interesting post and ensuing discussion, i took the leap into roon in january after some 18 months of resisting... i must say i am quite pleased, don’t feel the sound is compromised but maybe i have more to learn still on this front
1) fascinating that some streamer makers feel they have i-p to protect from roon, so they don’t buy in 100%, and while they may allow roon to work on their gear (due to roon’s popularity), they may also subtly compromise its performance relative to using their own, proprietary interfaces - reminds me of a discussion on spotify’s strategy of thinking of streaming controllers we use as precious real estate to compete over...
2) i recall really figuring out roon took a good while, there are numerous ways to deploy it, at the processor/nuc level, how the music stream is taken to an ’endpoint’ then to a downstream dac, whether built in features that can affect the sound are or are not used (dsp, volume control etc) -- roon itself on its site does not make all these permutations crystal clear, and that, plus the fact that alot of audiophiles are actually older folks, usually not the most tech savvy, it makes it pretty hard for noobs
3) the roon trial thing is a red herring in my mind, cuz to try it right you have to set it up right, have the right hardware, make the right choices, and some those things are expensive and typically are not bought on a trial basis, and even if they are, one hardly fully gets their arms around all the choices and capabilities and proper setup within a typical 15-30-45 day trial period
4) i think the most confusing thing is that one needs a computer to run roon’s core program, and yet it is best not to take the music stream out of that same computer’s usb port, even though it is right there waiting to be used!! ... there is yet more hardware to buy to get a sufficiently cleaned stream delivered to your outboard dac (switches, filters, bridges, fmc and so on)... i can see some folks starting by pulling the music stream out of the core machine then saying hey why does it sound so bad...
5) then there are some units like the innuos ones, i e zen or zen mini... they can be used as an endpoint or a core or both, but using their hardware to be the core machine may compromise the speed and the sound of what is delivered
so it is alot to comprehend, much of it ample, fertile ground for eyes glazing over and getting frustrated, then on top of that some folks say it sounds bad -- holy moly!!
op, i do hope you are getting some clarity from all this nice discussion you have started with your initial post, and i wish you good luck!