From personal experience…Airplay 2 with AM or a local library comes close and may even serve some better than Roon. Of course, It offers no EQ/DSP, no way to tweak synchronisation across multiple end points and to my ears at least… airplay 2 had a comparatively lifeless sound flavour (even Spotify sounds more engaging to me). This is the impression I get when I stream Apple Music or even my local ALAC tracks via airplay 2 to Sonos, bluesound and even a marantz receiver.
Having said that… if one uses airplay enabled speakers (e.g. Sonos or bluesound) which offer some basic EQ or trueplay tuning, as long as one does not mind the slightly lifeless airplay 2 sound, it is hard to explain / support the Roon benefits.
Not many people I know use airplay 2 though. Most are Spotify users and they don’t care about multi room or EQ.
Ergonomics and ease of use… airplay 2 with iOS devices is king
Last night, my wife was running around doing “wifey-stuff” and I was in the kitchen making dinner. She was in a cheesy 60’s mood so she grabbed her phone, pressed some buttons and Paradise: The Sound Of Ivor Raymonde was soon playing in the kitchen, hallway and upstairs bedroom.
After I’d finished cooking, she again grabbed her phone, pressed some more buttons, all of those switched off and it picked up at the exact same spot in the dining room as we sat down to eat.
She smiled - clearly pleased with herself - and declared “it still feels magical to be able to do that!”
She’s not particularly technical but Roon is the one piece of my home automation project that she’s really got into - in fact, I’d say it’s just as much hers as it is mine - but, initially, she was sceptical. Now that it’s become such an integrated part of our lives, neither of us could imagine being without it.
That’s very much the way it is with my wife. Roon just makes it easy to get music playing. I have a Devialet so she doesn’t even have to turn it on. Just open Roon, find music and play it. The rest is done.
When I try to explain it to people I call it iTunes on steroids. So far, 100% of my mates who are really into their music (that’s just 1 mate) have (has) taken up Roon after they have (he has) seen it work at my place.