Are my Devialets starved of quality…

[Bertie]

…should I be feeding them a more nutritious diet of 1s and 0s? Is my Mac Mini’s Roon providing the goodness they deserve? Should I be offering up a Holo Red or Eversolo T8 with plenty of Tidal Connect and HQ Player on the side? What are you guys using to keep your 440s the lean, mean, pristine machines we’ve come to love? What’s your digital Ready Brek on a cold winter’s day?

[David A]

I assume since you're running Roon that you also play music from files stored on your Mac Mini or a drive attached to it. Both have AES, coax, and USB outputs.

I have no experience with either of the devices you mention.If the idea is to eliminate streaming via Roon both will work BUT if you're also playing files from your own personal music library it doesn't look like you can route them to your 440 through either of those devices. That means you're going to have to use 2 inputs on your 440, one for your streaming services (Tidal, Qobuz, or some other service) which you will connect to your streamer device and the other you connect to the Mac Mini and either continue using Roon or some other server software to send those streams to the 440. I think you've got only 1 AES input and 1 USB input so you're going to have to choose what input you use for the streamer and what input you use for the Mac Mini.

There is another option, using a dedicated server such as one of Roon's or Innuos's servers which can connect directly to your streaming services and also to a separate drive with your own music files on it or you can even add an internal drive to the server and copy your music files to it and connect that server to your 440 either via ethernet or USB. You can transfer your Roon subscription to the server.

I don't have a 440, I have a 130 and I use a Roon Nucleus+ server. I have my own files stored on an SSD drive I mounted in the bay available inside the Nucleus and I stream Qobuz using Roon. The Nucleus+ and the 130 are both connected to my network, control streaming of Qobuz and my own files using Roon, and everything gets to my 130 over ethernet.

You can get music from streaming services and from your own files in many different ways, you can make your choice based on price or which control interface works for you, but as a general rule streaming sources like the ones you mention cannot deliver music from your own files to your amp while a lot of server options can deliver music from your streaming services as well as from your files to your amp.

You haven't said if you've also got any other sources like a turntable or disc player connected to your 440 but if you do that may limit the choice of inputs you've got for a streamer.

I started out streaming Tidal and playing files from my Mac Mini using Roon before swapping to a server for both and eliminating the Mac Mini from the signal path. I use an iPad running the Roon app to control everything. Eliminating the Mac Mini from my music signal paths was definitely an improvement and I appreciate the convenience of being able to control streaming from Qobuz and playback from my own music library using only Roon.

I hope that's of some help.

[thumb5]

To add a counterpoint to David's summary, I am generally sceptical that switching from Roon on a Mac Mini to a dedicated streamer will bring a substantial change in sound quality.  I'm probably in a minority expressing that point of view on this forum but it's based on my personal experience so I can only say what I find with the caveat that it might not be relevant to you.  And of course, you might enjoy choosing and buying new hardware, in which case please take my opinion with a pinch of salt!

What did make a substantial difference to my ears and in my system, which has a similar streaming configuration to yours, was incorporating digital room correction.  Like you, I have an off-axis position for everyday listening, and have not treated my living room (which is cuboidal with concrete floor, brick walls, carpets and the usual soft furnishings).  I invested in Focus Fidelity Filter Designer and a miniDSP UMIK-1 and found that with minimal effort it produced a very noticeable improvement in stereo imaging as well as tidying up the room's various bass anomalies.

FFFD produces filters that can be easily loaded into Roon's DSP engine so as you're already using Roon, once you've installed and enabled the filters you'll see no extra complications in everyday use.

If you plan to try this, you might want to check the specifications of your Mac Mini to make sure that it's capable of running the FFFD filters, particularly if you listen to high bit-rate streams.  (For example, I have a 3.2 GHz M1 Mini and on a 96 kHz, 24-bit stream Roon tells me that the processing speed is 37x - that is, the Mini is 37 times quicker than it needs to be to keep up with the audio stream.)

I hope that gives you another interesting option to consider.

[Bertie]

To add a counterpoint to David's summary, I am generally sceptical that switching from Roon on a Mac Mini to a dedicated streamer will bring a substantial change in sound quality.  I'm probably in a minority expressing that point of view on this forum but it's based on my personal experience so I can only say what I find with the caveat that it might not be relevant to you.  And of course, you might enjoy choosing and buying new hardware, in which case please take my opinion with a pinch of salt!

What did make a substantial difference to my ears and in my system, which has a similar streaming configuration to yours, was incorporating digital room correction.  Like you, I have an off-axis position for everyday listening, and have not treated my living room (which is cuboidal with concrete floor, brick walls, carpets and the usual soft furnishings).  I invested in Focus Fidelity Filter Designer and a miniDSP UMIK-1 and found that with minimal effort it produced a very noticeable improvement in stereo imaging as well as tidying up the room's various bass anomalies.

FFFD produces filters that can be easily loaded into Roon's DSP engine so as you're already using Roon, once you've installed and enabled the filters you'll see no extra complications in everyday use.

If you plan to try this, you might want to check the specifications of your Mac Mini to make sure that it's capable of running the FFFD filters, particularly if you listen to high bit-rate streams.  (For example, I have a 3.2 GHz M1 Mini and on a 96 kHz, 24-bit stream Roon tells me that the processing speed is 37x - that is, the Mini is 37 times quicker than it needs to be to keep up with the audio stream.)

I hope that gives you another interesting option to consider.

Thanks for that advice. Tidal through Roon is my sole source of music; I have no discs and no music files to worry about. Based on your observations, there seems little gain to be had deploying Tidal on a streamer and bypassing the Mac Mini (circa late 2014). I also rely on the parametric EQ to compensate for a somewhat muddy mid and top end with my system. Think I’ll stick with my lot for now and see what happens if/when I migrate to a Gryphon 40. Maybe by then I’ll have the moola for a Mola Mola or the MBL streamer, which I like the look of too.

[listener]

IMHO, it depends where your level in high-end should be and your current setup already climbed up to.
Yes, a dedicated streamer will give a much better sound, if your DAC (Devialet) is able to transform the information. If you go for a much better amplifier like Gryphon it might be a very good idea to plan for that.
My current upgrades show that the devialet streamer (expert 220) would be a 5 out of 10 and the amplier itself a 7 or 8. A much better streamer is limited by the amp.
I went for a second-hand LINN Selekt. It has a digital output to feed a Devialet. If you need additionally analogue out, just add a Organik modul. I made a comparison to an Aqua La Scala MKII DAC, but the Linn Selekt Stereo Organik is better with more deepth and precision.
The T8 seems to get better with the latest software upgrades (buy from Amazon, it can be returned easily), also DCS offer very good streamer, heard a Bartok Apex ...

[David A]

@Bertie:

If Tidal is your sole source of music I would not be using Roon. As I said in my response, I use Roon but Roon is a subscription app and you also pay a subscription for Tidal. There's lot's of ways to stream Tidal to your 440 without using Roon and paying any subscription other than the Tidal subscription. Both of the 2 devices you mention will let you connect to Tidal and stream without paying an extra subscription fee to do so.

@thumb5:

I agree that room correction, either physical (acoustic panels) or digital, makes a bigger difference than a lot of other changes you can make in your system. My room is treated with acoustic panels and bass traps. I will say that the order in which you do things can make a difference. If it were a choice between using a streamer and treating my room, I'd opt for treating my room but the results of doing that mean that other upgrades later are usually more beneficial than they would be if I had not treated my room first.

[thumb5]

Good point, agreed!