Why would I need Roon?

OP - I think you're feeling of frustration that some people have with Roon.  You don't just use it - there are many steps to get it right.  Some say it is worth it some say it isn't.  

The raspberry pi solution is a pretty cheap ($50) and easy way to try it out.  

I play with Roon once in a while but for listening, I don't use it often. 

I tried roon on my laptop and could never figure it out. It’s defiantly not easy, and if it’s not, I don’t have the patience for it. Maybe if someone set it up for me and showed me how, other than that, I’d rather listen to music than spend many hours trying to figure out roon. 

Thanks soundchasr. Pi sounds like an interesting direction.

If you simply want to try Roon install the core on a computer and it should find your Node2i as an endpoint. Keep the Node2i connected as is , install Roon app on your control device and play once a few simple steps are followed. You don't need to get into DSP, EQ until you get comfortable with it. 

It could be because I’ve assembled computers and installed OS’s that roon seems very simple to me. When I say roon sounds better to me than other player software it’s a purely subjective opinion, I’ve never done a blind listening test. I think the main reason I feel it sounds better on Roon’s OS, ROCK is it doesn’t interfere with updates and running other processes in the background. Music not suddenly stopping for some unknown reason. ROCK is an extremely small linux OS designed by Roon specifically optimized for Roon playback. I assembled a NUC for about $600 installed Roon core and connected it to my network. I assembled a raspberry pi4 running Ropiee which also uses Roons transport protocol RAAT as a bridge and connected that to my network and to my DAC by USB. This all took about an hour and I was playing music. I also connected my ripped Flac files by USB to the NUC. I don’t really use a "dedicated " streamer, roon’s core/server acts as the streamer. If I wanted I could attach the NUC directly to my DAC and forgo the raspberry pi4.