@lalitk Missed my point. I agree with you exactly, Roon sound quality IS all over the place with different servers/renderers. This is exactly the reason why sound quality of Roon in one setup CANNOT be extrapolated to ALL setups. Sure, there are plenty of individuals preferring other music players to Roon, so are you saying this negates all those who prefer Roon. I can only say the present sound quality I'm getting with Roon is absolute4ly revelatory, not a word I use lightly, in fact have not used once in thirty years of audiophile system building.
As for direct comparisons, I have the direct experience of the builder/assembler and subsequent owner of my custom streamer in comparing it to a number of off the shelf streamers which included the Aurender W20SE. They preferred this custom build running full Stylus to the Aurender running Conductor player. Both only sold the custom build after direct comparisons with Taiko Extreme which both purchased. So, how this relates to Roon is I'm preferring Roon with two computer setup to the setup they both preferred which is full Stylus running on the custom streamer. Now, custom build was not in same configuration as when they owned in that they were using HDPlex SMPS powered by Sean Jacobs and/or other top flight LPS, I'm using JCAT Optimo S ATX full lps, far superior to the HDPlex solution. Perhaps the superior noise elimination of the JCAT vs HDPLex is what makes the difference for my Roon preference, hard to say. Or perhaps its my particular setup with Sonore OpticalModule and OpticalRendu, which means LPS, cables used, again, hard to say.
Although I'm not done with experimenting with the Stylus or HQPlayer players, perhaps they'll prove to be superior with different configurations/settings, much to experiment with here. But the main point is I'm getting sensational sound quality with Roon at present, over a hundred hours in and sound quality remains revelatory. Perhaps the revelation will turn into ho hum, but until it does I have absolutely NO motivation to further experiment with players. And isn't the point to enjoy our systems or 'painting' as you put it, some theoretical argument or other people's negative experience with Roon isn't impacting my sound quality or my enjoyment of it.