Music Servers and DirectStream

[denisl]

Hi all - I just purchased a directstream dac should have in a week or so.
I'm very new to using a DAC and digital streaming. Do I need something like Roon to stream tidal to the DAC? My DAC has the Bridge II network card. I don't have a local digital musical library to speak of so my intention is to subscribe to tidal premium (or something else?) and stream over my local wired network to the DAC. I have a ESX server I use and if I need to install any software I'm hoping I can run it as a VM and not dedicate a physical PC. I know these are basic questions so thanks in advanced.