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

I've recently set up Audirvana, choosing over Roon due to Roon's higher cost.
Seems like Audirvana's sound quality is considered to be high.

Does anyone have any experience comparing sound quality of Audirvana vs Roon or other players?
I use Audirvana to play purchased FLAC's, ripped FLAC's, and also Tidal HiFi from my Mac Mini with Fusion Drive connected via USB.
Looking for input from those who may have taken the trouble to compare.  I for one didn't notice a difference, but I am planning to upgrade my system shortly and differences could possibly become apparent as a result.

nyev
tgrisham
1,291 posts
 
I keep trying Audirvana but going back to BitPerfect. Cheap and effective. 
mgattmch
576 posts
 
I can't answer the question directly as I have never tried Roon. All I can say is; I have been using Audirvana Plus for several years now and have no plans to change anything. I am very pleased with the interface and the player works extremely well for me. I am there?
mahler123
3,441 posts
 
I think Audirvana Plus is outstanding.  I did a brief free Roon trial after installing Audirvana and thought Roon degraded the sound subtly.  My problem is that I don’t want my PC in the system, as I prefer to use it for computing.  After I turn off Audirvana I noticed occasionally the Printer settings would have to be reset.  Not a big deal, but annoying.  I didn’t feel that the interface that wonderful but the app works fairly well.  I have also heard that the updates can be problematic and was advised not to do them
big_greg
6,680 posts
 
I have tried Audirvana Plus with the free trial, but really don't see what the big deal is or why I should get Roon.  I understand how some people like all the additional information it provides, but if I really care, it's easy enough to go to Allmusic.  I couldn't tell any difference between Foobar 2000 and Audirvana and Foobar is free.  It is a little more fussy, it took some time to figure out how to play DSD files for example, but it's all good now.
nyev OP
1,031 posts
 
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.






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