My experience comparing the Roon to Aurender N10.
The Sound
I tried the Roon on a 2018 MBP, ethernet to Gigabit switch, then ethernet to an Ayre QX-5. Then RCA out to a Marantz AV7704 (I used the 7.1 Channel in to avoid the Marantz DAC) Speakers were B&W 803D3 and amps were Classe Sigma 2Amps. It sounded ok, not bad but not any better then running the MBP directly to the Ayre. It just allowed you to use an iPad interface vs the MBP.
Aurender N10 test. Then I transferred the same songs - ALAC & MP3s to the Aurender. Used it's USB out (Also tried the AES/EBU and COAX) The difference was immediate. Got an immediate thumbs up from the wife. More depth and much larger soundstage. The notes just seemed to carry better. And the bass was deeper. For me it clearly sounded better.
Winner - Aurender.
The Apps.
Roon. We (wife, myself & 2 teenagers too) felt the Roon app was to cluttered and suffered from info overload. It reminds me of apps that i'v tried on my phone that were great in the beginning (clean and simple) and then transformed into a method for advertisers to push products onto you - going from a pull technology to a push technology.
Aurender N10.
We much preferred the interface of the Conductor App - clean, simple, no distracting links and articles. Just realize that you need good metadata so it sorts the way you want in the Conductor App.
Winner - None - They are just different. It really depends on what experience you are looking for.
Practical considerations.
Our computers are upstairs in the office. The listening room is downstairs. We listened to music by going upstairs turning on the computer (Make sure Home Share is on and set computer to not go to sleep or log out). Then turn on the stereo and Apple TV (connect to the computer and stream music from there to the Apple TV) then via HDMI to the Marantz. What a pain in the *%&. We could leave everything on but would still have to suffer with the Apple TV interface.
That's why we looked at Roon. But you need to leave everything on - iTunes opened, Roon opened, computer set to not sleep. Or you get a NAS and set it up downstairs. Based on this and our tests we did not feel that Roon was for us.
The Aurender - transfer your library there, update it once a week?, and you're done. You can turn everything on from downstairs and you get great sound. No messing with computers. Just need an iPad and WIFI.
Cost? Yes the Aurender costs more. But we all make choices.
Lastly - If you have bad source material. The Aurender with the Ayre cleaned up a lot better than Roon through the Ayre. We tried a few old mp3s we had from the early days of the internet ;-)
