Audirvana vs Roon

[Deleted member 36131]

Software for playback is becoming an essential part of the audio chain. Many claim that one sound better than the other and mostly that Audirvana has a better performance. I tried both and couldn’t tell the difference so I end up using Audirvana because the features are a better match to my needs. Which one you prefer and is there a way to put these two softwares to the test from measurements point of view?

I own both.

I use neither.

Both have too many drawbacks for daily use, even though Audirvana has the edge in sound it still is just not versatile enough. I use LMS for my software audio needs, Material Skin + Picoreplayer with a RaspberryPi4 for the server and various other RaspberryPi's for the endpoints. Its fast and literally does everything, not only does it do everything it does so flawlessly without any bugs or glitches. Sound, ergonomics, and multi-source support makes it an easy hands-down winner. Even artist/track information is better than Roon as it picks up more images and information.

 

[Snoopy]

I tried Roon for 30 days with my Cambridge CXN V2 (Roon ready). And a MacBook M1.

I liked the DSP Features. And that the UI looks nice and is intuitive.

But I'm kinda boring and usually listen to whole albums. Using shuffle is already adventures for me.


Currently using audirvana Studio.

And I use the Cambridge streammagic app, aslo the Qobuz app on the MacBook.

And I feel like that audirvana has the advantage when it comes to soundquality. (But not really worth it to have a computer running for it)

I think Roon has some nice features for people that really use that stuff. But personally for me both are not worth the money over the Cambridge streammagic app.

 

[LucaBn]

Audirvana founder Damien may have done a fantastic job at developing the best music player on the market, but sadly, the software is plagued by usability issues and generally speaking, a mediocre user experience. A large portion of the UI in Audirvana studio is dedicated to streaming services that I am not interested in (considering the poor quality of masters you are going to get on those services), but you still have to deal with a UI and monthly-based subscription model that forces you into the online steaming model. Those like me who supported Audirvana+ over the years are now left with two choices: pay a high monthly fee for a service they don’t need, or keep using Audirvana+, aware of the fact that it’s not going to get any support and improve over time. Usability issues that I’ve observed:
- Search by name is broken, you select one album in the search results, and it still takes you to a list that includes all albums, so you have to choose again.
- No contextual help, no user manual.
- Poor playback options, e.g. no way to jump backward/fwd in playback using arrow keys, which is the minimum I’d expect from a music player.
- Poor display of metadata, with inline scrolling and poor usage of screen estate.
- It plays only the selected track and then it stops, I can hardly believe it works this way.
- Search options are very limited, e.g. no way to parse all metadata, only the main ones.

I am sorry to say that for me to be willing to commit to a subscription-based model, the bar should be raised higher:
- A decent permanent license software that works.
- A wishlist website where customers who support the business can submit requests, vote for them, see the upcoming new features ahead of time.
- A two-tiers subscription model, where you can pay more if you need web-based services, but you can also pay less, if you don’t need them.
- Integration with Youtube Music.

 

[Waxx]

I checked both Roon and Audio Nirvana but did not like both (Roon is better on that than Audio Nirvan altough). I ended up with JRiver that does all i need, it works flawless, has a very customable interface and is relative cheap. I don't think techincal and on audio quality there is a big difference, it's more on how it works, interface and so. And JRiver suits me the best, also because it supports VST plugins (that i use for other stuff also), and so it's very flexible on dsp stuff.

 

[bobbyndd1]

I checked both Roon and Audio Nirvana but did not like both (Roon is better on that than Audio Nirvan altough). I ended up with JRiver that does all i need, it works flawless, has a very customable interface and is relative cheap. I don't think techincal and on audio quality there is a big difference, it's more on how it works, interface and so. And JRiver suits me the best, also because it supports VST plugins (that i use for other stuff also), and so it's very flexible on dsp stuff.

Both Roon and Audirvana supports VST plugins.

 

[JP]

Both Roon and Audirvana supports VST plugins.

Roon doesn’t, last I checked.

 

[bobbyndd1]

Sorry my bad, Roon doesn't have this feature.

 

[Keith_W]

I have some questions for Audirvana users. I am currently using JRiver. The problem with JRiver is that it has no streaming integration, so I use BubbleUPNP on my Android tablet to cast Tidal to my Windows PC.

Whilst this works, I am not happy with this solution for a few reasons - (1) severe latency. Track and volume changes take a few seconds. (2) BubbleUPNP's interface is rather ugly and unintuitive, almost no visitor manages to figure it out when I hand the tablet to guests. I have also tried mConnect and it isn't much better than BubbleUPNP. (3) no support for other streaming services besides Tidal and Qobuz.

I noticed that Audirvana supports Chromecast, which opens the door to using the streaming service I am really interested in - Idagio. This is a specialist classical music streaming service. I do not like the subscription model, but the price is more reasonable than Roon's. Besides, I have tried Roon and I really dislike it.

I have a few questions:

1. Is there a full screen mode, where it only displays cover art and nothing else? Is there support for full screen visualizers (for e.g. I am interested in using a VST RTA in full screen).
2. Do you need a Chromecast dongle for the Chromecast feature to work?
3. A major downside of Chromecast is lack of gapless playback support. Does Audirvana manage to circumvent this?
4. Can it browse my music collection on local HDD by folder?
5. Are there any issues or bugs besides those described by @LucaBn in post #23? That post was almost a year ago, have those issues been fixed? Any comments on general reliability?
6. What is the latency like when casting from a tablet or phone?

 

[bobbyndd1]

I have some questions for Audirvana users. I am currently using JRiver. The problem with JRiver is that it has no streaming integration, so I use BubbleUPNP on my Android tablet to cast Tidal to my Windows PC.

Whilst this works, I am not happy with this solution for a few reasons - (1) severe latency. Track and volume changes take a few seconds. (2) BubbleUPNP's interface is rather ugly and unintuitive, almost no visitor manages to figure it out when I hand the tablet to guests. I have also tried mConnect and it isn't much better than BubbleUPNP. (3) no support for other streaming services besides Tidal and Qobuz.

I noticed that Audirvana supports Chromecast, which opens the door to using the streaming service I am really interested in - Idagio. This is a specialist classical music streaming service. I do not like the subscription model, but the price is more reasonable than Roon's. Besides, I have tried Roon and I really dislike it.

I have a few questions:

1. Is there a full screen mode, where it only displays cover art and nothing else? Is there support for full screen visualizers (for e.g. I am interested in using a VST RTA in full screen).
2. Do you need a Chromecast dongle for the Chromecast feature to work?
3. A major downside of Chromecast is lack of gapless playback support. Does Audirvana manage to circumvent this?
4. Can it browse my music collection on local HDD by folder?
5. Are there any issues or bugs besides those described by @LucaBn in post #23? That post was almost a year ago, have those issues been fixed? Any comments on general reliability?
6. What is the latency like when casting from a tablet or phone?

Let me answer your first question. Audirvana has 3 screen modes.

1. Normal Default Screen

2. When you click on the album art on left bottom corner then we get this screen.

And the 3rd screen is same as above with addtional controls for advanced users when you toggle the slider on the top left corner on the 2nd screen as below

And on my Mobile ( android) I get the below screen for remote control

 

[bobbyndd1]

I have some questions for Audirvana users. I am currently using JRiver. The problem with JRiver is that it has no streaming integration, so I use BubbleUPNP on my Android tablet to cast Tidal to my Windows PC.

Whilst this works, I am not happy with this solution for a few reasons - (1) severe latency. Track and volume changes take a few seconds. (2) BubbleUPNP's interface is rather ugly and unintuitive, almost no visitor manages to figure it out when I hand the tablet to guests. I have also tried mConnect and it isn't much better than BubbleUPNP. (3) no support for other streaming services besides Tidal and Qobuz.

I noticed that Audirvana supports Chromecast, which opens the door to using the streaming service I am really interested in - Idagio. This is a specialist classical music streaming service. I do not like the subscription model, but the price is more reasonable than Roon's. Besides, I have tried Roon and I really dislike it.

I have a few questions:

1. Is there a full screen mode, where it only displays cover art and nothing else? Is there support for full screen visualizers (for e.g. I am interested in using a VST RTA in full screen).
2. Do you need a Chromecast dongle for the Chromecast feature to work?
3. A major downside of Chromecast is lack of gapless playback support. Does Audirvana manage to circumvent this?
4. Can it browse my music collection on local HDD by folder?
5. Are there any issues or bugs besides those described by @LucaBn in post #23? That post was almost a year ago, have those issues been fixed? Any comments on general reliability?
6. What is the latency like when casting from a tablet or phone?

2. I don't have Chromecast so can't confirm this. I am able to screen to my Raspberry pi running on RopieeXL OS as UPNP, I can even cast it to my Yamaha Reciver as this detects Yamaha as UPNP receiver.
3. I don't use gapless playback so I cannot confirm this. However I can see Universal Gapless Playback Mode available for my Yamaha UPNP

4. Yes, in the main screen left panel.
5. I don't know about this bug. Softwares will have bugs, if known bug is hampering your general usage, then re-consider moving to this software
6 Dont see any latency while controlling it via my phone as my computer and yamha is using wired internet.

 

[bobbyndd1]

I have some questions for Audirvana users. I am currently using JRiver. The problem with JRiver is that it has no streaming integration, so I use BubbleUPNP on my Android tablet to cast Tidal to my Windows PC.

Whilst this works, I am not happy with this solution for a few reasons - (1) severe latency. Track and volume changes take a few seconds. (2) BubbleUPNP's interface is rather ugly and unintuitive, almost no visitor manages to figure it out when I hand the tablet to guests. I have also tried mConnect and it isn't much better than BubbleUPNP. (3) no support for other streaming services besides Tidal and Qobuz.

I noticed that Audirvana supports Chromecast, which opens the door to using the streaming service I am really interested in - Idagio. This is a specialist classical music streaming service. I do not like the subscription model, but the price is more reasonable than Roon's. Besides, I have tried Roon and I really dislike it.

I have a few questions:

1. Is there a full screen mode, where it only displays cover art and nothing else? Is there support for full screen visualizers (for e.g. I am interested in using a VST RTA in full screen).
2. Do you need a Chromecast dongle for the Chromecast feature to work?
3. A major downside of Chromecast is lack of gapless playback support. Does Audirvana manage to circumvent this?
4. Can it browse my music collection on local HDD by folder?
5. Are there any issues or bugs besides those described by @LucaBn in post #23? That post was almost a year ago, have those issues been fixed? Any comments on general reliability?
6. What is the latency like when casting from a tablet or phone?

I missed the question about the VST plugin. It opens in a seperate window. There is no full screen option but you can maximise it using the window control.

 

[Keith_W]

Thank you for your help. After making that post, I realized that Audirvana has a support forum. I went there and did a search for adding Idagio to Audirvana, and it seems as if the question has been asked multiple times for a few years, and there is no reply from them. I place all the blame for this on Idagio. They haven't made their smartphone app talk to the PC app, they either can't do it, or won't do it. They haven't partnered with any software players. As such, I will continue to vote with my wallet and not subscribe to them. I was really hoping that Audirvana can do it, but it can't ... and whilst I partially blame Audirvana for ignoring user requests, most of my blame goes to Idagio.