Audirvana Plus vs Roon - High Sound Quality at Lower Cost?

Thanks everyone.

Mahler123, you mentioned you don’t want to use a PC.  Can I ask what you have Audirvana running on?

I am using a Mac Mini, “headless” without a keyboard mouse or display and connected directly to my DAC via USB.

On another note, my Mac storage is hybrid solid state and mechanical, which in theory is not supposed to be as good as pure solid state due to added noise on the USB line as well as emitted noise.  Not sure this is proven to have an effect though.

Finally, for those saying Roon doesn’t sound quite as good as Audirvana or others, Roon’s Knowledge base indicates that to maximize sound quality, the Roon  “core” must be physically separated from the hardware running the player that is connected to the DAC.  The core is supposed to be connected via Ethernet for maximum SQ.  I believe this is to isolate the audio rig including DAC and player from noise generated by the hardware the core is running on, but I’m not totally sure on the reasoning behind this.  Anyhow, just wondering if some who are saying Roon is inferior may be deploying the core and player on one single device which is connected to the DAC.  Roon works this way but they don’t suggest it in there Knowledgebase.

I do run Audirvana on my PC.  However, I prefer not to use my PC in my Audio System, and that is why I use renderers instead of the PC with Audirvana.
I have been using Bluesound, but recently I had a problem where I could not use it for a month.  I went back to controlling my NAS with Audirvana and my PC for that time.  It sounds truly excellent and the App isn’t bad, but it was a problem if I wanted to use the PC for something else, and I get tired of the Computer boot up, with the Apple notifications, etc

I'll put in another vote for Audirvana.  I use it exclusively on a mac mini server and run it from the very good iPad app.  Mostly playing local files stored on a NAS but I do use Tidal some.  You don't have total control of A+ from the app but it is excellent for playback.  Sound quality is excellent.

I have used Roon a lot and I think the interface is terrible.  It is so convoluted and cumbersome to navigate.  To me, simplicity is king and A+ is way way ahead in this regard.  Roon does have a little more flexibility in terms of browsing Tidal, but I don't think it is fun to use.  FWIW this is coming from someone age 33 so it is not like I am a geezer struggling to use new technology!  

Late to the party, but I'll add my comments.

I have been using Audirvana Plus for several years and Roon for almost a year.  Running on 2011 & 2014 macMinis.

Most important to me is sound quality and reliability.  On both counts, the move to A+ was clearly superior to iTunes.  I decided to audition Roon in early 2018 (not sure what version) with the free trial, mainly because of the multi-room, multi-device capabilities. 

On sound quality, I preferred A+ over Roon.  A+ had better detail and body to the sound. Roon sounded somewhat flat, lacking atmosphere and depth in comparison.  I was very disappointed because I love the Roon interface, multi-device capabilities, artist & album info, etc. With Roon it seemed like I could control all my networked systems with a ton of different devices in the house versus A+ which I could not. I don't own an iPhone or iPad so I couldn't sit back and control A+ without stealing one of my wife's Apple devices. Roon also integrated my personal library very well with Tidal.  A+ works, but library and Tidal are still somewhat separated in their own boxes.

After several months, all the extra features of Roon compelled me to purchase Roon.  A year later, I now essentially use Roon most of the time, because of the interface and convenience of remote controls for all zones. Surprisingly the Radio is excellent feature I did not realize I would enjoy as much as I do.  When I do more dedicated listening in my main system, I still use Audirvana. 

I will say, I think the Roon audio quality has improved over the last year, although I have not tried any direct comparison.  Cheers