Top music streamer for 2019? Aurender N10’s?

@nyev,
I have a Moon MiND2 and a Bluesound Node2. Had the Node2 first and it was convenient for using my NAS based library. But something always seemed missing in the Node2's playback; the sound seemed compressed. Always used the CD player for serious listening.

I've played both streamers through the same DAC using a high-quality digital cable, so the comparison is head-to-head. The MiND2 is easily superior to the Node2.

The MiND2 has been a breath of fresh air. Enough to inspire me to order a new upmarket DAC to compliment it. New toy next week!

I use my iMac as my Roon Core server. I leave it on all the time.

I thought Roon was some silly thing. But after having it for six months or so, I am hooked. The interface is great. And I like the radio feature. It is also great to have so much information so well organized.

I only use it for Tidal streaming, since I don’t have a digital downloaded library. Maybe it is just me, but I don’t see the benefit to ripping all my CDs. Most of which have MQA versions right on Tidal.

Another big big plus is that Roon presents a uniform interface across all my streamers. I have a PS Audio DirectStream Junior DAC (a Roon endpoint) in my main system and a Bluesound Node (Roon endpoint) in my second system. These typically have different interfaces to control them, but with Roon it all works and looks the same. If I want to continue playing an album from my main system to my second system it is easy. I just tell Roon to switch to any of the Roon endpoints.

I also like that that the Roon controller can be my iPad, iPhone, iMac, MacBook, or even my Windows 10 PC.

What I don’t like is the price. I better start saving my pennies and upgrade to the lifetime version. 😀

Jsonsim, I guess I don’t have the need to consolidate multiple streamers, so based on your feedback I still don’t see the value of Roon.  How do they get to charge so much more than their competitors- some of whom offer free software players?  People pay it, so there must be some value there.  When I quit my Roon trial someone from Roon reached out to me and tried to justify the cost.  Their argument was all focused on the metadata stuff that I guess doesn’t interest me.

I have been of the mind to separate the processing/computer/network/usb activities. Since experimenting and removing all of the above from the listening room I settled on a microU as the final output before DAC with excellent results. As opposed to a laptop or noisy computer directly attached to DAC. I understand the microU is a "computer" but not the same generally speaking.
Having a high end wkst running HQP and ROON core to a fiber switch (all in laundry room) and then running fiber to listening room to microU (or equiv) seems to be the way to go IMHO to isolate all the crude. The new optical mU would simplify things even more.

However, it seems like a lot of the newer products are putting the design philosophies (power, noise, fiber in some cases, EMI etc..) into these products and would be fun to to try. The Innuous is interesting and I wonder if there would be a benefit over my config / similar config

Seems like one is either a set it and forget it / all in one type (lumin, aurender) or one wanting some more control (NAS, seperate DAC, endpoints etc..), which I am in the latter.

Being my mU is from the orig design (was updated though) I am starting to look as some possibilities. ROON is key (lifetime) for me, don’t care about the MQA bs at all.
This stuff moves too fast, its never eding.

Nyev Roon isn't for everybody and not everybody gets its brilliance,

What Roon does well is a number of things it is a lot more than just pick and artist and play music software yes it does that but that is not the core of what is does.

Roon is about discovering new music and discovering or rediscovering artists you love, personally we find that a stored library plus Roon and Tidal or Qbouz is paradise.

Your stored library is a memory device to remember all the artists you have ever purchased not to mention not all CD's titles will be on Tidal, or Obouz.  The streaming services will then also help to round out your library.

One feature we love is Roon radio which finds new music based on what you were just listening to and then plays it automatically.

Another cool feature through Roon is the ability to upsample or cross convert so you can upsample Tidal to 24/192 or 24/384 up to 768k and DSD to 512 depending on your dac and the server Roon is running on.

We have found that certain dacs sound amazing at higher freq or playing DSD.

Yes Roon is expensive, at $500 lifetime or $119 a year but $119 a year is roughly $10 a month, go to Starbucks twice and you have paid for Roon.

Roon spent over 10 years developing its software it was Soolos originally and the softwares meta data and enriched surfing experience is why most people buy Roon in the first place.

Roon requires a lot of playing time and using time to see just how amazing the software is. 

Roon may not be for you but many people find it fantastic. If you go for an Innuous they are Roon cores and really should be run with Roon vs iping or Squeeze player which Innuous also supports. 

The conductor software is very good, we find Roon to be vastly better, also if an Innous Zenith matches a Aurender N10 yet sells for half the price don't you still think you may have a better deal on your hands even if you have to purchase Roon?

Just food for thought

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ innous dealers