[Matias]

In theory one can pay 50usd for a JRiver license and use it for life, it just won't be updated after a year or so. If any update is worthwhile, then the upgrade cost is like +30usd.
700usd buys me a 20+ JRiver upgrades to distribute during my lifetime.

Yes, I know the functionality is not the same, but still.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I hated Roon and wouldn't use it if it was free. I looked at Audirvana and JRiver but didn't like those either. I think the latter two would make sense if you have several streaming services and you want to run one music app on a PC. For my use I'm happy with foobar2000 into the RME. Foobar plays almost every format known to man and it's free. The navigation is very quick over SAMBA. It uses RME's ASIO drivers. RME does not do Roon anyway, I'm not sure why anybody thinks it does.

 

[Forsaked]

The ADI-2 is still only a DAC/AMP and not a network streamer, so i don't understand what you mean with "RME does not Roon anyway"?
RME officially commited the ADI-2 Pro to RoonLabs which then added it to the HCL and Partner List: https://kb.roonlabs.com/Partner_Devices_Matrix

 

[Nostoi]

I hated Roon and wouldn't use it if it was free. I looked at Audirvana and JRiver but didn't like those either. I think the latter two would make sense if you have several streaming services and you want to run one music app on a PC. For my use I'm happy with foobar2000 into the RME. Foobar plays almost every format known to man and it's free. The navigation is very quick over SAMBA. It uses RME's ASIO drivers. RME does not do Roon anyway, I'm not sure why anybody thinks it does.

Quite. Your latter point doesn't make any sense. It's true the whole language of being "Roon Ready" is a bit of a marketing gimmick, but RME "does Roon" in every sense.

 

[captblaze]

RME does not do Roon anyway, I'm not sure why anybody thinks it does.

because it does

 

[Slaphead]

I used A+ for a couple years and after finally trying roon bought the lifetime. 600$ cad at the time. There was no going back. It was like walking into a music library while A+ was a player. So for fun a day or two back I fired up A+ and did the upgrade to Audirvana as it is now called. The sound was comparable to Roon direct but the interface was just a player. The things I missed were the metadata and bios and reviews. The raat protocol is far superior to dlna. Lac of HQPlayer integration is the deal breaker.

Yes, that's exactly what I want. I just want to drag and drop whatever I want to play into the play queue and play it without having to fight with totally unintuitive and crappy library interfaces.

Also the dragging and dropping kind of is a digital analogy to putting a record, cd, or tape on. It's a kind of ritual thing that suits this old guy.

 

[Bullpride]

Lol i thought audirivana was expensive

It is under $100 US for a lifetime. I couldn't imagine spending any more, but I am just playing FLAC files from a PC. No streaming and no network setup.

 

[TheRH]

I do Roon annual.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Roon Tested USB Devices

"Roon speaks to any USB device that is recognized as a sound card by the underlying operating system. "

That is where RME DAC falls.

The RME DAC is not ïn the category of

Roon Ready Network Devices

RME does not do Roon. And it won't ever, according to my predictions. I'm sure you can understand the difference between the two bold categories.

 

[TheRH]

Not all devices are, but they can still work well.

 

[Cevisi]

It is under $100 US for a lifetime. I couldn't imagine spending any more, but I am just playing FLAC files from a PC. No streaming and no network setup.

Do you also experience alot of crashes and disconnects and freezes on windows with audirivana

 

[CaptainFantastic]

because it does

Two questions for everyone related to the Roon discussion:

1) RME ADI-2 DAC is there as a description because you typed it in, correct? Not because it found the device by name. With my Mojo Roon found it from a list of devices, when I click "Identify Device" and start typing RME or ADI, it doesn't recognize anything.

2) My more important question. If I run optical from the PC to the RME ADI-2 DAC, is there ANY way to avoid this being viewed by Roon as OS Mixer (High Quality) as opposed to Lossless? I tried it both via the ASUS Xonar STX II Optical out and the motherboard Realtek Optical out and I always get Source FLAC Lossless -> This PC Lossless -> Realtek or ASUS Xonar OS Mixer High Quality. If I switch to USB to the RME or the Mojo, I get Lossless throughout.

 

[Bullpride]

Do you also experience alot of crashes and disconnects and freezes on windows with audirivana

I have not had any issues with the RME or my other DAC while running audrivana

 

[iFi audio]

Are 699USD for lifetime! Is it really worth it???

To some it is as it turns out. Many people after the Roon experience never look back. If it's their software of choice, they're willing to invest, and personally I get that

 

[Random Lunatic]

I haven't heard it but I'm not that interested. I already have better amps than that and if they break I send them over to the next country and they can fix them. No disrespect to ifi but I have no idea what happens when Chinese gear breaks and we live in Europe.

iFi is based in the UK - though I guess that won't be in Europe much longer... But their products are excellent, but I've mostly heard their high end stuff, which is a lot more expensive than the RME, to be fair. Liked their tube hybrids, for being able to run in either solid state or tube mode, depending on taste/headphone.