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Streamer vs renderer vs music server...help

I have been reading a lot of the forum posts to try understand my best path forward for my digital frontend.  Within the posts on streaming all these terms seem to come up with recommended brands but I am now somewhat confused as to what I need to get the best source sound quality to my DAC.  I don't know if I need a streamer, a dedicated music server, a renderer, a bridge, a roon endpoint, a combination of, or something else.  Looking for some education so I can then zero in on some options.  

I mostly stream tidal so I don't necessarily need to pay extra for CD ripping or file storage capabilities, however I won't discount these options if they come with the component that has great sound quality. Basically, how best do I get the Tidal stream to my DAC, preferably using Roon as the controller (open to other options if SQ is improved with different components).

I have a Leben CS600x, Devore 0/96s, and currently an Auralic Vega G2 but I am looking to change to the Holo Audio May KTE or a TotalDac.  The Vega has the built in streamer and lighting controller but I also use the Vega as a Roon endpoint with the Roon controller (I think that's how it works?)  The Roon core is currently on my iMAC.

Sorry for starting another post!  I tried to piece it together from other posts but there were too many types of components mentioned in the chain before the DAC that I didn't fully understand.

crandell25

Showing 2 responses by jjss49

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jjss49
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@crandell25

i think your main decision is whether you are happy using tidal (and thus tidal connect) to handle all your music streaming needs... if so, you don’t need roon...

roon’s value is in integrating a variety of digital music sources - streamed as well as localized and computerized... think of it as a smart librarian that organizes all of it from different sources so you can see and choose from all of it, from various sources, in an easy to use, easy to understand manner, with nice photos and descriptions of each piece of music - the price of this of course, is in the subscription, and the cost of having a computer running to gather and coordinate all that info, plus send music to your endpoint/dac - you go that route then you need to spend more $ to do it right, keep your network and signal transfer noise free...

tidal connect does all that at your streamer, but of course, it only deals with organizing your music (favorites, genres, artists, new releases) streamed from tidal itself

jjss49's avatar
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jjss49
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op

good advice given already

if you are just streaming tidal and you already know auralic’s stuff, then just get an auralic streamer (aries) and then use it to feed your future dac of choice

your vega does all that but it’s dac is integral, no digital output is offered iirc to drive other dacs, so if you are wanting to play with other dacs (holo may etc etc) and explore their sound quality, the vega needs to go

then you can also retire your outboard i-mac too, it becomes unnecessary unless you want to run roon (once again - not necessary if using tidal connect on the aries) - the aries will do what is needed and it will be less noisy (electrically) than the imac

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