About a month ago I was discussing my digital set-up with the NA dCS GM. I noted that I had transitioned from Sooloos to Roon over the past 9 months for my 2-channel room listening sessions. I had been considering the switch from my Meridian 808v6 to a dCS solution but was waiting for the MQA update. During our conversation it came up that I was hardwired (ethernet) to my DAC but I was running Roon Core wirelessly on my MacBook Pro. He said I was giving up SQ with this set-up and suggested I install a hardwire NUC to run Roon Rock or Server. I couldn't believe that I was missing and was in no hurry to make a decision as to go with a Intel NUC, wait for Roon's Nucleus solution or purchase one of the "authorized" products listed on the Roon site. Well last week I finally decided to go with a Sonictransporter i5 (the i7 would have been overkill since I will not be running any DSP functions). It arrived yesterday and after a few self inflicted hic-ups I am up and running this afternoon.
I have had the best day of listening to my set-up that I can remember. The difference in Tidal via Roon with the Sonictrasnporter running Roon Server is almost shocking. I haven't had time to listen to many of my burned CD's as the migration of my music from the USB drive to the 2TB drive I had built into the Sonictransporter has been painfully slow. (In fact it just finished after 7 hours as I was typing this)
I know there are many alternate solutions for running Roon Core/Server/Rock but I will confirm you are missing something if you leave it on your laptop.
I can state I do not remember hearing better digital SQ anywhere than what I have heard the last few hours.