Replacing Roon - What Should I get?

@audphile1 – Thank you for the kind words about the UI and glad to hear the dropouts stopped after shutting down Roon core. That's actually a great example of why having only one control point active matters.

On your feature points:
1. Auto-play / radio-style continuation after an album ends –this is already available, but disabled by default as some users didn't like it. To enable open Now Playing screen and swipe left to the 3rd screen. The Radio option can be enabled there:
 
2. Multi-device sync – this is a UPnP limitation. There is no synchronisation between control points in UPnP, so one device cannot see what another is doing. It's by design to minimise network traffic, which directly benefits sound quality.
3. MQA – only pass-through is supported. JPLAY does not have a decoder built-in, but for DACs that have MQA decoders, it works. I'm using Esoteric K1X SE in combination with XACT S1 EVO music server and playing MQA either from local server or Tidal using JPLAY app works well in this setup. 
4. Sorting by popularity – noted as well.

You're right that there's always a balance between features and sound quality. Our priority has always been sound quality first, but we're actively developing the app and feature requests like yours help us prioritise what to work on next.

@shinemaster – Thank you for the suggestion about search placement. Noted! 

@dwmb – I need to correct a misconception here. JPLAY does NOT stream audio through your iPhone or iPad. The app acts purely as a remote control – it sends a command and the track URL to your streamer, and the streamer itself fetches the audio directly from Tidal/Qobuz servers. Your iPhone/iPad never touches the audio data. Unless Proxy feature is enabled in the app - in some setups this is required and then the app first downloads a track to iPhone/iPad and only then streams to an endpoint. But this option is disabled by default. 

If you experienced dropouts with streaming services, it was your streamer having trouble fetching content from the network – not JPLAY sending audio over Wi-Fi. The cause is typically network configuration, router settings, or the streamer's own UPnP renderer implementation. Many users stream Tidal and Qobuz flawlessly through JPLAY every day.

If you'd like to give it another try, I'm happy to help troubleshoot – feel free to reach out at [email protected]

Best regards,
Marcin

@marcin_gps haha you guys hid that feature pretty well. I enabled it now and will evaluate it. Thanks for getting back to me on this and other items I had mentioned. 

Like any of this it all depends on the components and config.   I can run QC directly on my Denon Av unit.  QC comes nowhere close to the SQ I get running ROON into a old SONOS W4S modified ZP90 into external DAC into Denon.    Not really fair comp as it's a decent DAC but when somebody says "QC sounds better..." you need to know what running under the hood,   right down to the ROON host. 

@marcin_gps Unless Proxy is enabled with JPlay, I cannot stream Tidal. But then, if Proxy is enabled, the stream goes through your iPhone or iPad to the local network. That results in dropouts and other streaming issues. I dealt with this on your Forums in June 2025. With JPlay, I'm simply caught between a rock and a hard place when trying to stream from Tidal using JPlay, even though my streamer is JPlay certified. So, no joy. 

Hi @dwmb 

Sorry to hear you're still dealing with this. The fact that you need Proxy enabled to stream TIDAL is a strong indicator that your streamer is having trouble fetching content directly from TIDAL's servers. Without Proxy, JPLAY sends the TIDAL URL directly to your renderer and the renderer is supposed to download and play the stream on its own. If that fails, it points to something between your renderer and the internet – not JPLAY.

A few things you could try:

1. Check if your router has any DNS filtering, ad blocking, or firewall rules that could be interfering with TIDAL's CDN domains specifically. Some routers block or throttle certain HTTPS traffic.
2. Try changing the DNS settings on your router to a public DNS like 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 – some ISP DNS servers can cause issues with streaming service CDNs.
3. Can you confirm which streamer you're using? Even though it's JPLAY Certified, knowing the exact model would help me check if other users have reported similar TIDAL-specific issues.
4. Does Qobuz work without Proxy? If Qobuz streams fine but TIDAL doesn't, that further narrows it down to a network/DNS issue specific to TIDAL's infrastructure.

Also – if you do need to use Proxy temporarily, make sure your iPad/iPhone is connected via a strong, stable Wi-Fi signal (ideally 5GHz band close to the router) to minimise dropouts.

Marcin