After using Roon (and I still am) for about 5 years and all those years hoping for a mobile version I lost hope it will ever be released. Tried VPN solutions but that never worked to my satisfaction.
So, I bit the bullet a few months ago and bought a license for Plex, mainly to use it when I am on the go or connect to my music when on a holiday.
Here are my first experiences with Plexamp.
I love the look and feel of PlexAmp on iOS, the snappy response in PlexAmp (and Plex) when browsing my library and the (no) time it needs to start playing music, even on a mobile network and when abroad. I LOVE the Sonic Analysis, it is working mostly well.
But, there is always a but… (though Plexamp does not have to be a second Roon),
What I dislike or is missing and is not on par with the statement on the PlexAmp website:
(…for curators and audiophiles…)
I don’t know the definition of an audiophile, but if it is someone who loves expensive cables, audio routers or UTP cables and bitperfect playback, then I am not an audiophile. What I do like is curating / managing my library, find new tracks and add them to playlists, tagging them for moods and occasion’s. So, before you can call Plexamp “… for audiophiles and curators…”, then Plex needs to solve some things.
Some of the shortcomings are so big (like various artists, better tag support), I sometimes wonder to myself do the developers actually use Plexamp? 
- Track based genres, styles or tags.
I am a single guy (in terms of music
).
I can’t imagine I can’t add genres, moods or styles at track level in the Plex app or Plexamp app. I just discovered I can add moods on track level but only in the browser, why not in the apps? To define an album with a few genres / styles or moods does not cover the tracks. Creating Smart Playlists is not working because it is on album or Artist level.
@beckfield explained it outstanding what is needed in this topic:
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Multiple Artists There are loads of albums with multiple or various artists. How come you can build a sophisticated Sonic Analysis feature in Plexamp and not solve the way this is “handled” in the year 2022. This way it is unusable, for example albums from Belle & Sebastian and Trentemoller are displayed as Various Artists.
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Links There are no Links in Reviews of albums or artists to other Albums / Artists which would make your catalog browseable.
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Folders (or nested Playlists) for Playlists**, as I am importing Playlists and Tags (as playlists in Plex) it becomes a mess when having hundreds of playlists. Same for nested collections.
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I can click on year, band or even label when in album view. But there is no info about genre or style.
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Why (screenshot 1) is the action list on the bottom of the screen. It does not feel “iOS” and not “natural / airy”.
A modal with the options is more in line with the year 2022.
Instead of this:
This:
- Information about a playlist or mood a track is in.
What doesn’t work (well):
- Smart playlist not editable with all fields available in Plexamp (where I can use Mood in the full Plex version, I can’t use it in Plexamp, at least on my iPhone)
- Smart collection is not visible in PlexAmp
- Some views like Recent plays you can choose for display in a grid or list, other views not, like Playlists.
