This might be an old post, but this is RELEVANT.
Having just spent 15 days with Roon and just renewed for a 1-year subscription, I understood that it is not all about Sound Quality: My JRiver 20.x, Audirvana+, and Amarra+iTune, just plainly looked too elementary and sounded less convincing that they all seemed a waste of money.
Yes, Roon’s immediate cost seems high, but the VALUE is way better than those players I mentioned (and they still reside in my MacMini Music Server, though I don’t use them since mid-July; they’d probably be uninstalled at some point…). I am still getting through the software itself but I don’t let that interfere with my music.
But there is one-thing that I still do not understand: can Roon actually be used EXCLUSIVELY in a MacMini so it controls all resources? I am technically-challenge on this and reading through the information in the web just add more questions. So, please: can anyone clarify?
Meanwhile, saying that these software - including Roon’s - has no ‘sound or sonic signature’ and that the culprit is the hardware, is, to say the least, ‘Unacceptable’: while I believe that each of us has our biases, I find it absolutely disagreeable to issue a sweeping statement of/for/against something that can be so subjective that all-and-any analyses thereof is plain presumptive… you say, “tow may tow”, i say, “Tu Mah TO”.
peace.
.e.