Best server/streamer and path for MSB DACs

Other Audio Components
21

Hope to be setting up my humble system (provisional) this weekend. The movers coming in 2 days.

Initial Setup

Server closet (in basement)
UniFi Network
Intel NUC running ROCK (Roon) as server, with SSD - Plugged into main switch

Man Cave
UpTone Audio etherRegen

  • Renderer V2 (Triode Wire Labs Ethernet cable)
  • Oppo BluRay
  • AppleTV
  • Samsung TV (all audio goes through TV to TOSLink to DAC)
  • WiFi to the W4S Sonos Port (Coax SPDIF to DAC)
    (UniFi recommends not mixing wired and wireless Sonos, so this will be WiFi)

Premier DAC with DD

In the past, while I was still working, I turned my system off, as I mainly listened during the weekend. Going forward, I may leave the DAC on full time.

I used to run USB to the DAC from my desktop computer, in the past, but may not this go round, as there is not much need for this.

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22

Definitely not convinced this is the most user friendly setup for my requirements, Spotify Connect for my wife and I am stuck with Roon (which I am not keen on but have a lifetime subscription.

3G fiber connection to UniFi GW, then 10G Fiber to backbone switch, dual 10 fibers to Synology NAS (running Roon on SSD) , 10G to Distribution Switch, DJM Activ Audio to the Rendered v2 in the Cascade.

The SQ is fantastic, the user friendliness isnā€™t but I decided this weekend that I will leave it as is until next year, I want to see what happens with Spotify HiRes and Tidal before making a decision but I am leaning towards the Aurender N50 or Innuos Nazare due to the ProISL interface as it means I can place them out of the way, unless MSB releases my ideal renderer with connect capabilities in which case I likely stick with that approach.

But I need to make sure I can control the volume using the Connect application (Tidal/Qobuz/Spotify) before I contemplate ā€œupgradingā€ and the second aspect is to make sure the SQ is better, the point @Dan raises makes me wonder if a very high end music server is really the way to go.

PS. I should add I have a Bluesound Node X conneted via Toslink for my wife use for Spotify

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