To ROON or not to ROON ?

I use Roon with a $500 cheap DELL mini computer. I am a power user of Roon since I have 3 Zones for headphones and 2-channel, and sometimes Convolution filters (DSP) on the headphone Zone.

I helped a friend setup an audio booth at a show using Roon on a Apple laptop to 3 Zones. We created a network at the show just for the booth. This was without internet access since we did not want the participants to waste time browsing. So this was not a super powerful network. We also had some hi-res files, but no Convolution filters. The setup worked perfectly.

Roon is really solid and I love it. I was a user even before the product was released. About 7 years ago, I met the son of the PS Audio owner at a show and he was excited about a new product coming out called Roon. Based on that conversation I bought a Lifetime subscription to Roon for $450.

I wanted to be completely indifferent to Roon and was hoping to send back the cheap NUC I picked up to try it with.

There's no going back. It overcomes so many deficiencies in the ifi Zen Stream, Tidal Connect and Qobuz. Roon Radio is 95% brilliant. It also allows you the freedom to not overly care about the software of your network bridge (or directly connect to the DAC if you want to).

All I can say is, give it a try - we are all totally different and some people really like mConnect and BubbleUPnP (I dislike them both). There's a 14-day free trial and you can install Roon Server on any spare piece of computer kit, or buy a cheap NUC.

I'm already planning on getting a better, fanless NUC and a lifetime subscription - but that's just me. I'm also planning on AB testing a direct connection to my DDC instead of the Zen Stream which would bring in some additional funds to spend elsewhere (want new speakers!)

@jabbaman What do you find lacking with Tidal Connect?

Roon + Qobuz = Pandora’s box with a lovely interface. 

@classdstreamer - lacking isn't the right word but I consistently lose connection with Tidal connect from Windows 11 and Apple iPad and cannot connect at all with the Android app. Roon just works and gives me seamless integration across both Tidal and Qobuz.