Best high end audio set up with Roon PS Audio DSD JR

What’s the absolute best sound set up using Roon for two channel audio? I have A bluseound Vault that streams Tidal into a PS Audio DSD JR then into Pass equipments/Focal Sopra 2.

Will I need a dedicated computer and would I no longer need the Bluesound at all? I have ethernet near my audio system and a NAS drive avail also. I use Mac / ipad . I’m just not clear on what the flow of the hardware set up for Roon needs to be for the best sound in two channel.

I’m sure this has been asked and answered a thousand times, apologies !

thanks

To advice some questions come to my mind:

Additional to Tidal, do you also have/play local files?
How big is your local library? What’s your expected growth rate?
Do you (plan to) have a CD-Player or Transport?
Do you still need to rip CDs?
Do you want to use Roon DSP functionality?
Do you have a budget in mind?

Hi, I have about 1000 cds ripped to the vault which i uses sometimes.I dont
have a transport and prob wont add one. 95% of my listening is tidal or
quboz. I may rip cds but rarely. The bluesound can be used to rip if need
be.

I do want to use the DSP functions on the Roon, the parametric eq would be
useful. I"m hoping the sound from Roon is as good or better than the
bluesound set up. I use a DSPeaker Dual Core device for room and bass eq
which I’m assuming I can lose if Roon supplies similar functionality…my
budget is open…thank you in advance!

Sounds all good.

With probably several hundred valid possible configurations I can only provide food for thought. As a starting point: my setup is a Zenith Mk.II STD with 1TB. Acts as Roon Core, CD-Ripper and Network-Storage. Works flawless and I can recommend it. It’s directly connected via Ethernet to a Roon Endpoint (Player) (sMS-200ultra paired with a sPS-500). From there I go via USB to my PS Audio DSD. I control everything with Roon (incl. Tidal). The Zenith is powerful enough to do all “normal” DSP (and as you have a DSjr, you don’t need any upsampling anyway). This is a high-end system and (in my ears) sounds great.

If I had to rebuild a systems with a bigger budget I’d go for a Roon Nucleus+ as Core, a NAS (you already have one) or internal SSD in the Nucleus for storage, and probably an Aries G2 as Endpoint. That’s a lot more money spend, the specs are better, if it sounds better? I don’t know.

Does this help?Again, there are so many options, I’m sure others can jump in to recommend other configurations.

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Roon End Point player- I thought the DSD Jr is a Roon Endpoint player already? IT looks like my BlueSound Vault is doing the same as the Zenith unit you mention- the vault will let me rip cds and has at least 1 T of storage and connects to my network via ethernet.It also has USB in and out.

It looks like I just download Roon to my imac and phone and operate it from either and it’ll find my library on my NAS drive as well as stream Tidal and Qubo via the PS Audio DSD JR?

Andrew, you are absolutely right. The DSD Jr has a Bridge II on board, and that can act as a Roon endpoint.
This means you can just connect an Ethernet cable - either directly from a Core like the Roon Nucleus or Zenith or just to your local network to access any core in your network (wherever it’s located).

What you still need is a Roon Core - their “central server”. The BlueSound Vault is not capable of running Roon Core. The Nucleus or Zenith are in fact computers in nice boxes without a fan and monitor - and run Roon Core. You could also install Roon Core on your iMac - but the Core should be always on and you may not want to have the iMac on all the time.

And then you install the Roon control software on any device - iMac,Phone - and can control the music from all these devices.

Regarding “best high end audio set up”: there are some people that say that a dedicated external Roon Endpoint (Player) sounds better than the internal Bridge in the DSD. I haven’t verified that. I’d advise to first get things running (Setup Core, import library, enjoy some music) with the internal Bridge (you have it anyway). And then you could still add another Endpoint when you want to try out to push the SQ to a maximum.

Thanks ! That makes sense and I’m going to try this set up first. I
actually leave my imac on all the time (it goes to sleep but its on) so
that should work.

The parametric EQ in Roon seems pretty flexible yes? I"m using a DSPeaker
Dual Core now that does room eq from 500hz on down and it works well but
I’m forced to use optical connections in from the Bluesound and therefore
the Dual Core can’t pass the highest res streams via these inputs. I’m
thinking of using Roon and its eq rather than the Dual core and this will
allow me to eliminate it all together and to be able to run all bit rates
directly into the Direct Stream, make sense?

thanks for your help !

I don’t know enough of your setup to give any advice on room correction. But with the 14 days trial period you should be able to test the EQ (which is good) and hear if you like it.
As you have the Mac already, it really just installing Roon (with the Core), importing your library, connecting the DS to the network and to Roon and hit play.
If you like it, you can (should) still think about getting a dedicated, powerful Core to use DSP.

I had Roon core running on my Mac laptop initially - until the machine crashed (not related to Roon). Then I realized that I want my listing to music not depend on a computer that I use for many other things. It’s also widely agreed that a dedicated machine like the nucleus is internally much more quiet than a regular computer and therefore most likely will improve SQ (if your system is resolving enough and you can/want to hear such differences).
Anyhow, have fun with trying Roon!