Roon

Naive question: he claims that Roon changed their software in a way that made it incompatible in a number of ways, causing heartache and great expense to a lot of people. 

Is that claim true or false?

@hilde45 Not at my end so I would say false.

OCD Mikey is a _____________

jerryg123 - I think you nailed it!

“there's not a lot of great options to choose from.”

Have you looked into Aurender? Very robust and well laid out app interface and great sound. 

The nice thing about Roon is that you are not tied to a single vendor's server or DAC technology. I started out running Roon on my PC, then on a DIY NUC server running ROCK, then a SGC sonicTransporter i9 optical.

I've used multiple connections to my DACs including direct USB, a couple different Sonore devices, Bryston BDP-2, Auralic Vega G2, Bluesound Nodes, and Apple devices.

I don't know of any other system that has this kind of flexibility and connectivity with the exceptional user interface and excellent sound quality that Roon provides. 

I have no doubt that there are excellent vendor-specific solutions, such as Aurender, that may even have SQ advantages over Roon, but I value not being tied to a single hardware vendor and being able to control a wide variety of devices in my home from the same system.