T + A streamers. I need help.

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.

I get it. I first read about PGGB about 3 years ago, then it was just an idea from a couple of electrical engineer's about how to upsample PCM for the boys with the Chord Dave's, similar to Rob's M Scaler. Then it expanded to other player's like Holo's, Gustard's, and now it is available as DSD upsampling for the strong DSD player's. 

Audio nirvana in small steps, a piece at a time, over the course of many years. the journey is typically more enjoyable than the destination. 

@mclinnguy +1

Good stuff and helpful, too. Congrats on the new DAC 200.

I’ll get my 2nd system settled in about 6 weeks and will give PGGB a try. It should work well in my system with the built in NAA on my unit. I’ll save a few steps. 

Best,

Another vote for Roon. Some people claim they hear a downgrade in quality when using Roon, I have not experienced that myself. And I don't see why or how that would be the case.

The Roon team is incredibly knowledgeable and focused on delivering a pristine signal with dedicated audio gear. Meanwhile a lot of other factory playback solutions simply use existing network protocol like UPnP or DLNA. Those were never intended for high end audio so why would they sound better? I think some people are naturally inclined to assume the smoother, better looking experience must somehow come at a price. I disagree though. 

@v-fi 

This is a somewhat frustrating response. So you don’t know how or why there might be a difference and therefore dismiss the relevant experience of many others. It’s a complex area. If you’re seeking a high performance system, not exploring this seems shortsighted.

Roon is akin to Microsoft Windows which must run on a huge variety of hardware and companion software platforms. Just as windows does not perform equally well across all those platforms, so too does Roon have to address the variables of cache, processing speed, available system resources, etc.

Some streamers are designed to only work with Roon (i.e Grimm MU1 and Synergistic Research Voodoo). However, many others have native applications to handle the music library management. Those of us with such equipment have experienced a wide variety of results with Roon. And, many of that group have experienced diminishing sound quality with Roon. 

For me - I had already paid for a subscription to Roon and was using it happily. On a whim, I compared the same streamed file on Qobuz via Roon vs via Lightning DS (the native application of Auralic devices). I was disappointed in the difference. I loved pretty much everything else about Roon - particularly the interface. But it just didn’t sound as good. I am far from alone in that experience. I have since moved on from Auralic as using it to feed my T+A DAC didn’t sound nearly as good as using the streaming client built in to the unit in direct comparison.

To be fair - I haven’t tried Roon with my T+A streaming DACs. But I also know from the experience of others that it is unlikely to offer me the best sounding option. And, given the high level of performance of the T+A gear, why should we choke it?

@mgrif104 Sorry to frustrate, that was certainly not my intent. And the last thing I want to do is argue about audio opinions. I just notice a lot of people parrot what they have read on forums about Roon not sounding as good, but when I have a direct chat with them it turns out many haven't even tried it, or tried it once many years ago and are still stuck on that opinion.

For myself, I have definitely compared many platforms and found Roon to sound best, in my system of course which is the only one I can really speak on. But among the circle of fellow Auralic users I chat with, the vast majority seems to agree. The general consensus (not unanimous) is that Lightning DS makes the music more edgy, lit up, with a focus on detail, while using Roon is more natural, relaxed, organic. Which one is "better" will always depend on your preferences and system. 

I agree that Roon does have some variability, but also feel that is mainly solved now by the fact that you can just use the official Roon Nucleus devices and get on the same page as what the Roon devs intended. Or, you can at least use the Nucleus as a yardstick by which to spec out your own hardware so it matches or surpasses those capabilities. Meanwhile Roon's certification process, as frustratingly slow as it sometimes is, exists to guarantee that each component plays nicely with their software and keeps everything in spec. So there really isn't as much variability issues as there maybe was some years ago.

Are there instances where I might choose something else over Roon? Of course, depending on the hardware involved. But my experience is that most often Roon sounds more natural to me than the others, and I again feel like it gets a bad rap for being so slick in terms of features and user interface. When so many people throw out the whole "everyone knows" mentality about how Roon is always inferior, I feel it dissuades people who should really give it a shot. They might prefer it as many of us do, and it's free to try so why not?