DAC Apps/Software

piCore player is open source and runs on top of Logitech Media Server. Control app for Android Is Orange Squeeze. It is the most customizable, rock steady app that I’ve found. Allo Signature ships with 3 different apps + Roon.I tried the all and loaded piCore instead. Where BloOs will show the station, it displays album art. I run 2 streamers with it. It has plugins for almost everything.
DAC’s don’t use stream software. Streamers do.

I don't think I was clear. Several DAC manufacturers have their own proprietary streaming apps. Naim has one, Gold Note another, etc... Tidal, QoBuzz, Spotify and other services can be run though these apps. This eliminates the need for a computer to stream. I'm looking for feedback on the various DAC mfr's apps- i.e. the apps that control the streaming services through these DACs.

I'm not looking to overcomplicate things.  Using the DAC's app would be the simplist way to stream.

op - you mean software and user interface as pertaining to streamers, not dacs

streamers may have dacs attached... or not...

I went with Roon in large part for this.  It had a free trial period.  The other consideration for me was that it was constantly being maintained.  I am not a big fan of subscription software models, but when it comes to software in embedded systems I've changed my mind.  I worry more about streaming services coming and going than I do really about DAC's getting better anymore.

Today I use Tidal.  In 3 months it could vanish.  2 more services could appear. It is very hard for me to tell if a particular DAC company has a really active software group, that can respond to these changes rapidly or if they contract it all out, maybe 1x a year and maybe never update older units.

For these reasons I don't mind supporting Roon.

I've used Tidal and Audirvana (the latter is a bit buggy).  Do you use those from your phone/ipad/computer?  Is there any loss when sending from those devices versus streaming directly from a DAC w/ built in streamer?

I think I need an education on this.  I thought I understood it but perhaps not.  I want to stream Tidal tracks at the highest quality w/ MQA unfold but don't want the phone/ipad/laptop to be the source of a degrade in quality.

Get an Aurender streamer with or without a built-in DAC. There is then no need for additional software or other complications.

Streaming at 192 Khz is not necessarily better whether you are streaming Tidal or Qobuz because there are lots of recordings that were never mastered in 192 Khz but the streaming services upsample them, so you're not getting an absolutely true sound. Others will dispute this. An Aurender with a built-in DAC will give you full MQA unfolding to 192 Khz.