I auditioned every music server application available over a two year period, that included Roon, JRiver, Plex with Plexamp, Navidrome, Ampache, Subsonic, Emby, etc., and decided that Logitech Media Server was the best solution for me.

It's very competitive with the audiophile darling, Roon, when configured with the appropriate plug-ins, which is an easy task. However, LMS is far less expensive since it's open source and free, and Roon wants $800USD for a lifetime subscription. LMS is less demanding on a computer than Roon as well while offering essentially the same functionality.

LMS has been around since '01 and originally started out as a commercial product. However, Logitech dropped out of the network player market, open sourced it, and now one of the original developers and a team of volunteers maintains and updates it. It's well supported by the community and shows no signs of ever going away.

LMS offers desktop and mobile players as well via a Web browser or app: LMS Material Android and SBPlayer for Android mobiles, and there are iOS apps available for it as well.

LMS supports the Google Cast, Apple AirPlay, UPnP-DLNA and SlimProto streaming protocols. That support will allow one to use any and all of the network players currently available.

All the best... 😎

If you have a look at my profile page there's a link to a community you might be interested in.

Can LMS be used like Roon where I have my music on a NAS and software running on a linux pc, and I can control it’s output from other devices like my laptop? If so, I might be interested (I know nothing about it).

Is there a good guide to set this up to run on my Windows box?

I did Origin, Audirvana. For DSD playback but also for FLAC. $150 Canadian for probably years. Utterly worth it. Running a Mac mini M1 and an SMSL Sanskrit III to an 845 single ended trios amp. Beats most of what I’ve heard. The same tracks via Apple Music just don’t cut it like Audirvana can. I download music and store it on an external.

A music player that isn't able to play my locally stored files if the core loses internet isn't acceptable. Sadly I only found this out recently and I've already bought my lifetime subscription.

Also looking for alternatives.

A Logitech Media Server, local player, client application running on the same computer as the server itself can still play local content without Internet access.

Some of the functions that rely on the Net for metadata won't work properly, of course, but the local player will still work.

Just use Foobar2000, best sounding app and free

Foobar2000 is what you need dude