Devialet, Roon and Tidal

[Womaz]

I will not bore you with my streaming problems since getting my Devialet as many of you will know about them, but now I am determined to solve this once and for all.
I now use Tidal almost exclusively, I don’t notice a difference in sound quality on my system unless I have maybe a 24 bit version of an album , but this is less of an issue for me now as Tidal sounds fantastic on my system and I now could not live without the choices of music I have with that. I have almost stopped buying albums, only two last year.
However once again I am having problems with the stream, I don’t want to go into it on here as this is about my solution rather than taking up another thread with it. I have narrowed it down to my network or a recent Melco upgrade. I may even be able to rule out the Melco if they ever get back to me. Its been a week, they just don’t have the support when things go wrong. Infact I am fairly sure it’s the same bloke who runs around the whole country promoting new products and demos who does the support also. I certainly know where their priorities lie.
At present I use my DAP about 90% of the time as it works flawlessly with Tidal, and it sounds amazing with my Hifiman HPs, but this is a crazy situation when I have spent so much on my hifi.
So I may be prepared to spend again and the Melco may go. The lack of a dedicated app and poor support from them is a shame as I think it’s a great product.
Which moves me onto Roon. I think I have an offer of a free trail for 3 months tucked away in my emails somewhere so would be a no risk effort.
I am assuming that I would need to download the Air software again and have my lap top set up to do this again. How would my Melco fit into this chain? This is where I am uncertain.
The whole point of this for me is to see if the new Air software is more stable and to see if it improves on my streaming issues I currently have. I do still have my library on the Melco but as I say now 90% of my listening is through Tidal. I understand Roon and Tidal combine quite well.
Would appreciate some comments on to whether I am on the right track with my thoughts

[Womaz]

Just a thought, I can use Tidal via AIR without Roon?

[mdconnelly]

I would just use Roon and their AIR integration and would NOT use the Devialet AIR driver. The Roon AIR integration works great and sounds great.

[Womaz]

I would just use Roon and their AIR integration and would NOT use the Devialet AIR driver.   The Roon AIR integration works great and sounds great.

I am thinking try it without Roon first maybe as it could help me to root out the cause of my current issues.
Mind at £500 for a lifetime membership its hardly expensive especially if it solves my issues

[Rocketmannequin]

With Tidal as a streaming source, you will find that Roon is a great product and the Air integration works very well. I went for a year's subscription first with Roon and liked the sound quality, interface and general convenience. A year later I found that Tidal was too limited in its variety of music and limitations on easily discovering music, and I wasn't using the full options of Roon. With the CI Board now installed in my 220 Pro, I can stream directly from Spotify to the Dev without the need for my Mac Mini in the chain at all. Many audiophiles make efforts to limit the number of elements in the streaming chain, and that's as direct as one can make it. I may not be the purest audiophile, but I have difficulty hearing the difference between Tidal HiFi (Master) and Sporify Premium, which I have also A/B tested with my Sennheiser 800S headphones and Sennheiser HD 820 headphone amp. Close non-audiophile friends can't either. The killer for me was when I discovered the joy of discovering music through Spotify which is so easy and convenient. Furthermore, the Spotify app on the iPhone does as much as the Roon app, and with rumors that Tidal may go into receivership this year I didn't go for the $499 Roon lifetime yet. I'm waiting for Spotify to offer lossless streaming, which may or may not come soon. Just to share my own recent thoughts and approach!

[tategoi]

I am assuming that I would need to download the Air software again and have my lap top set up to do this again. How would my Melco fit into this chain? This is where I am uncertain.

With Roon, you can use Melco as an audiophile grade NAS. I read some where that music files stored in in Melco sounds better than those stored in Synology or Qnap.

[Confused]

My view is that Roon AIR and also AIR 3.0.4 sound better than almost anything via USB on a Devialet Expert. OK, I know you have had problems with AIR in the past, but AIR 3 is far more stable now, and Roon integrated AIR is even better still.

It occurs to me that you have nothing to lose in at least trying AIR 3, or indeed Roon AIR, assuming your laptop is of at least a reasonable specification. If it is stable, you should find both better SQ and functionality versus the Melco.

If you find AIR works for you now, the Melco could go on eBay to pay for that Roon subscription! I think @tategoi is correct in general regarding using the Melco as an audiophile grade NAS, but I think in your case running AIR from a standard laptop, the difference this would make would be in the region of nothing to tiny.

I shall sign off by wishing you good luck. I think you a supply of luck has been somewhat lacking with your Devialet Experience so far, maybe it time for this to change!

[Womaz]

Some great replies guys as usual so thank you very much

After looking at your responses i will have a think about best way to go.
Air with Tidal seems to be the best way to start i think, my only issue with this is that I bought the Melco solely to get the lap top out of the chain. Air introduces that with all of the issues I had maybe popping up again. Of course I have brought this on myself by now opting for a streaming service solution. This is a step I never thought I would take but about a year ago I bought a DAP with Tidal facility and it has opened my eyes as to how much more I enjoy discovering music. It really has changed the way i view things. Then Melco did an upgrade and Tidal was available through the Linn Kazoo app.
I used to just use Spotify and whilst I agree its better than Tidal as a user experience I could not disagree more about not being able to hear a difference. The difference between the Tidal Hifi service and spotify is what convinced me that streaming was the way forward. It sounds as good as my FLAC files stored on my Melco and Spotify got nowhere near this quality.
I will still have to keep my Melco as it has all of my music stored on it and I do still listen to them from time to time.

I guess I would prefer a solution where Roon is built in, forgive my ignorance but I assumed that would then take the PC out of the chain again? As for Melco and Roon ha ha ha, they have not even manged to get their app sorted despite me being told it was just about ready when i bought the product. So I cant see Roon anytime soon.
So long term if I want Roon I would need something which is roon ready and stores my music too. This is one for the future

One question if I am going near 100% music streaming service what does Roon really give me? Is it really necessary with Tidal?

So now as a short term measure maybe I should try Air again. I would therefore need to get JRiver or something I presume? Or could I still use a third party app. The Melco is ethernet connected to my router but the Dev is not.

Sorry for all the questions but I need time to get my head around all of the options.

[Womaz]

Another thought is how would I control Tidal if I am using Air. IPad control is an absolute must for me.
My gut feeling is i dont really need Roon nor would I see much benefit to it I guess.......unless it guaranteed flawless streaming from Tidal....or am I missing something?

[Gerronwithit]

You will need a Roon server of some form which will probably have to be on a PC or MAC of some description. Mine is on a MacBook Air. You can run it on Roon Remote using an iPhone or an iPad as long as it is 64 bit architecture. The PC or Mac has to be accessible i.e. In my case the MacBoik has to be open and accessible , which it is using WiFi.