What exactly is ROON?

I was a little skeptical when I became a Roon  user but now I would hate to be without it. Rather than add complexity, I think it adds simplicity in managing your music.
I don’t use the DSP features, but I know many who do and are quite happy with the performance. I have a high-quality dac With its own music management app, which is very good and going back-and-forth, there is no difference in the sound quality. For me, it greatly enhances the listening experience, and I think most who have tried it have found that to be true.  As with most things in this hobby, I suppose that’s subjective so your experience might be different. Roon has helped me discover artists I enjoy very much and would likely never have found otherwise. For me, that’s the greatest benefit.

I used Audirvana with a PC before I started buying dedicated streamers.  It was an excellent and inexpensive product.  There were a few bugs that may have been fixed in the years since I used it

@mahler123 

Thanks.  Music servers that have Audirvāna pre-installed or are compatible include:

• Antipodes Audio Music Servers (e.g., K22 and K40) with some limitations for setup.

• 3D Lab Music Servers.

• Fidelizer Audio Servers, which are fully tested and integrated with Audirvāna.

• Infigo Audio IS-1 Streamer, which includes Audirvāna software.

Additionally, Audirvāna supports UPnP-compatible devices, making it usable with a wide range of streamers and speakers like KEF Wireless HiFi systems and others certified under the “Plays with Audirvāna” program.  

As noted above, my Infigo Audio IS-1 Streamer already has the Audiovana LINUX version installed.  I use my Apple iPad with the Audiovana Remote to control it.  I stream from QoBuz and everything works perfectly.   There may additional music servers that have Audiovana installed but I am not aware of them. 

Can either ROON or Audirvana do something like Genre random play by Album or Artist?

With Roon it is simple to shuffle an album playlist, or to click play on an artist's page to start a random play of that artist's songs.

There is also the Roon Radio function to start playing similar songs when any playlist ends.