Wyred 4 Sound vs. Roon Nucleus

Thinking of using Qobuz and/or Tidal as the primary source. 

There is a Bryston BDP pi over on USAudiomart with a LPS for ~$750. The interface is Manic Moose and the player is open source MPD. I think it sounds a bit better than Roon and it has native access to Tidal and Qobuz. The units are discontinued now but Bryston still provides support. MM will not be near the elegant interface of Roon but its a lot cheaper option. It will also function as Roon endpoint if you decide to invest in the Roon immersive interface and infrastructure. The BDP pi is a lot of bang for the buck in SQ. Needs a hard wired network connection and has USB,optical and Coax out.

I purchased a used Antipodes Core to run Roon and it was an improvement as it is purpose built for that task.  But I don't use it for Roon anymore it just a NAS now.

I have an Innuos server and Roon was better on the Innuos than the Antipodes when experimental mode was used.  Experimental mode lowered the noise floor and I was able to hear how much of a negative effect the DSP in Roon added.  Without experimental mode I thought the DSP helped but now I feel it was just masking some of the grunge.

Now with the new free Innuos Sense app while it may not be as functional as Roon  it is very easy to hear the the grunge Roon adds to the sound.  I was fortunate Sense came out just as my Roon membership came due.  

If your looking for a better sound start with an Innuos server and get the free Sense app.  It integrates with Tidal and Qobuz and they will definitely sound better with Sense than Roon.

However,  if you rip a CD in wav on the Innuos server and compare it to a hi-rez file on Tidal or Qobuz you might be dissappointed in Tidal and Qobuz.