Hi,
I’ve recently subscribed to the 14 day trial
With Roon. My system set up is as follows, Ifi Pro DAC, Mconnect Through tidal. I control this via Apple smart phone. When I open the Roon app it searches for a Roon “core”. what is the core and options available for one, as it looks like I am missing a key component here to get this to work for me. Appreciate your kind feedback.
The phone application which you installed is just a client which needs to connect to a server. You need to load Roon on a PC, first. The above link has good information, but, can be overwhelming. So, feel free to come back and ask! 
It looks like my DAC, the Ifi Pro is not Roon ready.
Well, you can always plug in into a PC via USB. Roon Ready only matters if you plan on connecting it via a network port or the Wifi and want to utilize Roon’s proprietary network transport system.
Since Roon can talk Airplay, if you installed Roon on a PC, even if you had it connected via the network, it would show up in Roon as an Airplay device.
So… D\L Roon onto a PC- hook up PC to DAC via USB , using my phone as the remote? Or, everything will go via the PC, so no remote?
Music files will flow to your PC for processing by the Roon core. From there to your DAC and on to your sound system. You can use the Roon program on your PC as control or you can use the Roon control app on an iPhone, iPad, or Android device.
Ok, this sounds promising. So, will I still be able to stream tidal from the iPhone, or so all the files need to originate from the PC? So, tidal needs to be downloaded on the PC too…?
No, you don’t need the Tidal software anywhere to use with Roon. Within Roon setup, you attach your Tidal account to Roon. Now, if you want to use Tidal without Roon, you will need the Tidal software on your phone and/or computer or whatever device you choose to use. Roon is not portable, so you will probably want to use your phone.
Ok, I’ll d/l Roon on my laptop, USB into my DAc and see what happens.