Core Infinity board

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It would appear that with respect to streamer board the 'hot topic' at the moment is 'will it be 'Roon Ready'?

One thought I have is that Devialet Experts are already 'Roon Ready'.  OK, not quite I know.  You cannot stream to a Devialet using RAAT protocol, but you can have a PC or Mac acting a Roon server and stream Roon to your Devialet via AIR.  Also, I think it is fair to say that AIR is stable now for a majority users.  So in every practical sense (if not officially) a Devialet Expert can be a Roon end point.

So why is it so important to some that the streamer board is Roon Ready?  Indeed, there is some indication that the wifi will be improved in the new streamer board, and with AIR remaining as a feature then from what we know now the streamer board will offer Roon, wirelessly via AIR, with equal or improved performance than is available now.

Thinking this through I can come up with two answers myself, that is sound quality, and maybe increased stability.  (assuming AIR is not 100% stable for a given user)  

I assume the assumption is that streaming via RAAT would offer better sound quality than AIR?  Or is there something else I have missed?  Maybe what folk are after is for Roon core to run on the streamer board, so just add a NAS and away you go?  (although most of what I have seen is simply a desire for the streamer board to be a Roon RAAT 'end point')

Another thought I have whilst mulling this all over is SPARK.  OK, SPARK is much maligned as an example of music server software and to be honest I have no great desire to use it.  But how good is it from a pure sound quality perspective?  As SPARK can only be used with Phantoms currently, the answer to this one is not clear.  Maybe SPARK beats RAAT for sound quality?  OK, I guess many will speculate, perhaps with good reason, that RAAT is best, but until this is put to the test (which would require RAAT on the streamer board), who knows?

As I understand it, the rationale for wanting the streamer board to support RAAT is based on:

1. RAAT is supposed to be a better-designed audio streaming protocol than AIR, which should translate into more robust/reliable operation (though whether better sound quality as well is, as always, subjective and debatable)
   
2. supporting RAAT to the point where the streamer board was declared "Roon Ready" would require Roon Labs to certify that the implementation was correct and robust (with the perception that they would apply a higher standard than Devialet apparently do)
   
3. and, as octaviars pointed out, RAAT would support streaming direct from Linux which AIR does not
   

The thing about point (2) is that it might simultaneously be both the reason why having a Roon Ready streamer board would be such a good thing and the reason why it's not likely to happen.  From what we see, Devialet seem to have a strong "not invented here" syndrome coupled with a rather undisciplined approach to software development and release, so the last thing they would want is to be beholden to a third party putting a stamp of approval on something they develop.