I guess I’m one of the few who turned out to prefer Audirvāna over Roon.
I still have a Roon sub, but I’m going to let it expire when it ends coming July, I barely use it.
I’ve bought Audirvāna 3.5 in the past. And it worked ok for me. Never had issues with using an USB sound card with the software.
Nowadays I have 2 Mac’s at home.
My trusty 2017 MacBook Air which serves as music player in the living room. And my daily driver is a 2020 M1 MacBook Pro.
I’ve got an Audirvāna Studio sub for each of them. And both work fine now.
When it comes to listening to my local files when I’m at work or driving in my car I have my music stored in the VOX cloud. I have no need for Roon ARC. Besides I stream 95% of the time anyway.
When it comes to music discovery Qobuz generally has the right idea of what I like, no need for Roon’s suggestions.
So yeah Roon is a nice piece of software but it’s not the best solution for me.
I think your post accurately describes the Audirvana/Roon decision for each of us… we each have individual needs/priorities in our music management software, so there’s no single best choice for everyone.
I play an even mix of streaming and local library tracks. The introduction of Roon ARC is a much better solution for me than my prior remote-play solution (uploading ripped tracks to Apple Music), so that makes Roon my most attractive option.
I no longer need to upload my local files
I no longer have to correct track/album metadata for remote play
I get the added benefit of streaming hi-res (PCM and DSD) remotely (with an external DAC)
I have a single music catalog of playlists/tags both at home and on-the-go
Roon ARC isn’t the only on-the-go solution, but it is the easiest one.
For at-home listening, I imagine Roon also has an advantage in compatibility with a larger number of endpoints. For my Bluesound powered speakers. Roon gives me multi-room streaming that’s (likely) far better than what AirPlay would provide.
For multi-room and on-the-go usage, Roon clearly shines. But the question of whether it’s the best value for each person is really an individual decision.
But doesn’t 1.8 Legacy die soon, there was an “until” date on it.
No matter whether I like or use ARC , I don’t BTW, I believe in keeping to the current version, Audirvana 3.5 is a good example. It will keep going but will be static , he may bug fix but tech advances will leave him behind.
Microsoft have released numerous versions of .NET core since 3.5 was written , I doubt 3.5 will be ported, it will be obsolete tech soon
PS Does Audirvana Origin support streaming ? I thought it was local only, I stand to correction
Audirvana Origin is for local files only, no streaming. Roon 1.8 Legacy doesn’t die, but it will stop receiving updates. I’m not sure about bug fixes. If I had a bunch of local files and spotty internet (I have neither), I would put Roon 1.8 Legacy on a laptop and use it when needed as long as it works.
“After the support period has ended, Roon 1.8 will continue to function, but won’t receive any further updates. Want to keep running 1.8? You’ll be able to do so long after support has ended.”
If it works during December, that may imply it will continue to work indefinitely. IDK. I’m on current Early Access version because I don’t have local files. If I lose internet, I can crank up my Verizon hotspot and use Roon or Audirvana on my laptop.
I was able to get mine done over Paypal. @beka was very kind and helped me. I did the Pay in 4 option which let me split up the 699 into a couple of payments. I actually decided to sell some old stuff on ebay which covered most of the cost for me and helped offset the (very worthwhile) expense.
It’s also possible to run Roon 2.0 and also run something like LMS in tandem if internet outages are a frequent issue. A Raspberry Pi can act as both a RAAT and Squeezelite endpoint with RoPieee XL. There is also an app for Windows called Squeezelite-X that combines the LMS interface with a local Squeezelite endpoint. Roon is far superior and I will never ever go back to LMS and where I live in New York the internet is extremely stable (my power is more likely to go out than my gigabit fiber) but if I were in a more rural area with spotty connectivity I’d certainly consider that as a secondary option to use with local files during an internet outage. It’s lightweight enough to run on a Raspberry Pi as well.
Yes, I have Roon 2.0 and Audirvana 3.5 and Audirvana Studio. For music, I stream from Tidal and Qobuz. I have free Apple Music from Verizon Wireless. I recently purchased a second Roon lifetime license to keep my Roon ARC always active when away from home using my laptop Roon core.
Have you considered using something like Wireguard to VPN in when away from home? It’s not officially supported but once configured it works well as long as there is enough upstream bandwidth at your home. I use it all of the time and others on here have had success with Wireguard.
No, I am not that computer literate. In addition, my home AT&T U-Verse internet is only 50/12. Actually, none of this is very expensive because Roon and Audirvana 3.5 are paid for. I paid $70 for another year of Audirvana Studio but will not renew. Apple Music is free from Verizon. So, my cost is only $120 for Tidal HiFi Plus, $130 for Qobuz Studio, and $36 for Soundiz. I keep Tidal and Qobuz in sync using Roon Versions and I use Soundiz to sync Apple Music with Qobuz. I dropped Netflix and all my U-Verse premium movie channels to fund my music obsession.
EDIT: I should add, I keep my Dell laptop core in sync with Nucleus core by always making the same changes on both. And now, with two Roon subscriptions on one account, that’s very easy.
