To ROON or not to ROON ?

I thought about it when choosing a streamer but really don't want another subscription.    In the end I picked an Aurender N200.  It checked all the boxes for me and I think after using  it it was definitely the right choice coming from a Vault, which I still use.   I can actually pull ripped content from the Vault to the Aurender over the network .  So for me a closed ecosystem is best .   If I need music in another room I will just move the Vault over there .

I can definitely see the appeal of Roon.   Just not for me 

I used JRiver for years… and now having switched to Aurrender is like getting computing completely out of the picture. It is great… I was in IT my career. I want my streamer like my preamp, amp… etc… plop it down and listen to music.

While I copied my ripped tunes from my NAS to my two Aurender streamers… I never use them. I just use Qobuz. Better or same sound quality as ripped or CD. So happy to have computers out of it… also the sound quality is now up to the sound quality of my vinyl end.

Your choice. I use Roon and several other applications. Cannot tell a difference at all. Innuos, Mind2,  Roon all the same. 

Roon and Qobuz is the nicest pairings I have had in streaming.

The new Roon 2.0 is pretty nice, and easy to figure out.- Mind you, I hate paying for another bit of software- But, Roon, IMHO, is one of the best streaming managers out there. 

I have also had Aurender. My main beef is that it is only Tidal and Qobuz are integrated into the software. Perhaps sound quality diminishes with having to modify the software to be compatible.

@ghdprentice ,

 I want my streamer like my preamp, amp… etc… plop it down and listen to music.

That is one of the reasons I ended up buying Roon.- I just don't want to deal with all the mess.

B

+2, Conductor App from Aurender

To Roon or not, it squarely depends on your choice of hardware. Majority of the hardware providers has taken an easy way out of not developing their own app interface and chose to adapt Roon.

For that matter, I admire Aurender for not giving into Roon and developed their on very robust and straightforward app that’s easy to follow. Yes, Roon has an advanced but complexed interface but when I am listening to music, I don’t care for none of that! I just wanna queue up music and listen. For simplicity and layout, I prefer the Aurender Conductor app over Roon by a mile. I don’t use any of the DSP features in Roon either. IME, Aurender’s Conductor app is very faithful to original source and doesn’t manipulate digital bits like Roon.

When Innuos users reported that Innuos Sense app sounds better than Roon, I wasn’t surprised at all. So my suggestion would be to choose wisely as app software is just as important as choosing the right hardware (streamer or server).