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

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. 

i use A+. i tried as I had an all 3xx JBL system and the 310s subwoofer would not integrate properly... timing was off and i could not get this squared away.. i tried all the switches and moved the subwoofer 4 times... nothing worked. i installed A+ and it took care of the issue.

I recently installed Audirvana on my Win 10 Pro PC (also has Roon) to test the SQ differences. Through my headphones I can clearly hear that Audirvana is superior to Roon. The difference I am hearing is more than the difference I heard when comparing Tidal to Qobuz (Qobuz sounds better; cleaner more incisive, more 'direct' sound);
Comparing Roon to Audirvana; There is more dynamic contrast with Audirvana; Roon sounds flatter and less engaging when doing back and forth using same tracks; With Aud, vocals have more "vibrancy" and focus; overall sound has more life to it; If I didn't do the back and forth I would not have believed this.  I am not really happy about this because I have pretty much gotten used to Roon and love the integration.  


My DAC is an Exogal Comet Plus; I have selected the ASIO protocol because it was the only one that was available to the XMOS USB 2.0 ST 301C driver that Exogal uses; 
Roon also uses ASIO protocol, as I can see it in the Signal Path map;


My tests involved local DSD files and streaming from 24-bit Qobuz files. I have not tested Tidal for differences yet;

On the one hand, yay for finding a sonic improvement but quite frustrating, because it seems there is no end to getting the 100% best possible sound from a PC.  Assuming both applications handle the memory to USB protocol the same, what else could cause this?