To Roon or not to Roon

I started with a Bluesound node2, great piece of kit. Recently went down the Raspberry pi rabbit hole.
I was using the Node with a Schiit Bifrost multibit, and was happy, until...

The Bluesound node did everything I needed, streamed my music on a NAS, Tidal integration, excellent web radio stations, and more web music services than I thought existed.
However, after experimenting with the pi, and Roon, I’m happier with my new setup. Roon is more than a simple music player, it gives you info on the album, musicians, producers, etc. It helps you explore musicians that you might not have heard of and looks(to me) nicer. The Bluesound app doesn’t do that, it relies on Tidals’ suggestions for you to find new music.
If that is worth $12 a month to you, is up to you, it is to me.

If you have a dac already, the pi route is the least expensive option, but requires a bit of work on your part. It sounds better to me (Allo Digione sig -> ADI-2 dac)

good luck
mdr

Also in a Roon trial.  It creates endpoints that allow wireD connections to tidal.  Tidal via Ethernet is more possible via Roon.  Roon With tidal is better than heos, and BluOS from bluesound. 
Using desktop, in other room,  for Roon core, works fine. 

May buy Roon lifetime for 600. Bluesound dac is very poor, streamer  probably ok.  

I used Roon for a 30 day trial and chose not to stick with it. It is an attractive program in many ways for organizing and exploring one's music collection. However, I actually found it frustrating since Roon doesn't have an option to explore my server's folder setup, which is my primary method of organizing my music. They want you to find music their way and to hell with the way you used to do it.

Also, I am very happy with the way Qobuz lets me explore new music and material I don't have in my own collection. Roon didn't improve that experience for me.

All in all, it just wasn't worth the cost for a few bells and whistles, and it went backwards in areas I wanted to keep. However, I know a lot of people who love Roon, so this is a decision only you can make for yourself.

I will say my exploring of Qobuz through Roon is very seamless and once I easily discover titles I wish to stream I can have them always appear in my collection.  The experience of having my 13TB of music files and my Qobuz selections all appear in the same singular library presentation to me makes it a superior experience. 

Roon is delivered via ethernet to an Ayre QX-5 digital hub that is both endpoint and DAC.  The sound, especially Qobuz 192/24, is superb.  The suggestions that follow the end of my selections have introduced me to recordings that have become some my favorites.  That process is uncanny in its predictive ability -- thumbs up or down helps train the process.