@bobbydd ,
With a similar situation(80 vinyl / 20%dig) and a decent but not great digital setup including.Oppo 105, I faced the same decision. After tons of research and with a bias towards the best sound I can afford, my path and thinking:
- Agree best DAC you can afford (for me Denafrips Pontus II)
- Rip Discs to NAS (for me Synology...Qnap also great)
- Sonore streamer/renderer -- a good linear power supply is required (for me: microRendu on a budget, later upgraded to opticalRendu)
- Separate device to run Roon Core (for me Small Green Computer Sonic transporter...or build a NUC or buy a fancy Roon Nucleus)
- Subscribe to Roon (add Qobuz over Tidal if you like)
- Use any device you like as remote(Macbook, ipad, iphone, Android)
Benefits/reasoning that applied for me:
- expandable storage in NAS (e.g. Western Digital Red drives) for my large live recording colleciton with easy backup protections not requiring cloud backup
- Roon UX is a game changer IMHO, 50x more fun & ease vs. other apps
- Optical benefits on renderer were significantly impactful
- The Denafrips DAC punches high at its price and in non-oversampling mode sounds more like analog than most digital gear IMHO
- While assembling/configuring a NUC is easy according to many, I didn't have the time or inclination, and Small Green Computer's device gave me plug-n-play setup and a track record of synergy with Sonore products (which they also sell). Checkout SGC youtube for simple short setup & system building examples.
- I like having my server and Roon core hard wired ethernet in the room where internet comes into my house. The digital devices on my audio rack are small and tidy with ethernet carrying the digital signal into the listening space.
Hope this helps...Cheers,
Spencer
With a similar situation(80 vinyl / 20%dig) and a decent but not great digital setup including.Oppo 105, I faced the same decision. After tons of research and with a bias towards the best sound I can afford, my path and thinking:
- Agree best DAC you can afford (for me Denafrips Pontus II)
- Rip Discs to NAS (for me Synology...Qnap also great)
- Sonore streamer/renderer -- a good linear power supply is required (for me: microRendu on a budget, later upgraded to opticalRendu)
- Separate device to run Roon Core (for me Small Green Computer Sonic transporter...or build a NUC or buy a fancy Roon Nucleus)
- Subscribe to Roon (add Qobuz over Tidal if you like)
- Use any device you like as remote(Macbook, ipad, iphone, Android)
Benefits/reasoning that applied for me:
- expandable storage in NAS (e.g. Western Digital Red drives) for my large live recording colleciton with easy backup protections not requiring cloud backup
- Roon UX is a game changer IMHO, 50x more fun & ease vs. other apps
- Optical benefits on renderer were significantly impactful
- The Denafrips DAC punches high at its price and in non-oversampling mode sounds more like analog than most digital gear IMHO
- While assembling/configuring a NUC is easy according to many, I didn't have the time or inclination, and Small Green Computer's device gave me plug-n-play setup and a track record of synergy with Sonore products (which they also sell). Checkout SGC youtube for simple short setup & system building examples.
- I like having my server and Roon core hard wired ethernet in the room where internet comes into my house. The digital devices on my audio rack are small and tidy with ethernet carrying the digital signal into the listening space.
Hope this helps...Cheers,
Spencer