Sound quality of Roon

I have a similar set up as oldschool1948 and ejr1953

When I went down the streaming rabbit hole, I started with Roon and thus no experience with alternatives to Roon

I do not have a Roon Nucleus as I have no need to store files

I started with a Roon core running on a Lenovo i4 laptop with 8Gb of RAM, no SSD and wifi connected to my network - it was functional but not entirely stable 

I upgraded the laptop to an i7 processor, 16Gb RAM, with some SSD and wired direct to the network switch

I do not know that the SQ improved but the stability was better requiring fewer reboots and dropped songs

For the record I've never had a song drop on Tidal, with Qobuz I drop approx 10% of the songs

In both cases I found the Roon SQ to be exceptional

I hear the best versions of the same old songs I've listened to for the last 40 years, streaming through Roon to my PS Audio DSD

I cannot recall the last time a played a physical CD

If I could change anything I'd like to remove Microsoft from the equation, not sure that would improve the SQ but all the bloat, OneDrive, AV, patching updates, etc - the timing of such is typically not convenient and I'd like to spend less time babysitting Bill Gates and more time listening to music

I'm happy with Roon and only wished I'd bought a lifetime subscription the first or second year

Happy listening guys and enjoy the journey

"I have read some people say Roon does not sound good." Piffle to that.

Done right it sounds fantastic with no difference between that and the native streamer app. @jjss49 said it all best. You need all the bells and whistles. 

Even as an IT/tech guy, the options/ requirements to implement Roon makes my head swim. Found an inexpensive way to try it, figuring I could upgrade afterward.  Have not looked back. It’s changed how I listen to music. Implementation…

- CDs imported to iTunes using ALAC encoding on a Windows machine. 
- Roon core running on same machine. 
- Apple Airplay adapters (used $30) listening on an eero mesh network. 
- Using my iPhone for the UI. 

Listening to Quad 63s powered by an Mc352 with Marantz front end.  

Short story is after two years, I’m going to buy the perpetual subscription this year. And I’m not planning an equipment upgrade at this time. I’ve AB’d some demanding recording with the CDs with this configuration and can hear no difference. (I do hear the AAC/ALAC difference.)

I, too, wish Roon interfaced with Amazon Music, but Roon sez AZ won’t send them the data needed for it to work. So I use the Airplay rig for that, too. SQ has been fine from AZ except where they show a selection as “remastered.”  Always sounds terrible…

FWIW. Intro to Roon cost me $60 for 2 two systems on the 30 day free promo. $200 annual subscription after that…

Commenting on above, i strongly suggest a wired connection if you can. It leads to significantly fewer dropouts etc., - although mostly if you are sending high rate data.  There are many options to either lower or raise both the SQ and load in Roon (as i described above).  Airplay  also  limits SQ options.  So why? Aside from convenience - and people asking abotu ultimate SQ are not prioritizing convenience....

@zgas-music I think you’re leaving a lot of performance potential on the table using a computer and Air Play. I just bought a relatively affordable iFi Zen Stream for only $399 (along with their iPowerX power supply to further suppress noise) and my streaming sound quality now surpasses the performance of spinning CDs. Also, I think Air Play may limit resolution to 24/96, which seems like an unnecessary limitation to have these days. Last, if you haven’t already by all means do a free trial of Qobuz as it has by many accounts/reviews the best streaming sound quality and the most hi-res content available. My $0.02 FWIW.