FWiW, here's what I've done so far.
Roon is running on a very low-powered old pre-existing computer (Intel Q9450 - way below an Intel i7 NUC, for example) running Windows 10 and located on our home (wired) network. Despite having up to three zones running at the same time, we have not experienced any dropouts in sound, and appears capable of supporting additional zones. This computer does not do anything but act as a Roon server. We've got our own library of about 700GB of flac files on the server, and additionally I have a Tidal subscription that we access via Roon. Once I understood the advantages of Roon, I purchased a lifetime license. No regrets so far. I will probably upgrade to a NUC (specifically a NUC8i7BEH) at some point in the near future for lower power consumption.
For my main system, I purchased an Allo USBridge and Shanti LPS to stream to ($400 in total.) The USBridge output goes to a Schiit Modius ($200), and from there into my preamp. I'm a former musician, and my preference seems to be for a very transparent sound. The sound quality is very satisfying thus far. Having been bitten by the audiophile bug I am now slowly upgrading other parts of my system - for example, I purchased a Benchmark DAC3 and am going to run some blind tests of that against the Modius. The other relevant factor is the Tidal subscription - I have access to so much additional music (not that everything is on Tidal - it's not), and I'm discovering new things to listen to every day. I've heard $100K+ systems, and they're amazing - no argument there - but the bottom line is that this system makes me very happy on a daily basis. YMMV :)
Roon is running on a very low-powered old pre-existing computer (Intel Q9450 - way below an Intel i7 NUC, for example) running Windows 10 and located on our home (wired) network. Despite having up to three zones running at the same time, we have not experienced any dropouts in sound, and appears capable of supporting additional zones. This computer does not do anything but act as a Roon server. We've got our own library of about 700GB of flac files on the server, and additionally I have a Tidal subscription that we access via Roon. Once I understood the advantages of Roon, I purchased a lifetime license. No regrets so far. I will probably upgrade to a NUC (specifically a NUC8i7BEH) at some point in the near future for lower power consumption.
For my main system, I purchased an Allo USBridge and Shanti LPS to stream to ($400 in total.) The USBridge output goes to a Schiit Modius ($200), and from there into my preamp. I'm a former musician, and my preference seems to be for a very transparent sound. The sound quality is very satisfying thus far. Having been bitten by the audiophile bug I am now slowly upgrading other parts of my system - for example, I purchased a Benchmark DAC3 and am going to run some blind tests of that against the Modius. The other relevant factor is the Tidal subscription - I have access to so much additional music (not that everything is on Tidal - it's not), and I'm discovering new things to listen to every day. I've heard $100K+ systems, and they're amazing - no argument there - but the bottom line is that this system makes me very happy on a daily basis. YMMV :)