How do you use Tidal with you local library?

@ogeopaas Roon will only stream Tidal and Qobuz what are you using as an streaming source?

Confused newbie here  I’ve been maintaining an analog system with no digital playback options, and a digital-only system that is my iTunes/Music library. To call the latter a system grossly overstates what it is, but it allows me to play all of my digital music where I am the most: my office, car, airplanes, and hotels.  I am now planning on merging the two as I’ve finally upgraded my analog system to include digital sources.

All of this is to say:

In my mind, what I’d like is to use my hard drive containing the 200+ gigs of music as the center of system. I recently bought the Primare NP5, and will use the drive as a source for that (drive to NP5 to DAC to pre-amp to amp, etc.). 
My question is will Roon software unite all of my streaming options while at the same time allow me to maintain my iTunes/Music library? Will I need that or will it be sufficient to just us AirPlay to stream my music via the NP5?

I have a Bluesound Node 2 and I can choose between my ITunes library or Tidal to play music. I also have the Itunes music files on a Mycloud NAS.

Mconnect cost $5.99

http://www.conversdigital.com/eng/product/product04.php

it’s like roon lite and works very well.

OP  I'm about the same age as you and intend to give Roon a try soon with the trial.  However, they just upped the lifetime license cost and, at $699, it takes almost six years to break even vs. yearly.  A LOT can happen in the digital streaming world in six years so I'm not sure it's worth the risk even if your 30. :)  I do expect to find Roon worth the money (yearly) but $499 would have been an easier risk to take.

Plus Roon as some great DSP capabilities! 

I’ve started a Room trial using an old Mac book pro that can be left on, will have to spend some time with it.

At 60 not sure if lifetime is the way to go or just pay year on year.

Should have mentioned that you can build a Roon Core server using an Intel NUC for ? $300-500, and I suspect it's performance will beat the MBP and approach the Nucleus.

The value of Roon goes beyond just integrating your local library and Tidal (which it does very, very well). There is an ease of music discovery and learning about the musicians that has been talked about, but would hard to not have, now that I have experienced it. I have been exposed to so much new music that I love in the year I have had Roon.

Also there is a step-up in sound quality (SQ) from iTunes. I would say the SQ is about the same as what I was getting with iTunes+BitPerfect ($9.99; http://bitperfectsound.blogspot.com/). Adding BitPerfect to iTunes gave a very noticeable jump in SQ and easily worth the $10.

Given that I was running my Roon core on a MacBookPro (MBP), my reading suggested that I would get better SQ going to a dedicated server. In the interest of user ease and install, I bought a Roon Nucleus and it was super easy to get up and running (plugged an external Samsung T3 or T5 SSD with my iTunes library in via USB) and flawless in use over the last year. The sound was identical to iTunes+BitPerfect on the MBP, except the noise floor was noticeably lower. This might not sound like much, but actually is. You hear more of the acoustic space of the recording, you hear more of end of the notes, you hear more of the small variations in the notes themselves, and gain more of the expression of the musician. Really quite remarkable. I am wondering how much further I could improve this aspect, so I am going to purchase a LPS for the Nucleus, and if that improves SQ (it pushes USB directly into my Yggy), I will get LPSs for my cable modem and router.

http://www.conversdigital.com/eng/product/product04.php

Excellent App - that will manage and play Tidal and Qobuz accounts as well as seeing and including your local library.

Search mconnect in your App Store.

I have Macbook Pro and iPhone. With Tidal Hifi.

Bought Audirvana a few years, and use that on the Mac.
Run Tidal and my Library through it.
Audirvana is better than iTunes.
And has a 30 day trial.

Roon..?...sure, but it's another $120/yr or so.
I have same situation as OP but with a MacBook Pro server in addition to iPhone/iPad.

I just dont find managing two libraries to be that much of an issue.
Or, am I just asking myself this: Is it worth $10/mo. for Roon to do it for me?

Just like Apple, Roon has an eco-system of its own.

The latter.

Streamers and services like Roon may let you save Tidal tracks as favorites.

Best,

E