Just updated my virtual system

Very nice, man. Lots to like here. What do you use as digital music sources? I'm wondering how connected your HT and HiFi are. 

@erik_squires You gave me the push I need to pick up a Tidal sub. Tying Tidal into Roon immediately filled out more of the music library I've been missing when using Qobuz only. I've been wanting to consolidate my subscriptions, but instead, they're expanding. For now, I have Youtube, Spotify, Roon, Qobuz, and now Tidal. Playing with Roon over the last couple months has been interesting, but unless I can find a must-have feature, I might see if I can consolidate the last 3 or 4 subs into just Apple Music. The downside to Roon is being tied to a Roon Core. But I may keep Roon if one of the following pans out: (1) I get into music ownership, (2) if my local server sounds significantly better than a cloud server, (3) or if I get into upsampling. Maybe a fourth option is discovering that I can download music in Roon, and that playing back the downloaded music sounds better than streaming from the cloud. 

I'll check out Blue Coast Records. I haven't gotten into labels, or producers, or formats yet. 

It sounds like you use the LG TV as your streamer for video and music. That's interesting. I figured that with your setup, you would have had a dedicated music streamer. I can make a couple recommendations. (1) I put an AQ power cable on my TV. That power cable made a stupid big improvement on the picture quality. In your case, a TV PC upgrade may improve the audio too. (2) It used to be the case that the streamers built into TV's didn't age well--probably a combination of a handful of things like TV manufacturers ceasing to update the software after a year or two, the streaming hardware being cheap to begin with so that the TV meets a certain price point, and the major streaming services prioritizing major streamer apps over TV's apps. I've tried the major streamers over the years, and my current favorites are the Chromecast with Google TV and the Nvidia Shield TV (Pro). I believe the CC has the best streaming UI on the market, and the Nvidia Shield is snappier because of its more powerful hardware, it has AI 4k upscaling, and it boasts the latest video and audio standards from the streaming services. If your TV streamer ever feels sluggish or unpolished, you can keep the TV panel and keep the software experience separate. 

PC + Raspberry Pi 4 + Roon as server, streamer, and library management software. Gotcha. 

I resonate with your argument against the business model of HiFi streamer manufactures. As soon as we introduce software into hardware, its shelf-life diminishes. AVR's are a good case in point. Since 2015, video standards have quickly evolved from 1080p to 4k, then HDR, and now we have forking HDR standards of HDR 10 and Dolby Vision, and recently 4k at 120Hz became a thing. Just like the audio chain, to have the video features you want, every piece in the video chain has to be compatible: video streamer, HDMI cables, AVR, and TV. If one of those is behind, you lack some feature. For now, I'm content with 4k 60Hz, base level HDR, and chroma subsampling of 4:2:0. It's not the latest and greatest, but it's good enough for the major streaming services. Plus, being on the cutting edge is costly.  

Besides the points you made, I would point to their revenue model as the culprit: one-off streamer sales are not likely to support continuous software development. When sharing my iFi Zen Stream ($400) streamer with other audio folks, the biggest criticism was the lack of amazing library management software. That is, consumers seem to want convenience, high quality, and a low price--in business, it's usually a pick two of the three. 

If I do stick with Roon (plus Qobuz and Tidal) instead of Apple Music, I'll put together a server that I leave always on. Having to walk to another room and boot up my main computer just to listen to music isn't convenient enough. And if I go with a NAS, I might be able to also store and stream movies too, which is a lot cheaper than Kaleidescape. But I have to see if Plex and Roon can be used together. 

@erik_squires
How do you feel about the idea of purpose built streamer hardware? I think they are worth considering, and enough audio folks say that the SQ does improve with purpose built streamers. Is your position that nothing upstream from the DAC makes enough of a difference to justify the cost? I haven’t yet compared the Zen Stream to a Raspberry Pi, but that could be interesting.

On another note, how do you feel about combining video and audio streamers? My understanding is that the consensus with audio folks with combined HT and stereo systems is to at least bypass the HT preamp when listening to stereo music. But you went a step further with a HiFi DAC too.

With your current setup, combining the A/V streamer only looks possible via toslink--either out of the TV directly or out of the receiver to your DAC. But toslink won’t work for you since you have DSD files.

Another option for combining A&V streamers, might be with an Nvidia Shield TV Pro. Based on this forum page, it looks like the Shield now supports audio out from its USB port. I use an Nvidia Shield TV Pro in my home theater room, and I know that the Shield does show up in Roon as a possible end point, but I haven’t tried to send audio out from the Shield’s USB since my stereo system is in a different room. And, as far as hardware going obsolete, Nvidia has kept it’s Shield TV streamers relevant for a surprisingly long time. Last I checked, Nvidia is still supporting its 2015, 2017, and 2019 Shield versions. Finally, as an AI company, Nvidia may delve into AI audio upsampling one day if enough users identify the use case to the company.