now.
I wrote to their tech support gurus who said there was a 500 limit.
Things may have changed.. it only used to show A - G in my alphabetical library
let’s us know please as if things get even tighter post Covid then as much as I really LOVE Roon then LMS could be back on the horizon.

I’ve edited my post above to say that LMS is now on a new version so it might have changed ?

[Yatsushiro]

Hi mikeyb

A good, timely post. I've long used LMS and PcP on a selection of RPi's, and the Material Skin has made a huge difference, particularly my wife who didn't like the old LMS interface. Note that as well as a 'browser' skin, there is also a Material 'app' for android phones.

Just to correct something that you posted. Material is developed by a brit, Craig Drummond. It is LMS itself that is maintained and developed by Michael Herger, who is indeed a Logitech employee.

[Gazjam]

Michael Herger was...basically...the guy who saved LMS.
Logitech left it dead in the water, but he carried on working on it and improving on it...all done in the same open source spirit of Sean Adams...who invented the Squeezebox.

Had conversations with him, and earlier Sean, when writing SB Touch VU Meter's a lifetime ago.
A long time away from all that, completely was unaware of LMS "Material".
Genuinely lifted my heart to see LMS at least sitting at the same table as Roon, looks like even the linkable Metadata is in place!

Kudos.

[mikeyb]

Michael Herger was...basically...the guy who saved LMS.
Logitech left it dead in the water, but he carried on working on it and improving on it...all done in the same open source spirit of Sean Adams...who invented the Squeezebox.

Had conversations with him, and earlier Sean, when writing SB Touch VU Meter's a lifetime ago.
A long time away from all that, completely was unaware of LMS "Material".
Genuinely lifted my heart to see LMS at least sitting at the same table as Roon, looks like even the linkable Metadata is in place!

Kudos.

He's done an excellent job reviving it

[mikeyb]

Hi mikeyb

A good, timely post. I've long used LMS and PcP on a selection of RPi's, and the Material Skin has made a huge difference, particularly my wife who didn't like the old LMS interface. Note that as well as a 'browser' skin, there is also a Material 'app' for android phones.

Just to correct something that you posted. Material is developed by a brit, Craig Drummond. It is LMS itself that is maintained and developed by Michael Herger, who is indeed a Logitech employee.

Thanks for the heads-up on the Android app

[WESTLOWER]

So has the limited 500 library from streaming services been improved?