Dac/amp to use with ROON?

[W1ll1eTheP1mp]

Hey. Anyone have a suggestion for a good dac/amp with MQA for use with ROON? Been thinking of the Ifi line.

What do u use?

 

[tesarpa]

The question is too open, I'm afraid. I can only answer the part about my stwo setups, where I have Benchmark DAC3 and Schiit Yggdrasil. I let Roon decode MQA.

 

[eskamobob1]

There litteraly isnt a portable option. You can get a Hugo2Go or do a pi+battery back but neither do MQA

 

[W1ll1eTheP1mp]

There litteraly isnt a portable option. You can get a Hugo2Go or do a pi+battery back but neither do MQA

But there is several portabkes that does mqa? Even some dongles?

 

[tesarpa]

Please specify closer your needs. Why are we talking now about portability in conjunction with Roon, which is limited to in-house use?

 

[W1ll1eTheP1mp]

Please specify closer your needs. Why are we talking now about portability in conjunction with Roon, which is limited to in-house use?

Ive been struggling to understand the different Roon devices(even when reading on their homepage/forum etc) like bridge, endpont, streamer etc. But ive understand more and more and trying my best

I want to build myself a roon setup. I usually listen in bed. I have no ripped music. Everything is in Tidal. As for now, im using my 7 year old HP laptop as a Core, and my LG V40 as an endpoint/device where i put my IEMs into. This works BUT android os is not the best when it comes to soundquality with Roon and even if my V40 as a quad dac and full MQA, it still sounds way better through UAPP than Roon.

My question is: How can i improve my soundquality with roon? i want to use my samsung tablet or V40 as a controller. But i need a DAC/AMP that gives me better soundquality than the Android limitations on V40.

What ive been thinking: Laptop - dac/amp- tablet/v40 as controller for finding songs in Roon.

Dac/Amp: Been thinking about Ifi ZEN DAC and ZAN CAN ( a guy is selling a ZEN CAN new for 160 usd with ifi Ipower. It cost 240 usd new in my country). what do u think? or can i get better soundquality for the same price as the ifi ZEN stack?



I got some recommendations about Rasberry Pi`s, HAT, Ropieee but i cant quite understand whatit does instead of an dac/amp?

With time i want to buy a NUC. But it seems my laptop is good enough for my use so far even with some DSP for headphones. I

 

[W1ll1eTheP1mp]

So i need an dac/amp that sounds very good to use with my U12T`s. UAPP with V40 sounds much better than V40 with Roon. But i want to use Roon cause of the discovery options. Reason for the Ifi ZEN is cause of all features. MQA,DSD, 3D+,Xbass and truebass. a lot of features for cheap. and the CAN is analog. Or should i just buy i good dongle dongle since IEMs its what i use 90% of the time now?

 

[tesarpa]

In described scenario, I believe there is the simplest solution to continue using V40 phone as roon endpoint and get some usb dongle (DAC/AMP) w/MQA support to connect it to the phone. I do not understand, why roon sound worse then other playback application, but if you hear it, it is what it is. iFi Zen would also work, it's just little bigger and also little more expensive then some dongles.

 

[W1ll1eTheP1mp]

I cant connect the through my v40 cause of android limitations! Only UAPP bypass android os limitations. There all v40 users use UAPP so we can get use of the Quad dac inside phone with Tidal. 16/48 is the best v40 will do with Roon.

I want to use V40 as a controller, but not as a player cause of the audio limitations.

 

[eskamobob1]

But there is several portabkes that does mqa? Even some dongles?

No. The roon app on phones uses android/iOS mixer and resamples everything and pi/2go cant do MQA. Even the R6 2020 that bypasses andoid mixer wont work because the roon app specifically calls the android mixer

 

[tesarpa]

Then there is the option of Raspberry Pi end point and USB DAC/AMP. You install Roopiee software to Pi, it's really easy.

 

[eskamobob1]

Then there is the option of Raspberry Pi end point and USB DAC/AMP. You install Roopiee software to Pi, it's really easy.

but AFAIK, none of the pi OSs do MQA

 

[tesarpa]

With Roon and MQA DAC I see no problem there. It has nothing to do with OS.

 

[W1ll1eTheP1mp]

Then there is the option of Raspberry Pi end point and USB DAC/AMP. You install Roopiee software to Pi, it's really easy.

So Rpi makes the USB DAC/AMP "speaks" the Roon core without being physically connected to the Roon Core? Habe i understood the purpose ot Rpi right?

 

[eskamobob1]

So Rpi makes the USB DAC/AMP "speaks" the Roon core without being physically connected to the Roon Core? Habe i understood the purpose ot Rpi right?

Yup! It acts as an endpoint over wifi