That’s really two different things. One is a player and the other is a music source. There are several options for each, but Apple Music does both.
The only drawback with Apple Music is you have to use an iDevice for lossless and an external DAC for high resolution. It would be nice if they would allow lossless and high resolution on other hardware.
Well, day one of my 3 weeks away from home and Roon ARC stopped working. It was working when I left home. This is why you need a Roon fallback plan. Looks like 3 weeks of Apple Music for mobile listening unless something changes.
One of the bad parts of this is you can’t tell what’s going on at home with the Nucleus. Is it still on line or what?
Audirvana has integrations with both Qobuz and Tidal. Dunno about playlists
MediaMonkey has some neat options. service and local streaming. As well as Plex and FooBar2000 and . . .
I’m constantly looking at new to find the next better thing.
Now that is a blast from the past 
I used to hate having iTunes on a Windows machine, so media monkey saved the Day for updating iPods with music.
Thanks for the memories
For me Roon is the main music player system/software. I would “never” use a general purpose desktop/lappy as a music source in my main setup.
So, that leaves a few streaming options which allow off-line usage:
iTunes/iTunes Remote - Works fine but limited in many aspects
Squeeze/LMS & iPeng etc - Still a worthy contender in my experience
Sonos system - Not my cuppa’ but works fine
Bluesound/BluOS - Supporting a huge amount of services and works fine
Auralic/Lightning DS - Excellent sound, good functionality
Lumin/Esoteric - OpenHome compatible with excellent quality
Linn/Linn Kazoo etc - A well though out system with excellent sound quality
Aurender/Conductor - Limited experience, but seem to be a well behaved system
Innuos/Sense - Nice, good sounding system.
Not a complete list, just some proper alternatives to Roon, which can play local media with excellent quality.
The “generic” UPnP crowd:
Server: JRiver MC, Twonky, Minim2 (Most NAS devices have a function)
Control: JRemote, mConnect, BubbleUPnP along with Denon/Marantz/Sony etc
Endpoints: Most UPnP/DLNA-fluent hardware, Raspberry Pi’s etc.
UPnP of course also works fine off line but the interface often leaves something to be desired.
Plenty of options, yes… But all lacking compraed to why we’re here…
Still raw but checkout Navidrome.
I didn’t consider that.
I will going forward.
I’m thinking maybe my Roon Nucleus IP address changed. When I get back home, I’ll change to a static address. I put Roon ARC on my wife’s iPhone 13 Pro and it would not connect either.
You would be far better off making a DHCP reservation for your Nucleus (if your router supports this) than faffing about with a static IP address in the Nucleus.
Thank you for the DHCP reservation link Geoff, that explains a lot!
Actually LOLled. Thank you 
This might actually be what I’m talking about. I guess I don’t know the difference between this and a static IP address. Anyway, it takes about 10 seconds to do it with my AT&T Pace router.
I have no idea if the IP address has changed, but for some unknown reason, Roon ARC will not connect. I won’t be home for another couple of weeks to see what’s wrong, but my Nucleus is still on line as verified by Roon.
Yes that’s what I do with my NUC as well. In fact I do it for most of the main devices. Keeps things simple
Maybe I’m missing something, but the router assigns local addresses on the LAN. ARC needs the public address of your router when you’re not home.
As I said, I don’t know why my Roon ARC will not connect. It was working when I left home. Yes, my Pace router assigned an IP address to my Nucleus. I input port forwarding for the Nucleus and everything worked as it should. Now I can’t connect. My Nucleus is still on line. Your guess is as good as mine. I speculated that maybe the IP address for the Nucleus got changed since it was not a static address and maybe the port forwarding rule was no longer valid. IDK.
Ok, that makes sense. If the router forwards to a local IP, it’s a good idea to add an IP reservation.
I’m a bit curious how you can be sure, that your Nucleus is online that is?
I had someone from Roon check it for me.
At the MIL’s house using Audirvana Studio and Verizon hotspot. I would switch to Roon on the Dell, but I’m still hoping I can somehow get Roon ARC working with my Nucleus at home, but probably not.
EDIT: Since I am unable to connect Roon ARC to my Nucleus at home, I activated my Dell Roon core and am now using Roon 2.0. Audirvana Studio 2.0 is a good music player but, I just prefer Roon. Apple Music is my mobile music player for now.
