Hi,
I’ve been using the Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC with Roon and have found that the sound is more transparent and clean when using the Ethernet input instead of an USB and external streamer. This is based on my recent personal experience. Does anyone else use it this way and have similar results?
I’d love to compare notes. Thanks.
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I have a Tambaqui DAC and LOVE it! However, Roon can no longer “see” the Tambaqui as a stand-alone product so I am no longer able to compare relative to how it sounds connected to my Antipodes K22 player/K41 server. I have an upgraded ethernet cable so would like to see if it somehow sounds better. FWIW the US Distributor for Mola Mola agrees with my las impression that a good stream delivers better sound than NOT using a streamer. I will create stand alone post to get some help relating to Roon’s inability to discover my (Tambaqui) Network DAC.
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I’m sure you’ve already done this, but just to be safe, I invite you to check the following.
In the Tambaqui’s configuration, you need to select one of the available presets and set the Source input to “Network.” At this point, Roon should display the Tambaqui as an audio device.
I have a feeling that the Tambaqui’s internal streamer board isn’t as straightforward as it might seem.
The internal configuration screen, accessible by using the Tambaqui’s IP address on the network, shows an interface that strongly reminds me of a streamer board from the Swiss company abcPCB, which later became Engineered and was recently acquired by CH Precision. This board is the foundation of products sold under the Wattson Audio brand. Unfortunately, their website has been unreachable for some time. https://www.engineered.ch/
Filtering the network signal with galvanically isolation, the tambaqui with its network input sounds superlative and leaves no reason to try using external streamers, with the only limitation, obviously, being that it functions as a Roon endpoint.
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Thanks very much, and I appreciate greatly your advice. To answer your question as briefly as possible, yes, I have of course selected the network output, and there was unfortunately no recognition by Roon of the device. And for what it’s worth, previously, even when I had my output selected to my preferred AES cable the DAC always appeared. Presently I have a USB cable attached as well, though my preference is to use my AES cable as it seems to sound nominally better.
As an aside, I did email my contact at the factory so we will see what if anything they can advise.
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Just a quick shout out to those who tried to help me with my issue. I wanted to let everyone know that I identified the problem.
I disconnected all the cables from my DAC, moved it into the office where I had a couple of switches and some known, good functional Cat 6 cables and lo and behold, the Tambaqui appeared on my Mac as an endpoint.
This confirmed that there was no issue with Roon and no issue with my DAC. Instead of the culprit has to be with either the switch in my listening room or perhaps the cable that went bad. Now we know!
So we can consider this case closed.
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I’m glad to know that there are no issues with your DAC. When you’ve resolved the switch problem, I’d like you to try listening to how the Tambaqui sounds as a Roon endpoint connected directly to the network.
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Maybe, it was more of a downgrade 
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Thanks. Maybe I hadn’t mentioned that I HAD for at least a year or so had access to the Tambaqui as a network player. It sounded very good, though rarely used. . Then perhaps six months after acquisition, I purchased another ethernet cable, albeit by no means the sort of high end cable I use connecting my Antipodes server to my EtherRegen switch. The sound improved.
I did order another decent cable to run directly from the DAC to my switch that will arrive by the middle of this week. It’s a BlueJeans cable and I expect it will improve the sound quality in a nominal way.
All that said, I know in advance that the Tambaqui as a network player will sound fantastic. I’m also 99.5% certain it will not sound nearly as good as the Tambaqui sounds when being fed directly by my K22 player (streamer). A streamer of almost any quality brand will for sure make music sound better. That’s The opinion of the US distributor, GTT Audio, as well as most others in the business. Streamer plus DAC almost always produces a better sound quality than the standalone DAC. I primarily wanted to get this resolved in the unlikely event that one of my components fail. For example, if my music server fails, I can at least listen to music if I have my Tambaqui DAC connection, right? For me, it’s a matter of redundant backup. I confess I’m a bit anal in that department. Really big on backup.
In short, my experience has been that this particular DAC is absolutely best in class and superb in every respect. Yes, it’s expensive, but it’s also relative given that many reviewers in the industry will put it up against most DAC’s in the $30,000 price bracket, and that saying quite a bit
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I appreciate hearing about your experience with the Tambaqui and how it’s worked for you as a network player. However, I can’t help but feel your take might be leaning a bit heavily on preconceptions rather than direct evidence, at least not in the latest period. For instance, you’re 99.5% sure the K22 setup will outshine the Tambaqui as a standalone network player, but it doesn’t sound like you’ve fully tested that yet. Also, leaning on the opinions of GTT Audio and industry reviewers feels more like borrowing someone else’s conclusion than proving it yourself.
When you say it’s ‘best in class’ and holds up to $30,000 DACs, I’d love to hear more about what you’ve heard that backs that up beyond what reviewers say. I’m not doubting your setup sounds great, just wondering if there’s more hard evidence behind the confidence.
What do you think … any chance you’ll do a side-by-side test to settle it?
First, since you make it very clear you have little or any confidence in professional reviewers, I’ll spare you the agony of providing any links bc you make it pretty clear they carry no weight. But I WILL provide one link to one review here if you choose to invest any confidence in this reviewer who considers it to be Breathtaking Review: Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC - Twittering Machines That said, a few points to clarify my first hand “historical” experience:
- Without exception, every pro audio sales/reviewer guy I know (and I know dozens from having lived throughout the country and having attended many trade shows) a streamer attached to a DAC ALWAYS makes better music. ALWAYS - unless of course the streamer is not equal to the quality of the DAC. There are many reasons for this but the most obvious is that a streamer does much of the heavy lifting with the digital files once received from a music server. So by the time the file reaches the DAC there is less work (processing) for the DAC to have to do.
- Along the lines, many do not realize a DAC will almost always sound better when connected to a preamp. That is for another discussion but also a well known truism in high end audio.
- I do not allow my judgment to be tempered by salespeople AT ALL. Does Bill Parish from GTT have an agenda in selling streamers? Maybe. Or maybe he is just a good faith owner/operator. And for the record, I already HAD a very good streamer so he had NO vested interest in suggesting to me that I use the Tambaqui WITH a streamer. He KNEW I was not in the market for a streamer and knew I had one. He simply suggested that I in fact connect the two to “hear” for myself. I did, and I agree. So to be clear, the Mola Mola distributor had no skin in the game to make the call that a quality streamer ALWAYS brings out the best in a DAC. Ask around. Call 100 dealers and likely 95 will agree.Maybe 100 for all I know .
- Pursuant to the above, YES, of course I listened to the DAC stand alone both before I connected it to my streamer and afterwards.
- Before I acquired the Tambaqui, I had a Sonore Signature Rendu streamer in front of my PS Audio DSD. It (Sonore) was a marvelous streamer. The two paired together sounded 10-20 % better than the Tambaqui alone, hands down. Does this mean the Tambaqui didn’t sound good? No. It sounded great. But Einstein was right. It is all relative. Compared to the two piece solution the DAC+Streamer sounded better to my ears.
- Subsequently I upgraded to the Antipodes K22 player (AKA Streamer as Player is New Zealand speak for streamer). HUGE, VERY HUGE upgrade - one I did not expect. Yes I had confidence it would be money well spent, but it proved to be considerably better than both the Sonore Rendu I had AS WELL as the T+A DAC200 I had briefly - another fine DAC I would add.
- You ask me to somehow “back up” what I wrote about punching well beyond its weight, meaning many have compared it to 30K DACS. I am sorry but it is not my job to do this homework for you. I can only tell you what I have read heard and seen in conjunction with friends who have far better systems than I who ALSO have this Tambaqui DAC. In fact one of my friends bought the Tambaqui on my recommendation and could not be happier. He ultimately bought another DAC that DOES sell for about 30K and he reports to me it is only nominally better at the margin. What makes it better? He claims it it more analogue like and almost erases the need for his turntables. Not with ALL source material but with much, depending on the pressing.
- Side by side comparison? Yes, and sorry if I didn’t mention that earlier. I absolutely HAVE compared them side by side and did this at the very beginning of install and as recently as last summer. Tambaqui sounds great but it absolutely sounds better when connected to my two Antipodes units. And as for Antipodes, they are a group of engineers that take their music very seriously, and I can tell you from my personal experience that after using two different music servers, the leap into the K41 server from Antipodes was a game changer. And better yet, they are superb with the customer support they provide free of charge via Remote Desktop sharing. The only way up for me is to upgrade to their Oladra.
- Finally, as for the DAC itself, one of the senior level officers at Antipodes has his choice of whatever DAC he wants. He certainly ( I presume) as a budget to proved for one of the better DACS. What doe sHE use? Well, he happens to own the Makua preamp with the Tambaqui DAC card built in. Many argue it sounds better bc there is one fewer cable needed.
- In closing, IF you have a budget for a DAC with an MSRP of ( I believe ) 13.5K, I would suggest you get Bill or an AD to send you a demo so you can listen for yourself for a well or two and form your own conclusion. I can add more relating to cables and power supplies but can tell my my experience on this board it will only invite a niche of mockery from “cable deniers” which explains why I spend less and less time on the Roon community forums. Besides, I listen primarily to Squeeze. It has great support from Antipodes and it is my default source for listening to music. And it is free to use but each maker of servers provides different level of support. And I am attaching a screenshot of their dashboard so you can get a feeling for how it presents to the end user. It is fast and seamless for me to switch from Squeeze to Roon or Roon+Squeeze set ver as an emulator. Squeeze is what I listen to when I want to listen to music seriously. Roon is still king when it comes to music discover and organization of library.
