Crackling in higher bit rate streams

[David A]

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BTW: I have not tried Roon, because I thought you need to have a Devialet with Core infinity to be able to stream from Roon.

You can stream from Roon to a Devialet which doesn't have the Core Infinity board but you are limited to doing so by using Roon's implementation of Devialet's AIR or by using Airplay. Streaming using Roon's implementation of Devialet AIR works well, I did that from Roon to my 130 Pro for 8 to 9 months before my 130 got the CI board upgrade.

What you can't do without the CI board upgrade is to have Roon recognise your Devialet as a Roon Ready device which means you get the additional option of being able to stream to it using Roon's own RAAT protocol.

People with a CI board amp have different views on which streaming method from Roon sounds better, either using Devialet AIR or using Roon's RAAT. Some prefer AIR and some prefer RAAT, and there's a bug in the Devialet firmware which can cause problems if you're streaming using RAAT over a gigabit speed wired connection. I use and prefer RAAT but I've also used AIR for a long period and both sound very good with a good network connection. Since you don't have the CI board you don't have the choice and AIR works very well. You can also stream Qobuz from within Roon. Having said that, I would not recommend that you use Roon simply to stream either or both of Tidal and Qobuz. Roon requires a subscription and it's expensive, and Roon is primarily server software for streaming music stored on a drive on your network. I think it provides reasonable value if you're doing that and it's good to be able to use it to stream from Tidal and Qobuz as well. I use Tidal and I like the way Roon shows me everything available to me on both my own hard drive and also on Tidal when I do an artist search. In my view the ability to stream from Tidal or Qobuz using Roon is a nice extra to have but it's not enough on it's own to justify purchasing a Roon licence. The reason to buy a Roon licence is because you want to use Roon to stream music stored on your own network. If you don't want to do that then my advice is not to use Roon simply because you're going to pay a lot for a Roon licence just to be able to do something you can do for much less by using the Tidal or Qobuz apps, or alternative software. I use Roon and I think it's a great app but if I wasn't streaming music from a drive on my network I definitely would not be using Roon solely to stream Tidal.

Added: Roon can also do the first unfold of MQA from 44.1/48 kHz to 88.2/96 kHz with streams from Tidal.