How good is Roon AIR?

[Nightmare]

I put the superiority down to the fact that the Aurender is playing most off the internal disk, has caching, and is connected to the Devialet with a short USB cable. Roon Air, on the other hand, is connected via about 20m of standard cat5 in wall cable to a NAS.

I think it is more than difficult to ascribe the "noticeably better" sound quality to the Aurender under these conditions. A directly and short ethernet connection should be minimum for a reliable and more meaningful test.

Despite the sound quality improvement with the Aurender, I have to say I think Roon Air is more than good enough, and if I did not already have the Aurender already then I would feel no need to buy a dedicated streamer given that Roon Air is 'alsmost' free.

Good point. A lot of bugs for maybe a small sound profit.
As it is most times, admittedly