Esoteric N-03T streamer with Roon or ?

Hi,  I ordered an N 03T at the beginning of May.  It hasn't arrived yet, so my thinking about this is theoretical, not based on experience. 

As far as I can see, I will connect the N 03T, with a USB cable, to my Esoteric K 03XD, and use it as a DAC.  In preparation for the (by now highly anticipated) arrival of the N 03T, I bought a NUC with the necessary Roon software installed on it.  The NUC (rather similar to the Roon Nucleus) and the N 03T will both be connected to the ethernet switch.
I have the Roon app on my iPad, so I will be able to do Roonish things once the streamer is here.  I don't see any reason why I would not be able to install the Esoteric Soundstream app on the iPad as well, in case I want to bypass Roon for some reason, and use it to stream straight to the N 03T.
It may well be that someone who actually has done these things, rather than merely thought about them, has better advice.
Best of luck.

I have the Esoteric N-01XD (streaming DAC). I also have Roon. The Esoteric own app, basically a rebranded Lumin app, feels and works like an ancient software compared to Roon, which is way better. I use Roon exclusively with my N-01XD

Thanks guys.
@thyname what runs the Roon core and how do you connect to the Esoteric?

Hi @mauidj

My Roon Core is on Nucleus+

Esoteric N-01XD is connected to network via Ethernet cables. The built in streamer on it is essentially a Roon Endpoint. It’s Roon Ready: https://roonlabs.com/partners/esoteric

Nucleus+ is in a different floor / room in my house

From just a quick look , it does not appear you can use the Esoteric in your config. Im sure I will be corrected if wrong . The esoteric appears to only have analog out (streamer/DAC).

If you want to use the internal DAC in the Luxman with ROONs you will need a ROONs endpoint to feed a digital signal into the Luxman. You could look at Small green computer optical rendu or micro rendu to see if they would work. Looks like the Luxman has optical,USB and Coaxial digital inputs. Would love to hear a comparison between the Esoteric DAC and the LuXman
Here is how to set up the optical Renduhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L7aZR6RST8

On second look it does appear that the N-03T does have digital out. So you could use it as your Roons endpoint and then go digital out to the Luxman via USB or Coax.
So: Roon--> N-03T --> D-10X -->Amp

I don’t see any reason why I would not be able to install the Esoteric Soundstream app on the iPad as well, in case I want to bypass Roon for some reason, and use it to stream straight to the N 03T.
It may well be that someone who actually has done these things, rather than merely thought about them, has better advice.

It would be a good SQ test to compare the Soundstream going directly into the N-o3T. There has been much debate about the SQ of Roons app vs apps like MPD. I have always thought the MPD on my Bryston streamer sound a bit better than my Roons configuration.

What do you mean "SQ test to compare the Soundstream going directly into the N-03T"?

Soundstream is not a source or a repository of content. Sounstream is an end point controller. All it does is tell the N-03T what to play, and from where. It's GUI helps you navigate content on your various networked sources.

I used Soundstream with my N-01 and I found it to be clunky. I'm not familiar with Roon, but it has to be better than Soundstream as a content manager.

It is interesting that the app plays a significant role in SQ.

It is quite established that Roon, Soundstream or other third party apps differ in SQ depending on one’s set-up.

That said, the in-house Innuos app for my Zenith server beats all others for SQ.

Btw, I have tried Soundstream for my Esoteric N-05 dac and I agree it is clunky and unintuitive.