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

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

I have Audirvana + 3.5.10. I recently tried Roon (14-day trial). I love the multi-device and library management features of Roon. Very easy to setup. I also like how it automatically combines duplicates so that only the highest resolution shows in library. However, I just did a comparison with 3 different songs and Audirvana + beat Roon each time. Roon's soundstage is a bit more flat. I tried Indian fusion, R.E.M.'s automatic for the people in 192/24, and Mariah Carey's One Sweet Day just to have several different genre. Audirvana+ had more robust sound and better soundstage on each one. 

I have completely changed my mind on this question since the arrival of Audirvana 3.5. I have a lifetime subscription to Roon so this is a dilemma. Over the past two weeks I’ve been going back and forth between the two platforms but it’s clear to me that Audirvana has surpassed Roon in a significant way. As things stand, I’ll listen to Roon radio but when I really want to *listen* it’s worth the hassle to switch on Audirvana. It’s that clear and that much better.

I listen to bit perfect native files. No upsampling. Roon via Sonic Tranporter. Audirvana from my MacBook Pro. Both feeding an upgraded microrendu.

Just compared again using Pink Floyd's Division Bell 96/24 HD Tracks Download ("Poles Apart"). Audirvana has a more robust sound stage. Roon is good, but Audirvana is just GREAT. 

Where Roon is better: gapless playback between tracks (Pink Floyd albums are intended to play seamlessly between tracks as one continuation and Audirvana has a gap between tracks), Roon radio, user interface with loads of features, multiple zones, streaming from one library to various devices simultaneously. Keep in mind, Roon has many options for filters and maybe adjusting these can improve sound quality. Not sure.