Are There Roon Ready I2S Streamers?

my 2c. Maybe it is worth just what you pay for it. The bashing of USB is by people trying to sell you something else, and their customers and fans repeating it without real knowlege. I just bought a $4700 streamer. It feeds a $13000 DAC. I haven’t even investigated if any other connections are availabe. the quality equipment manages the usb connection properly.

I do recommend the audioquest carbon usb cable. silver plated. Digital may be a place where the higher conductivity of silver works great. I was stuck with a generic one for several days waiting for the cable to show up. Huge difference.

Jerry

PS just checked and my innuos streamer supports only USB out.

Agreed..but I'm also caught in a self imposed loop.  I have for years preferred vinyl, but I don't have a problem with spending 10K on a phono preamp, but I question how much better an external DAC will be vs the MA12000's DAC.  The external phono preamp is much better.  I agree that DACs should reclock USB inputs.  I'm looking at a well reviewed Chinese DAC so I also need to overcome the idea of buying Chinese.

we import servers the 432 evo servers from Belgium these are considered among the best sounding servers out there.

We had the usb vs i2s conversation with the designer.

He said that he tested both outputs and concluded that i2s was not better and was nearly imposable to support as there are different implementation’s depending on the Dacs manufacturer.

as per USB, we have clients using the Terminator and our 432 Evo servers and getting great sound.

in order to have great sound from USB you have to isolate the Data correctly:

In the case of our servers we have separate assemblies: the CPU is in its own board, the USB card. and Clock, are isolated physically and electrically from the CPU, a special laser sintered 3d printed shield electrical isolates and further shields the CPU, and absorbs radiated noise from the all-ready low noise quad core CPU,

Even Roon is isolated, we use 3 cores of the CPU independently,

one core runs the program,

one core runs other processes,

one core handles files allocation

it all comes down to design, building a world class Server is way more sophisticated and complex then what many people think

Dave and Troy

Audio intellect NJ

US. importers 432EVO music servers

The Antipodes K50 has i2s out

Nice equipment.

I'm using an air cooled 10th generation i7 NUC as a server.

Both the 432 and Innuos look to be well sorted, but I'm way over my budget for gear..so looking for value and intelligent compromise.

I think that USB streamers make the most sense from a marketing standpoint, so a better DAC, or reclocker will have to do.

If you like your iFi streamer and are looking for a DAC with a great USB input then look at the Holo vs the Denafrips.  If you don't hear an improvement over the Mc's internal DAC will be easy to turn over. 

yes the k50 is also 18k our Aeon is 7500

Resale on Holo is a good point.  I noticed that even with the difference in price the Aeon was compared and favorably with the K50.

If you're over budget, I highly recommend the Allo USBridge Signature with Shanti power supply.  I would sell mine but I guess I'll move it to my second system.

I too used a Nuc for my core, I7 6 cores, maybe the same one you are using.  I installed the Roon core inside of the windows environment that came with it and set it to autoload on reboot.  Sometimes it doesn't reload and I have to take the nuc into my office and hook it up to a monitor to sort it out.  Pain in the rear.  So I'm going to install the ROCK this week and that should fix it.

I was using another nuc as an exdpoint before I bought the USBridge, and it had the same problem.  Dedicated components, not running windows, is the way to go.

Jerry

I believe the K50 list did increase to $17,500.  The Antipodes K22, however, also has I2S output and list price for it is $9,000.  If interested in Antipodes, you could also consider the S Series, which are separates as opposed to all in one box for server, player, and power supplies.

Key is matching streamer to dac, purchase as package. Lots of nice dac's with optimized usb boards, which means quality clock, dedicated power supply, galvanic isolation all within dac, in this case optimized usb rendering from streamer and you're covered.

The problem with I2S is twofold, one is no standardization of pin outs or connectors, two, no conclusive evidence I2S superior to optimized usb. It would be a rare case where one could directly connect a streamer to dac without need of some conversion of pin outs via dip switch or custom built I2S cable.

Thank you all for your help.  I didn't mention that the MA-12000's DAC died over the weekend and that started me down this path.  I also have called McIntosh.

I purchased a Holo Audio May KTE and Timbernation maple equipment stand.  When I'm close to delivery, will probably pickup 0.75M Audioquest Earth balanced interconnects and the Shunyata  Sigma v2 NR power cable.  Power conditioner and good power cables have been the biggest improvement to my system.

As a long time experienced streamer, I agree I have found no issues of late using USB 2.  I’ve found some devices may default to usb 1 and must be switched manually. 

I spent several years on my search for a top quality separate streamer to pair up with my DACs. As I went through this journey I ended up with a PSaudio Directstream DAC. This was my first DAC with I2S input. I tried various combinations of streamers with Matrix Audio X-SPDIF to get I2S to my DSD DAC.

I discovered Musica Pristina about a year ago and purchased the ACapella III  I2S streamer. It was like opening a window to full transparency.  This streamer is better than anything I have tried, even at twice the price! AndKevin the designer is a joy to deal with. 
Give it a try. 

PSAudio who is the company pushing I2S is coming out w streamer only I2S output. About 2K. 

Magno Mano Ultra. Get it with the Room boot card.

von the 432 evos are upgradable and start at 3500 the high end sounds great and  costs 5500

we have a client using your holo Dac and he is very pleased by the pairing,

Dave and Troy

Audio intellect nj

US importers 432EVO music servers 

Sonore makes the ultraRendu Roon Ready streamer and an add-on for it called the ultraDigital. This is a really good solution for a Roon Ready to i2s player.

As @sns mentioned there is no standardization in the i2s pinout. Sonore gets around this by haveing dip switches that can be used to configure the ultraDigital to support most i2s DACs.

Sonnet Hermes does I2S via RJ45.

Silent Angel M1T does I2S via HDMI.

A Capella 3 is a nice one

I'm using an iFi Zen Streamer through a Matrix Audio X-SPDIF to connect I2S to my DAC. There's always a trade off. I've added another device in the signal chain (and associated cables) but so far the improvement over USB is worth it to my ears.

Next time around though, I think I'll be looking at a single box solution -- streamer/dac.

I have the Sonore Signature SE and tried using the Matrix DDC to I2S and really did not notice the big change others have.  The Sonore is super sounding.  That being said I think I will try the PS Audio AirLens when it comes out in the next few months.  Its ONLY got an I2S and uses the same isolation their beloved SACD player does.  Supposed to be around 2k.  

Try a Matrix X-Spdif-2

This will convert USB to i2s.

www.matrix-digi.com

I just ordered a Holo Audio Red streamer and it has i2s output with configurable dipswitch settings.  $800.  At that price it’s worth trying.