T + A streamers. I need help.

DSP is what makes the sound quality different. 
Some streamers have proprietary processing when you stream using a native app. This processing may be partially bypassed when using Roon or Tidal Connect, Qobuz connect or Mconnect/Mcontrol. In addition, Roon uses its own DSP. I’ve heard differences between Roon and Auralic native, as well as between Roon and Aurender conductor. Roon improved sound quality thru a series of firmware updates in the past year or so and now I’m back to using Roon. To me it sounds great right now. 

Apps could be involved in quality but the most important is to isolate the streamers noise from getting into your DAC. This noise is analog noise not 1 and 0’s that people say is bit perfect and all streamers are the same (not true).

ROON is a great streaming interface and for me sounds great. I use TIDAL and Qobuz via ROON and also have about 400 CD’s burned as FLAC files in my hard drive. I did the FLAC thing about 20 years ago and still listen to my LOCAL streaming music. 

The ROON Core is a computer that runs the server software that clients such as a cell phone, iPad, computer, etc... can connect to via a web GUI. You ROON Core must be connected into your home network. You can use Ethernet or better yet Fibre Optical from your network.

If you use fibre in your chain, you can put the fibre just before the DAC and get the benefits of the fibre material, which is glass, and glass cannot carry analog noise. It acts as a moat. In my case, I use a cheap noisy computer to run my ROON Core. This noise is stopped in its’ tracks by the fibre as it approaches my DAC(s).

You can spend a lot of money to buy a completely silent streaming machine (computer) and the effects of fibre are likely not that great.

I use the Sonore OpticalRendu streamer to make the above setup work. I have 3 of these since I had 3 DACs at one time.

systemOptique – Small Green Computer

I have made a few posts on A’gon explaining this in more detail.

I also have a T+A DAC/streamer and agree the G2 app is limiting and disappointing relative to others I have used. 

My personal experience with Roon is a few years old but wasn’t particularly good. I haven’t tried it with my SD 3100 HV units but am disinclined to try again as it quite negatively impacted the sound quality even without using any processing. It’s possible it sounds fine w/ the T+A unit, but I have reason to suspect it wouldn’t be as good as the built in streaming client.

In any case, I personally have decided to live with the G2 application as it’s responsive, stable, and doesn’t require me to install an update every time I turn it on (a particular irritation with Bluesound OS).

There’s another choice which you may want to explore - J Play. I’m considering this as I’m also considering running HQ player to convert to native DSD - a format T+A  DACs process particularly well as you likely know. There are some complexities to using J play as you’ll need some additional UPNP software but I understand the interface is quite nice and sound quality is not impaired. 

I know a number of T+A users have taken this route and it’s discussed a fair amount over at audiophile style forums. Certainly worth exploring. 

Best,

There are a few guys with T+A reference streaming DAC's here, hopefully they chime in. 

Try Roon; free 14 day trial. The user interface is as good as it gets, and Roon radio can discover many new bands/tracks you never knew existed, it is wonderful. 

But as Audphile1 and yyz... suggested you need a "core" for Roon- your system is well beyond using a generic computer such as a laptop so don't bother. Some use a Roon nucleus, Sonore's options are well regarded etc. Even better a dedicated server such as Antipodes K41. 

I would try other apps personally, can't you simply stream Qobuz or Tidal directly? Or from what I have read another great UI experience similar to Roon is Jplay, your unit has UPnP so that should work.

You have a revealing enough system to be able to easily hear the differences between softwares- try them and see which you prefer. 

But, if you really want to hear your unit at its best, feed it DSD files; the higher the better. I am currently upsampling tracks to DSD512 using PGGB and playing those files stored on my internal streamer's SSD into a T+A DAC 200 and it is sublime. Takes a good computer and plenty of storage, and patience, but it is worth it.  As you know T+A has 2 separate digital to analog converters inside its units, its PCM converter sounds pretty good, but its 1 bit DSD converter is exceptional. 

@mclinnguy 

When did you get the DAC 200? I thought you were running a Weiss DAC. Beautiful system, BTW. As you note - the DAC 200 is very good on PCM, and truly exceptional on DSD. 

I was thinking about HQ player, as I can use it to convert local files and Qobuz streams. But PGGB might be the more reasonable way for me to feed my T+A DACs. I certainly have the processing power in my M4 Mac mini. What I don’t seem to have is the brain power (or patience?) needed to operate HQ player as desired in 2 locations. If you have thoughts there, please share.

Fortunately, even plain old PCM sounds really good here now with my network improvements.

Best,