Why would I need Roon?

@twb2 - thanks for providing the FAQ.  Unfortunately, it doesn't quite do what I said.  It will only play songs similar to the artist chosen when Roon radio started.  It even says "Playing music similar to..."  There's no way to choose a wide range of music types that can be done in Deezer, Spotify and GPM. 

I trial'd Roon and Audirvana.  No doubt Roon has an awesome GUI and some good features.  However, I never liked the sound despite moving everything over to a Raspberry Pi and tweaking all of the settings.  Audirvana just sounds good, no tweaks necessary.  

I'd happily go back to Roon if someone could tell me how to make it sound as good as Audirvana and the Bluesound Node. Both sound much better.  And that's what's most important to me. 

@djones51 - Why not send it to a Raspberry Pi?  You're already using a Roon Bridge to play Roon.  How is that different?

OP - I believe you can run Roon on your PC and then use the Node2i as the endpoint.  That way the PC does all the work but the endpoint is away from the noise of the PC so it should sound better (in theory, according to Roon).  I use a Raspberry Pi as my endpoint and the PC as the core.  Works fine (although as I stated, I'm not a fan of Roon's sound compared to other providers) 

OP - I think you're feeling of frustration that some people have with Roon.  You don't just use it - there are many steps to get it right.  Some say it is worth it some say it isn't.  

The raspberry pi solution is a pretty cheap ($50) and easy way to try it out.  

I play with Roon once in a while but for listening, I don't use it often. 

How are you using Roon Radio? I thought it just made a station based on the last song played which wouldn't be diverse enough for me (I like a lot of different stuff). I'd like a station based on multiple artists or my favorites (like Deezer and Spotify can do).