I have a lot of subscriptions now. I would love to cut costs. I'm probably paying $70 a month on services now. I don't really need Roon right now. Not unless the performance gains I get in tidal via HQ with Roon sway my decission.
If however I get a DAC with a module, or built in streamer, then I may end up having to have Roon if that is the software used for the internal streaming. That is what I mean.
I like Roon but think of it this way. Tidal, spotify, Qobuz, Orimeohonic, Pandora etc. They all give you something for your monthly subscription. Some of that subscription goes to artist. Roon in the simplistic form catalogs your library and gives different ways to search the library. They don't give you licensed music to listen too. They don't pay artist. And they are not inexpensive. JRiver does the sane for $30 or so one time. For all that money Roon has no support I have seen. They have a forum where a crowd of ussers attempt to help each other. I would assume they use their revenue to pay a sales force focused on bringing as many equipment manufacturers into the fold of integrating Roon software into the manufacturers hardware. It's really a genius plan. Once it's integrated, you have a locked in revenue stream. Maybe it ends up being really good. It seems the MSB crowd likes the plug in module making the Select a Ethernet endpoint. Its a lot less software for MSB to write and it does work well. I can see why a manufacturer would move towards integrating Roon.