Would I benefit with Roon?

"Buying the lifetime subscription to Roon was the single best investment I have made in my audio system." - @jaytor

Me too. I have discovered more new music that I love than I EVER thought possible. I love that there are so many streamer/servers that are Roon-certified, so one has many good choices. Harman seems to be doing good things and is committed.

I honestly cannot imagine not having Roon.

Roon appeals to many because of its cataloging/discovery/multi-room features which are awesome.  I'm not arguing with anyone on this.  

However, I have a somewhat revealing system and after a pretty thorough audition (using an older Windows PC for the core, which I admit may have not been optimal) I did not feel that Roon offered any improvement in sound quality.  I am presently streaming Qobuz using an opticalRendu with mconnect.

Roon did play my favorite radio station (KUVO), though.  When I want to listen to radio, I switch my DAC to Bluetooth and use my Android phone to stream the station from their app, my phone has an LDAC feature which sounds pretty darn good.

P.S. I think Qobuz offers some suggestions for new music that are pretty good.  So does Stereophile magazine.  I get a lot of suggestions reading the equipment reviews (when the reviewer references a track used to audition a component), as well as the actual recording reviews at the back of the magazine.

I was hesitant re Roon, but about two years ago, I started using it and it is completely worthwhile, based on the organization, music discovery and more. It does help if you have a reasonably sized music library.

To all the responders, thank you very much!!!!!! I guess I can't go wrong with the free trail. Just one last question. Do you know if Ron will allow me to download to two different Macs so I can control from two different locations in my home.

Hello @adeep42,

Agreeing with most here that Roon is great.  I too bought lifetime years ago, and through optimizing my digital front end it sounds amazing.  Play your music and when it ends, Roon is very slick at playing similar music; this is how I find many new things.  And it learns.  Skip a track it selected and it wants to know why.

You do not need to download Roon to two places. ROON CORE needs to live and exist on one network connected SERVER.  Listed in terms of sound quality, it can be a Laptop, MacMini, Roon Brand Server, or one of many audiophile Roon Servers. My Roon Core resides on my Grimm MU1, which hosts Roon Core and is an excellent streamer.  Where you play music is called Roon Endpoints.  These communicate with your Roon core via Ethernet.  Communication can be wired or wireless depending upon equipment.  Your Nodes are Roon endpoints.

The key words here, and often confused by many, are:

SERVER, STREAMER AND ENDPOINT.

Then there are Roon Remotes.  Any network attached (usually wifi here iphone or ipad or computer) can function as a Roon remote, meaning it can control playback anywhere.  Different Endpoints can be 'grouped' so playback is synced between endpoints.

As to some services not being on Roon, this is inevitable.  My example is that I play spotify over carplay in my autos.  If I hear a song that I like, I take a quick pic with my phone. Later I go through my photos and play these songs on Roon, often adding them to my playlists or library.  Best of both worlds.

Finally, many say Roon is bad because their native app (on Aurender or Innuos for example) sound better.  I will not dispute this.  But I will say that Roon will sound great, besting Bluesound.  If and when you get that critical, choose a streamer that does both Roon and its native app so you can switch if you want for very critical listening.

Hope This helps! Ken