New DAC or New Streamer?

Thanks guys, many paths to great sound!

@charles1dad With the way I'm presently setup starting at streamer. Ethernet input to JCAT NET XE board in streamer (streamer powered by the JCAT Optimo, 2 cables bundles used to power processor and motherboard Optimo has three rails, third is for internal local drives, I'm using NAS for local files so no internal drives, JCAT ethernet board powered by Uptone JS2 lps, so another cable and lps) ethernet out of JCAT board to OpticalModule (dc cable and lps for power), optical cable out of OM to OpticalRendu ( DC cable to second rail on Uptone JS2), usb out of OR to usb in on dac. So boxes add up to 3, also 3 lps, 3 DC cables and AC power cables. I can also go with the simpler setup with streamer direct to dac. I also have myriad choices of how I can configure  Stylus, HQPlayer and Roon players, this with or without Sonore optical bundle.

@lalitk At some point I will get to more critical listening with the Stylus player, really need to get JCAT USB XE board to get full potential of Stylus, thus far only used via somewhat optimized Intel usb board mounted on motherboard. I'm open minded enough to realize Roon may be surpassed by Stylus at some point, just enjoying Roon so much at present!

@sns 

Thank you. A serious mission you’ve embarked on that is reaping high level sonic reward.

Charles 

I have been streaming from cocktail audio X45Pro , streaming from IFI zen stream with IFI power elite and Teac NT505 to my preamp moon P8/W8 and I do not hear any difference with exception of XLR output really hard for me to understand that a streamer make a huge difference 

I have to say I’m shocked to see so many saying streamer first!  The output stages of the DAC are directly in the signal path, and circuit architecture truly does make a distinct difference. I will always do the DAC first; it always pays off.

While Taiko did use Roon, it moved on to TAS, and is now in the process of completing the very purpose-built XDMS software, which essentially all users who have it say it is easily the best software for the Extreme - XDMS is I believe not in fully finished form yet, but can be downloaded to the Extreme in I think Alpha or Beta release, with help of the Taiko support staff- it is a Taiko-built product. Likewise, TAS, as mentioned above, was almost universally preferred over Roon, on a sound quality basis. As Lalitk said, Emil, designer of the Taiko Extreme, stated that XDMS is all about the sound quality. I believe you can still use Roon on the Extreme, but it will not yield the best sound quality. And some do still use it at least part time because they love the feature-rich application.

Emil also noted that the problem with Roon is that they often release updates for the software and they are not focused on sound quality, but rather the useability of the software. From what I've read, many users, and I think server manufacturers, have provided their opinion on this sound quality issue to Roon. 

As a side note, Wadax use Roon as their software interface. I believe it is a very custom set and I believe it is locked down so it can't influence sound quality. But you'd have to ask Mike Lavigne about that because he has very in-depth knowledge of the Wadax gear, in addition to being an owner/user. You can read about that here on Agon and on WBF.