Rooning through PC's and headphones

So I have a MS Surface Studio with MS Windows 10 Creator upgrade installed and thought, I could Roon through this. I hooked up the Lehmann Audio headphone amp/DAC and Rooned to it. Not a great experience with losing the Lehmann after a while, Roon reporting it can’t initiate the end point device. That’s solved by switching off/on the Lehmann. Not useful.

Problem is in the power management of the USB ports and in this eco-sustainable nightmare the last thing one needs in playing music Via Roon while working at the PC.

A solution that does work is installing a network streamer, Aries LE in this case, no wireless but direct Ethernet, use it to stream to the Lehmann and all is OK. Curiously I have an el cheapo switch and the sound through it was a bit warm and lush. Accessing the net through the Netgear Nighthawke switch and a noticeable improvement in SQ.

PC’s are not for music playing unless one is happy with the onboard soundcard, or cannot hear any difference.

Meridian Explorer 2 works perfect from my Laptop and Roon with phones

Meridian ended up dying on me. So the problem is solved.