SPL Audio

audiosaurusrex - Great handle!

Ya, pretty cool stuff. I’m thinking of pairing the Director with their s800 power amp. Thanks for the feedback on the DAC, but you did say in the past that the RME-ADI-FS was better. So, I was thinking I could add an external DAC somewhere down the road (if funds prevail).

Two months into s800 ownership. It definitely works better with Tidal and MQA than Qobuz hi-res. Tidal has beautiful, spacious, ethereal qualities and tight bass. Qobuz sounds turgid and dark. Both through Roon. Don't know why but that's how it sounds at my house.

dalims4 - ahh, Roon, now that's another story! I would like to stream Tidal as well, but without using Roon, but they say, computers are too noisy as music servers. I really don't want to purchase another piece of equipment as a Roon Core and I really don't want to pay a second monthly (or lifetime) subscription fee over that of TidaL!

@navyachts thanks yes while the Directors internal DAC is no slouch the RME is certainly more resolving and open sounding IMO. I wound up trying the RME into the balanced inputs of the Director and that’s how I used it. I wound up selling the treo Director/Performer/Phonos because I was itching to get into tubes but I loved the sound. Built extremely well, sounds great and looks cool! Good luck and Happy Listening!

You can stream Tidal without Roon but Roon adds a lot more body to the music. I think Tidal sounds better through Roon than JRiver. You probably Tidal by itself with whatever computer you have.use. I was using a cheap stock Hewlett Packard before I got the Wolf and it sounded much better than the Bel Canto cd3 transport I was using. A Tidal trial is free. You might be surprised with the results.