@mgrif104
I believe the hardware interface between the DAC and source has a bigger impact on the sound than the software being used. (I am not saying that software does not have an impact on the sound) When the hardware interface is usb, AES or SPIDF then you must contend with noise and timing issues. When the interface to the DAC is ethernet then you must contend only with noise. Ethernet is bulk data transfer. The entire frame must be received and processed before any analog signal is generated. If the frame is not received properly then the entire frame will be re transmitted not individual bits.
@ jbuhl
I too have had issues with the mac mini. I compared running roon on a mac mini and a PC. The MAC definitely provided an inferior sound. I then put a fiber optic converter on the mac Ethernet interface and this made the sound quality comparable to the PC. I surmise the MAC is a noisy device.
@toro3
I have compared roon to Aurender. I duplicated my music library on two disks one in an Aurender N200 and the other disk in a MAC mini running Ubuntu and Roon. The mac mini used a fiber optic converter on the Ethernet interface. Using a Bricasti M21 I connected the Mac/Roon with ethernet and the Aurender using USB. In comparing the two sources I found their sound to be comparable. There were small difference nothing that made me prefer either one. Other people may find the differences significant but I did not.