Definitely agree. I’m loving the “feel” of Roon (no better way to describe it). Yes I’m here for the DSP/Qobuz integration, but it genuinely feels like I’m dipping into my own CD collection. It’s sort of old-school, but for a streaming age! Just about sums me up!
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The Hi-Res collection on Qobuz is actually not bad. I tried to search for a few albums from Pentatone, Eudora, Channel Classics, etc and they seem to be available in Hi-Res.
I am still trying to decide if upsampling in Roon makes a difference.
I anticipated this dynamic in my life and I hate these struggles. So I “pre-surrendered” and bought lifetime. No more struggle, all sunk cost.
Listening to new death cab for cutie EP on my Gumby->Mjolnir 2->HD-6XX and Roon is getting out of the way… and more importantly letting me know this album is out, which I didn’t know! That’s the point 
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I don’t think upsampling a hi-res file isn’t the way to go, it is already in hi-res, why upgrade further? About classical, I listen alot of these myself, and what I need to say:
some recordings are absolutely wonderful, but old and at a normal cd audio resolution
others are not great, and the quality of the recording is perfect.
For instance: if I compare 2 separate Mahler 2 symphonies, the first one: recorded by Bernard Haitink at the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1968, the second one by Ivan Fisher by the Budapest Festival Orchestra, recorded in SACD.
Haitinks symphony is a masterpiece, really, it makes me shiver at certain moments, so well, emotional, with the acoustiscs of one of the best concert buildings, and with the wonderful voice of Aafje Heynis
Compared to that: the Fishers Recording doesn’t come even close.
the best masterpieces are not in the best audio quality, but really worth it to oversample.
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Yeah. I am a fan of Nikolai Lugansky but there are very few Hi-Res recordings available.
Definitely performance first, recording second, format third.
I use the Elac Discovery Music Server for my music collection (approx 1500 albums). It’s a wonderful sounding unit with the Roon Essentials version installed and included in the price of the unit. The features mssing from the full version of Roon is not an issue for me and I don’t miss them. The Essentials version is pretty full-featured. I love the Roon expirence. It’s the best I’ve ever used. I have my Roon linked to my Qbuz account and I purchase music from them often. Not enough to justify there top-tier subscription but if you are looking to invest in building your library quickly it may be worth taking advantage of thier discounted prices that comes with their top subscription.
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The best choice is Tidal Premium (with Hi-Res MQA) and Native DSD.
I wonder if you listen DSD-quality musics, how can you be satisfied with poor Spotify??? I think it’s almost impossible 
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I can only say that after I embarked on Roon my collection of music has dramatically expanded (pulling from Tidal). Eventhough Tidal has good functionality suggesting other tracks and albums the discovery capabilities in Roon drives a very different behavior (not to mention the further enhancement of the sound beyond my Naim Uniti Atom).
So if main objective is expanding library I think you will be amazed with Roon and recommend taking their 1 month free trial if still available and get your various data sources hook up.
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Turns out I really can’t stand Spotify.
The sound quality is not even the biggest issue. I thought it had a bigger collection. But to me it is not really better than Amazon Music HD. Worse yet, it does not integrate with Roon, so I just don’t want to use it much. I will probably not pay for a subscription.
Yes, I am feeling the same too. It is so much easier to explore Music in Roon. It even lists different versions of the same piece of classical music!
I wonder who would pay for a “Sublime” subscription. I see myself buying a few CD-quality albums (outside of classical, most things I listen to are only available in CD quality or worse). Beyond that, I will be itching to hunt down some DSD tracks.
Peter, here’s what I realized after little more than a year use of Roon. Roon is fabulous for any music lover with a library. Particularly a mid-sized to large library. It will make that library better in so many ways. For people with under 200 albums it’s probably not as great as it is with someone with 5000+ albums. But it will grow with you. Also it does a awesome job of discovery based off of what you have. Other sources may be better for discovery from something you have nothing of in your library. But those sources can be used in connection with Roon. Hope that helps.
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Yes, after using Roon for just a few days, my library is already growing. I find Roon doing a much better job discovering music than Spotify.
Youtube (video) is also pretty good in discovery, especially with more obscure music.
Thanks!
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Roon is a music management application first and foremost. And it is really very good at what it is designed to do. So as your digital collection grows, Roon will handle that growth really well as it is the best out there to manage your music library. The integration of Qobuz and Tidal with Roon makes it easy and opens the door to music discovery and also to what is essentially a limitless library of music - without having to store it or buy it; albeit you are obliged to pay the monthly subscription fees for that privilege. Spotify while not integrated into the Roon application, is itself a pretty darn good app. So many options to consider; it is apparent to me that one size does not fit all and that approaches to digital playback/storage can make your head spin at times. For a Roon core I live in the Mac ecosystem and have found the Mac Mini with SSD storage to be a very effective economic solution with great fidelity results.
So, I am going to pay for a monthly subscription and perhaps a permanent license later.
Money is better spent on software as it does not take up more space.
Peter
It sounds as if you are hooked and should consider annual or lifetime before too long.
I started with a relatively small library less than a year ago and find that, in addition to sound quality and information, the main attraction of Qobuz + Roon has been the chance to find and experience unfamiliar music.
It is great to try out new releases or recommendations for a minute or two, at no cost.
The combination of Qobuz and Roon also provides helpful suggestions of music that I might like based on previous choices and allows me to find different recordings of classics, often in High Res.
Enjoy yourself.
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Regardless of what decision you make, think about how great this forum is. You received 35 responses in 5 days. Members took their time to respond to your questions and give their opinions.
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Exactly. A passionate user base is very important for the software!
Hi @Peter_Ho2 and +1 to many of the above
I read your question and immediately wanted to reply. I subscribed to Roon when it started supporting Qobuz (wow it was two years ago) and have never looked back. Very soon I purchased a NUC for the Roon core (though my iMac was fine) and suddenly everything was right. I can hear the difference with 24 bit. During the day I listen to my main system and in the evening I can listen to the same music on my iPhone. Two years ago, I was like you with some ripped CDs, some HD downloads mostly purchased from Qobuz and some online listening to Qobuz with a constantly changing range of apps none of which worked properly. After Roon I have one way of finding and listening to music.
The interesting thing is that I have almost stopped purchasing anything. Everything I like is in my Roon library (the majority being Qobuz favourites which Roon manages seamlessly). The only purchases I make are where I want to support an artist or in the rare cases where the record label isn’t streaming something. The joy of Roon is that it integrates everything.
david
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Usually when a song I want is not on Qobuz it is only available on eBay or Amazon Japan.
I am now using a Synology NAS for Roon Core. It is performing more adequately than I thought (DSD128 upsampling = ~5x). It costs only slightly more than a low-spec NAS. The fan is slightly audible though. I wish passive cooling were more mainstream.
Roon does make me want to buy more/better gear though.
Wait until you start discovering the joys of Roon-ready devices 