Roon also supports an iPad app/remote - essentially a beautiful remote front-end to Tidal (which Roon integrates with perfectly). The ipad remote really does take the experience to a new level and makes the music experience more immersive. Roon also allows me to integrate with HQPlayer so I’m upsampling all Tidal to DSD and outputting that to my Lampizator Big 7 DSD dac. The result is pretty glorious.
Just to note I think Audirvana can provide a similar integration vs. HQPlayer but Audirvana is iOS only I believe (the source of your music needs to be an Apple machine), whereas HQPlayer integrates in my Windows 10 machine (which is my source for Roon and Tidal, with USB to my Lampizator Dac). Note, the Roon iPad app needs to be a 64-bit one (the older 32 bit ones won’t work). HQPlayer’s interface is terrible, but once you’ve set some settings (like DSD and a filter of your choice) you then don’t have to touch HQPlayer again - Roon becomes the only interface you need to interact with, and Roon’s interface is surely the very best user experience in music available; it’s not perfect, but it’s close - especially so from an audiophile’s perspective as it provides a depth of control over the experience if you need such control but doesn’t interfere with your experience otherwise. It’s a thoughtful and will considered design with the audiophile in mind.
I really hope Apple doesn’t screw up Tidal, if they do complete the acquisition. Though I have many Apple products I have little confidence in their approach to music (Case in point - it’s amazing that upstarts like Tidal and Spotify were able to gain such a commanding share of what should have been a mature online music market, and one which Apple had all the opportunity to own but didn’t, because they didn’t figure it out. Am not sure now if they’ve figured it out...).
