Roon vs Bluesound

The Bluesound Node 2 is a very good streamer for $500 but it is probably not up to the standard of the rest of your gear.  I think I recall someone opining that Roon sounded better than the Bluesound.  Roon is definitely a better interface with the music, providing much more information and better organizing  and search functions.  

I hope someone with more experience with your streamer choices chimes in.

Thanks, tomcy6 I’m also looking for a good surround processor possibly Marantz, but don’t want to go over $2k

When you say Roon, you need to specify what hardware you are going to use with it.  Roon started out as a software program and now they offer dedicated hardware to run the program on.
  Purely as a software program, Roon beats the pants off of every other app, Bluesound included, except in Classical Music, where I didn’t detect any advantages during my free trial period.  Roon’s effects on sound quality are debatable.  Many audio critics opine that it degrades sound and during my trial I thought Bluesound was definitely better than Roon, but plenty of Forumistas that use Roon swear otherwise.
  My advice, based on the rest of your system, would be to to use Roon not from a PC but from a streamer that has a lot of firepower, such as a Bryston or an Auralic player.  Roon is a huge program that can overwhelm a PC (it did mine) and perhaps some of the perceived decrement sin sq may be from Computers that are otherwise taxed beyond their means.  The dedicated media players are essentially computers that have been designed to stream and play music and provide a more user friendly interface than a PC.

Apples and oranges for the most part.  Roon is a _software_ solution for managing your music that is dependent on hardware (a Roon "core" and Roon "endpoints").

Bluesound is hardware for streaming, ripping, distributing your music that includes some decent hardware but can also serve as a Roon endpoint.

They are complementary products.  If you get Roon, you're going to have to have at least one endpoint.  It could be a BlueSound device or dozens of other devices.  There's a lot of Roon ready gear out now.

I've been very happy with my BlueSound Node 2 as a music streamer for Tidal, Spotify, etc. and for accessing the music collection on my network.  I've been considering Roon, but am having a hard time justifying paying for software to replace the free interface the Node 2 has which works quite well.

If just using them with digital outs, identical.

If they sounded any different with digital outs, your DAC sucks, which surely isn’t the case with yours.

Marantz looks to have the best pre-outs for processor use, Denon is still OK (get an X3400 and just use the pre-outs), but Yamaha is not good, can’t even do 2Vrms and not as clean. You want Audyssey for your system, even if just for the subwoofer (you can have it correct everything or bypass the mains). All the Denon/Marantz models of the same range use the same AKM DACs, so the digital aspect for surround sound will be the same. For the analog inputs from your DAC, the Marantz may be cleaner though.

I would also recommend demoing a high end SVS subwoofer (free returns), and if you like it more than your REL, get a high end Rythmik or PSA subwoofer (they charge for rerun shipping, but that helps keep the prices low).

No need to go crazy for an amp for surrounds, any Emotiva would work.

Thanks everyone for the help! Lots to think about!