I agree. I’ve dropped the Roon subscription, it will expire in June. I have 2 AS subs instead. Which added up are just slightly more expensive compared to a single Roon license. Why 2 subs? I have 2 setups, so I don’t have to log in/out all the time while in the living room or in my office/game room.
AS sounds so much clearer here compared to Roon. And even though I really like Roon’s “wikipedia” way of searching for information and showing stuff about artists etc. I listen to music first as well. So AS for me.
The best of two worlds would be when Audirvana provides SQ and Roon the lexicographical library management. What incredible audio player we would have!
For my part, too, SQ is far more important, so I do prefer AS over Roon. As a matter of fact, AS is perfectly OK for what I need. If I feel like pulling more information in, there are so many channels available these days.
Forgive me for the noob question again. Might be my imagination but Audirvana does sound different. But how do I deal with multiple versions of the same album in Audirvana? Roon recognizes multiple album versions as a single album, but Audirvana shows it as two separate albums. How do Audirvana users catalog different masters of the same album without cluttering the album list?
I have had a Roon Lifetime membership for nearly four years and purchased it before it doubled in price, A steal really. Having had the earlier version of Audirvana for some time decided through curiosity to pay for a years license for the Studio version to see what improvements if any will be made in the next year?. Here’s my observation,
Audirvana is hopeless at boxed sets but the key is making sure the tagging is 100% but even then it can be a mess!, Where as Roon 95% of the time recognises boxed sets and organises them appropriately and when it does not all you have to do is merge the separate discs and voila sorted, Although apparently it is a different story when it comes to Classical Music.
Other functions like changing the output and switching to other endpoints on the fly is a breeze with Roon. Hate having to stop playback before switching with Audirvana such a Pain!.
I do like being able to resize album art on the fly with Audirvana and also like the UI although not perfect is good.
As for the sound quality comparison between the two, To be honest I cannot tell any difference?.
Will I keep the license going after a year?. Depends on improvements being made.
I don’t want to extract them to DSD single files because I don’t want to do this.
I don’t care about double triple title’s of the same album in my library and other cosmetics of the software.
I own valid licence for Audirvana 3.5 and still active subscription for Studio
Also I own Jriver Master Licence 28 and 29
I think Jriver has lot of useful functionality.
It plays SACD ISO also
The only interest in Roon I have because of support and great connection with Chromecast Audio and other chromecast devices.
For my wooden ear Audirvana is King of Sound
When I listen seriously I am using Audirvana
Everything else is for background music playing.
This is my opinion in June of 2022
I am using Chromecast devices to help me to fall asleep usually using Spotify because Spotify Connect has very detailed low volume control scale.
I can go down with volume very effectively which I cannot do it with Qobuz app.
For sleep music don’t care if it’s Roon, Audirvana or Jriver
Free Spotify is good enough for me.
By the way Deezer can’t go down with volume with Chromecast
It plays too loud even with 1 on scale of google home app on Android phones.
Everyone has different needs and that’s s perfect
Some people like Roon and some people Audirvana and we have also Neutron Player fanatics.
We living in very interesting and dangerous world as our parents use to live.
I hope that we going to enjoy listening to music instead of listening to explosions near by.
Peace!
My Roon subscription just expired this week. And I’ve decided to extend my AS subscriptions. One already has, the other will do so in July.
Next to AS I’ve been using and upgrading Jriver since version 21. Always a master license, so I’m not locked to one OS. Used it on Windows and Linux in the past, now basically Mac only.
Been an AS subscriber since day 1. And while it was very buggy at first, the Audirvana team have ironed out a lot of bugs over the year, and it runs problem free here 99% of the time. So both my Macs happily play music all day. I’m using Jriver for tagging and to act as media center on my main MacBook. It’s awesome for watching series and movies.
Sound quality wise. Well I don’t have a 10k audio setup. But with what I have Audirvana sounds the best here. That goes for both the old 3.5 and the current Studio.
Roon has a nice interface, but sound quality wise it’s on par with Jriver. And inferior to Audirvana.
I’ve used Spotify, Deezer and Tidal in the past. But I only use 2 streaming services nowadays. Qobuz and Apple Music. I just wish Apple would allow access to AM, the way Qobuz and Tidal allow it. So Audirvana (and Roon before that) could integrate it like they do with Qobuz and Tidal.
So I’m a happy Audirvana customer since 3.5 running 2 subs with the current Studio.
I suspended my AS subscription just to renew after a three week hiatus! I thought I could rely solely on Roon, but no, no, no! I also played around with JRiver Media Center, but I didn’t like its UI, although sonically it’s surprisingly good. Returning to AS was a sonic delight and all the better, former problems with UPnP seem to have vanished. I am running AS on a 2018 Mac Mini that streams to a Raspberry Pi 4 running GentooPlayer. For the moment the setup runs reliably.
Concur 100% on the sound quality. AS has no equal in my testing using Chord DAC’s, KEF speakers and Focal headphones. Noticeably brighter with more definition and soundstage than the other software I have used. Roon sounds “flat” and a little muddy in comparison. As a music lover, for me the most important criteria in digital music reproduction is the sound quality and as such can’t see myself switching from Audirvana anytime soon.
Some people like the Room UI but its not for me, too much detail and oversized fonts and “hi David’s” taking up most of the screen space. I use music software to listen to music, not read about it. Prefer to close my eyes and be transported by the artist.
Can’t win with neither. Never jumped onto Roon for two reasons. First the SQ and the other is no folder view. UI performance and usability Roon is very good though. Subscribed to AS for SQ and folder view (remote tablet app is still waiting for folder view function which is stupid!) and Windows version for Kernal Streaming. Agree that Roon is only a few dollars more per month so choosing AS cost wasn’t a consideration. However, using the AS trial and now the subscription, the AS UI if 100% is top marks I would give it 60%. The UI for managing and using local files is almost unbearable. The audio analyzing when it’s buzzing for hours on end uses about 50W (all apps closed even AS paused/stopped playing music) out of my 95W TDP cpu and fans that don’t usually spin were whinning. We CAS nerds don’t like this while listening to music. Please let us choose to pause analyze audio or make it quick and snappy. Sound is the most important and AS is superior to Roon.
As will I in a couple of weeks.
Studio has been a depressingly underwelming experience (reliability wise) in my (now redundant) Cyrus/Arcam setup, with at least 4 months of my subscription not able to be utilised as it should.
Also whilst I understand that everyone is entitled to holiday, the fact that there appears to have been ZERO support in ‘Audirvana Towers’ for the past week really doesn’t instill me with the greatest of confidence.
I guess I’m one of the lucky few where AS more or less “just works”. I’m using USB connected sound cards, and no UPnP devices. My MacBook Air in the living room has been playing for a week straight now. I’ll let it play and just turn off the speakers at night.
My AS sub expires in 4 days , I just re-installed it to make sure I am not missing something.
I am playing AS through my CXN Roon through my Allo DigiOne both coax to my headphone amp. The SQ to me is virtually identical through my HD800 headphones.
The UI of AS doesn’t inspire me , so that’s decision made. I had already cancelled the sub ,
Nothing I have seen and heard over the year has changed my mind
My 2 cents for Roon equally and Audirvana
I like to use Roon when I am streaming background music to my 4 Chromecast Audio dongles connected to different systems analog way and thru optical cable.
Audirvana is for serious music listening direct connection :
PC or Mac mini -Dac-amplifier
Hi @Derek, you are talking about a completely different solution than the core of this thread which is Audirvāna Studio vs Roon. It’s a little bit off topic, don’t you think?
