After my disappointments with the Shanling M9 with ROON, I found the perfect DAP to work lovely with Roon.
I bought an Astell & Kern Kann Cube some years ago, because they told it would become Roon compatible. This never happened.
Two Days ago I got an Astell & Kern SP2000T, and this works perfectly. Not only does it play everything perfect in ROON from Tidal and Qobuz, but also my ripped MQA-CDs in iTunes/Apple Music at 352.8 kHz.
It also offers a tube amp which is incredible. I think I found the perfect DAP and maybe the last I need to buy.
There are also some other A&K players that are ROON ready, but I think the tube amp of the SP2000T makes the difference.
When it comes to DAP it depends if the DAP is your main (or one of) source(s).
DAP for me is about portability, durability / reliability and battery life rather than ācritical listeningā. My trusty shanling M3X serves me well with either Roon (garden WiFi) , flash rips or streaming downloads. It has taken some proper abuse whilst doing home construction work, thrown in a back-pack and bouncing through airport security bins. For the 300 dollars it cost Iāll lose no sleep over that and the āfully fledgedā roon experience isnāt missed when the source is in my back pocket and Iām busy doing / focusing on something else.
Is it possible to roll the korg nutube? If not then itās just preset tube āflavourā EQ in my mind. Give me a comfy chair, a pair of ZMFs and the flexibility of rolling an OTL amp any day. Thatās experiencing tubes.
As for pricing, the AK is on the extreme side for what is ultimately a device that will be shelf-lifed by its OS implementation. You pays your money you takes your choice.
For me itās all about listening. Sennheiser ie900 or Neve Emperion. Yes, they got the Korg tubes, and they sound great great great. Expensive at 2500.- but the best DAP I ever heard.
I have been searching for DAPs that run fine with ROON for years and I am so happy I finally found one.
Itās great, that the A&K SP2000T ist fine for you with Roon
From mine side: Iāve sold my SP2000 (which Iāve also used with Roon), because:
not really mobile
needs a lot of power, when using with Roon ā so Iāve connected it always with a power line while playing
limited in WLAN (so āonlyā DSD64 is allowed) and Roon needs generally a stable network connection
sometimes troubles in using DSD and switching to PCM
not gapless in using the DAP as DLNA client
for some headphones itās better to use an external headamp
for controlling Roon you need an additional remote (mobile, tablet, ā¦)
So the A&K doesnāt make sense for me. For the same price youāll get for example an Naim Uniti Atom HE or a Matrix Audio M2 /X2, which are sounding not worser and are much comfortablier than the A&K.
I use it mainly at home where I have a very fast internet connection, very good hifi, and - ROON with my 2GB ripped iTunes collection of my CDs, but I mainly use Qobuz and Tidal in the best quality I can find.
So power is no problem, I have charching cables everywhereā¦
Gapless where I need it.
Enough power even for over-ears (I mainly use meze emperion), for ieās anyway. I use 2.5 mm balanced with confected very good cables.
You are right, there ar better amps. But the tubes on the SP2000T are exeptionally fine.
I always have an ipad or my iphone around, so controlling is no issue.
My shanling m8 and m9 and my fiio m15 can do roon natively, but all have the typical android output resampling problem and so are quite useless for me. Playing native via qobuz or tidal or the player, or over network, everything works, but not in roon.
Thatās why I am so happy with the SP2000T, because at home I like to use Roon. In the living Roon I can use it with my Brooklyn Bridge DAC. I also have some small DSPs that I can use with my phone, iPad, mac or PC, but none of them sound as good as the A&K SP2000P.
If I want to go mobile, I use my iPhone with bluetooth bone conductors for hiking and biking (Shokz Open Run pro), airpods pro or sony wf1000xm4 to chill or if I want noise cancelling. Airpods Pro in the plane.
If want better quality, I use my āchocolate brickā - Earman sparrow, that has a 2.5 mm balanced output for my Sennheiser IE900.
So, for the time being, Iāve got everything to listen to music happilyā¦
Indeed. I use the FiiO Q7 as my desktop DAC/AMP and Iām really happy with it.
Iāve tried several high-end DAPs but finally the RS8 is my endgame DAP as it has the best sound to my ears and that was the deciding factor despite the abcense of Roon.
Anyway I hope HiBy devices will become Roon Ready in the near future.
