T + A streamers. I need help.

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,

Much to soak in. Much to learn. Many paths to musical nirvana. @mgrif104 As with you, I'm sticking with G2 for the moment. It's tried and true and simple. 

Because numerous variables are involved with streamers, software, and hardware, I need to take a slow approach to this. You guys have opened my eyes to the various possibilities. Appreciate your time.

Seems like the road to streaming, buying the streamer that is a fit for one's system is important, but to exploit it to max is challenging.

Do I have that right?

Hey @mgrif104, 

Saw one used so decided to snap it up a few weeks back. Always had these memories of how much better some DSD files sounded with my former exaSound DAC compared to "regular" files, so was always curious to try a higher-end dedicated DSD converter again to compare to a decent PCM player in the Weiss. I am keeping the Weiss, just building a second system and the Weiss is a player so I can feed Roon to both with the K50. Wasn’t happy about going back to a USB cable, but such is life. 

PGGB IMO is definitely the way to go, here is why: HQ player is embedded in the Antipodes, and I tried it in the past (with PCM) and was underwhelmed- too fiddly and the several filters I tried were no better than Squeeze, so why pay the money for it was my decision. I recently tried HQ again to upsample to DSD on the fly after getting the DAC 200 but the Antipodes is built for sound quality, not processing power, so upsampling to DSD128 on the fly with HQ Player had the cpu at 80%, whereas when I play an upsampled DSD512 file (via Squeeze or Roon) it is at 0%.

Upsampling on the fly kind of defeats the purpose of having a low-noise streamer.

And then I tried PGGB. I heard a few DSD 512 files, my jaw dropped, and I immediately bought the license. Hearing a redbook file upsampled to DSD512 was shocking-  either with Roon or Squeeze. Makes the difference between the two softwares seem irrelevant by comparison. To confirm I am not using HQ Player at all, I am playing these DSD 512 files back with Roon or Squeeze, both work fine but Roon is pickier with some of them. I have not yet tried HQ Player as just a player option playing the DSD files- either with Roon as the server software or HQ Player as server and player software. 

I have many old CD’s here I can rip to DSD 512 (or DSD 1024), most of them cannot be bought in any hi-res format. Previously I never bothered to rip them and play them from the internal drive when streaming them sounds just as good, and even better if Qobuz had remastered it at a high res file. But now the upsampled DSD files of those CD’s sound better than the remastered streamed files. And the upsampled DSD files of the 24/192 files I purchased sound better as well, just not as big of a jump as 16/44.1 to DSD512.

The only downside is buying all the music instead of simply streaming it all via Qobuz or Tidal, and buying several TB’s of storage. 

More info is here: PGGB thread