I really like Roon, don’t know about Audirvana. I run my Roon implementation on a 2014 Mac Mini. Now the REASON I like Roon is the database and articles. It has superior music discovery as it learns your tastes.
I would never have found one of my favorite albums, “Rocksteady with Flo and Eddie” without Roon.
I did not flag your post, but THIS forum is not one that enjoys even the appearance of an ad hominem argument. We can take a joke, we enjoy a bit of spirited discussion, but please keep the tone and argument one that does not drive away or belittle any users.
@ProfFalkin recently “apologized” to me about a comment he made in response to one of my posts about a headphone wood that I would like to see ZMF make. I didn’t even register his post as in any way dismissive, but @ProfFalkin exemplifies the sensitivity that is welcomed here.
Note that I’m NOT an editor or moderator, but I’ve been one on other fora and understand how flaming can start, and can ruin the atmosphere for everyone. This is not Facebook.
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I responded before seeing @Resolve 's reply. I’m leaving this rather than withdrawing it, because I think that this response covers some different ground.
I find Audirvana to be a better choice when run directly from my imac to a connected USB DAC. When operating over the ethernet/wifi using A+ to separate systems I suffer performance issues. In those cases Roon works better for me. The Roon interface is far better, but for a backup program I really like Audirvana. I’ve basically abandoned JRiver MC at this point.
About a year or so ago I did a comparison of 5 music players for PC. Jriver Media Center version 23 (I think), the somewhat newly released Audirvana for PC, Foobar2k, Plex media server (and player), and Roon.
Of the 5, the worst was Foobar. Even taking the time to dig through and configure all the various plugins for wasapi, aiso, dsp, etc, Foobar exhibited a constant veil and digital hash sound compared to the others. The sound issues were readily apparent by comparison. I even got help from others who used it as a daily driver when trying to figure it all out. It might be free, but the effort required to configure it and get it to sound as good as possible… Let’s just say that the squeeze wasn’t worth the juice.
Second worse was a tie between Plex and Audirvana. Not bad sounding, but they had usability issues and sometimes would hang or have network streaming issues.
J River and Roon definitely sounded the best of the 5.
I’m literally walking into Mile High stadium right now, so I’ll finish my thoughts up later. Go Broncos!
Sorry, I’m responding from my phone all weekend, so not the best…right now I’m holding my sleeping daughter while waiting for some to go food in San Francisco…
That aside, great responses everyone, @John_Galt please take the responses as constructive feedback. Everyone is welcome to their opinion as stated above, just so long as you don’t tread on others with it or become combative with it. I look forward to hearing more from your perspective.
Cheers and happy holidays/new year
They sound different even to people who have no idea what they are listening to (not audiophile crowd by far, have not heard about Roon or Audirvana before, did not know which I prefer). I tried it a few times in last weeks. Every single one has chosen Audirvana over Roon. The diference is huge. The same opinion I hear from my audio buddies.
I have noticed the same artifacts in Roon in WASAPI non-exclusive, a metal scratching-like after effect. I use ASIO exclusive only.
Absolutely agree with you here, Roon’s Radio is the best there is by far. Until I heard Audirvana, I was a happy Roon camper telling others how I love it with Tidal. 
@ReAlien, @Speedster, @Resolve, @dajokr, @pennstac, @TylersEclectic, @ValentineLuke, @rrwwss52, @ProfFalkin(enjoy the game) and everyone else who posted!
Thank You!
To everyone who has replied and shared their take.
I really do appreciate it!
Another pice of information that is probably important. I do not have a home network setup for sending music to multiple locations as I just have my main headphone system(desk system) and my main 2-Channel system(family room system). I will update the thread with this information.
Again Thank You!
Jeremy
Broncos won. Yay!
Anyway, to finish my post…
Roon has a very good clarity to it compared to other players at the time. For me, it was like going from an hd650 (Jriver MC) to an hd600. A touch less warm, but also a touch more detailed and crisp. Given the superb EQ in both programs which had the potential to even the stock sound between the two, I preferred Roon for ease of use and compatibility with streaming services. I only ran these in exclusive mode, so I couldn’t comment on the other mode’s sound.
Since it’s been over a year since I’ve tried Audirvana, I should probably try it again to see how it stacks up. I recall it was plagued with hanging and crash issues on Windows, so if they have that fixed and the sound tightened up, it might be worth it.
Sorry. No dirty birds for me.
Good. Geaux Saints
I know this isn’t on topic, but I feel it gets overlooked and is very good. Plex.
(@jb77 - ignore this post, as you said you don’t have home networking needs.)
Having your own server and a full subscription really lets this platform shine. I have a 12TB qnap nas hosting the files, and a directly networked Linux mint SFF PC running as the server. You don’t need a custom setup like this though, as you could run this off a Nvidia Shield TV and an external USB drive. (I have run it this way, and it works fine.) Basically, this goes beyond the capability of Roon in that you can stream any of your movies, music, or live TV to anywhere you have an internet connection.
The music part of this setup can stream and play your files with no re-encoding or resampling. It’s important to note that this is not default behavior when streaming outside of your home network - Plex wants to transcode everything to save you network data, and you have to click a few checkboxes to make that stop. So anyway, If you have 16/44 uncompressed WAV file CD rips, that’s what you’ll get on the remote device playing the file. Same with FLAC, AAC, Mp3, etc. The file itself is streamed, not an unwrapped/unpackaged PCM stream. That is perhaps the most important difference between Plex and Roon music streaming.
The remote device needs to be able to run the Plex player application, so you’re limited to iOS, Android, and computers.
Anyway, for the sound… I find the Plex player (as evaluated today, not a year ago) to sound as good as Roon when playing locally hosted music. Plex sounds just a very tiny bit softer and warmer, but it takes serious AB comparisons to detect. That might even be more in line with people’s preference. It’s close enough that I don’t care which I use. Both are excellent. The Roon interface is better, but that’s one of their Hallmark features. Plex is more like using the Tidal interface.
Speaking of, Plex can integrate with Tidal, so you can combine and listen to both your music and Tidal in one interface.
So, if you really wanted to stream your music anywhere you went, Plex is fantastic.
If you don’t have your own library of media, stick with something else… In which case, you wouldn’t want Roon either, now that I think about it. Sorry for hijacking the thread. (Maybe move this post to the other thread about playback software?)
To get back to the original question by @jb77, I should mention why Roon is the perfect solution for me.
I spent an inordinate amount of time (as did many here) ripping my CD collection to take on the go, starting in around 2011 or so. I was short sighted and did not believe that streaming services would ever replace owning digital copies of my music with carefully edited tags/metadata. (More on why I was wrong in another post for another day). However, the fatal flaw in my decision making was to compromise between storage capacity and sound quality and rip everything at 320Mbps.
Fast forward to late 2018 when I bought my first serious (though still mid-fi) gear and also started to pursue the idea of streaming. Around the same time – I think because of an AudioQuest equipment purchase – I started a Roon trial. To my surprise, with the integration of Tidal (and soon thereafter Qobuz), I could browse the artists and albums in my library of 320Mbps rips, with all of the metadata riches that Roon provides, AND had the ability to select streaming versions at CD or higher quality right from the album page!
For me, in addition to the general benefits of Roon, the seamless integration of the streaming services from the album page solved a particular problem for me. I managed to get on board as a lifetime member before the recent price increase, and am a happy lifer now.
Here’s an interesting thread over at the Roon community. A lifetime subscriber opened himself up a can of worms after trialing Audirvana and noticing a distinct improvement in sound quality. Makes me want to order up a 1-year Roon subscription and continue doing some side-by-side comparisons.
whelp, I’m going to have to try Audirvana now… been using Roon for the last year, and I like it but the cost. I’ll have to try this one out before I have to drop more cash on Roon.
I tried Roon out (free trial) and though I liked the interface and it’s integration, it wasn’t worth it for me at the present moment, as I don’t have a dedicated music server ie; Nucleus, or always on PC/Mac. If I were to upgrade and get a music server, then a lifetime membership would be the best solution.
As far as Audirvana, if I would need the dedicated music server as well then it wouldn’t work for me either. Though the perceived higher quality of sound over Roon is intriguing. Maybe a trial is in order just for curiosity’s sake.
Yeah, I really like the interface. I use a QNAP for my Roon server and it works out pretty well (needs to be an x86 CPU based one). I did the 1 year with Roon since, if I like it and want to go lifetime, they’ll deduct the cost paid for the year. I think I have until March left on my year so that should be plenty of time to try alternatives.
Roon credits you for unused months of your annual membership when upgrading to lifetime.
