Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC

Smile,

There is considerable difference of opinion among users regarding Roon sound quality. I have Roon and enjoy it, particularly the well developed interface and environment, but do cycle my listening with Squeeze server and player and Roon server with Squeeze Player with my Mola Mola. I have an Antipodes K50 Server/Player unit. I find Roon a bit warmer with more mid and lower bass on my system vs Squeeze, which I find a bit more transparent. Music discovery and allowing it to random play music is excellent with Roon. I typically will listen to one input/software for a day or more and then cycle to another for a period and so on. I also have a Lumin X1 and add it to the listening mix with and without Roon as well. Presentation on Mola Mola Roon Ready for me is quite enjoyable but different than the others. I could easily live with only listening to Mola Mola Roon Ready but endless curiosity and "what if" has led me to multiple listening options. I choose to consider them different rather than necessarily better or worse. I find my Mola Mola presentation is greatly influenced by upstream components and cabling, including ethernet. My K50 is a pretty rich, organic presentation. If you do pursue the Tambaqui, I would suggest letting it settle in for 100-200 hours before additional changes.
 
further said:
Smile,

There is considerable difference of opinion among users regarding Roon sound quality. I have Roon and enjoy it, particularly the well developed interface and environment, but do cycle my listening with Squeeze server and player and Roon server with Squeeze Player with my Mola Mola. I have an Antipodes K50 Server/Player unit. I find Roon a bit warmer with more mid and lower bass on my system vs Squeeze, which I find a bit more transparent. Music discovery and allowing it to random play music is excellent with Roon. I typically will listen to one input/software for a day or more and then cycle to another for a period and so on. I also have a Lumin X1 and add it to the listening mix with and without Roon as well. Presentation on Mola Mola Roon Ready for me is quite enjoyable but different than the others. I could easily live with only listening to Mola Mola Roon Ready but endless curiosity and "what if" has led me to multiple listening options. I choose to consider them different rather than necessarily better or worse. I find my Mola Mola presentation is greatly influenced by upstream components and cabling, including ethernet. My K50 is a pretty rich, organic presentation. If you do pursue the Tambaqui, I would suggest letting it settle in for 100-200 hours before additional changes.
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This is a great post. And what great equipment @further has. I compared a Roon nucleus + going into the Tambaqui with a Grimm Mu1. I felt that Roon had a bit more upper bass lower midrange richness (not a bad thing), but a bit less inner detail and air compared to the Grimm. I went for the Grimm, but it was really a lot of money for the difference in sound quality. I think it would be a good exercise to start with a Roon nuc as a core, and then after you've listened to this setup for awhile, shop around and compare different upstream components.
 
I have a buddy who has a Mola Mola Tambaqui and an Antipodes K-50 who also uses ROON server and Squeeze as the player. He has found the I2S interface to be the best he has.
 
My Mola Mola is the Makua with DAC. It does not have the I2S input as does the stand alone Tambaqui. My K50 does have an I2S output that I have used with a PS Audio DirectStream Mk1 I still have. Though I still prefer the Makua and X1 DACS, the I2S from K50 to DirectStream provided me best sound quality I had experienced with that unit. I inquired with Mola Mola and GTT Audio if there was any consideration in offering I2S with the Makua and one capable of feeding SACD stream via I2S from a transport, reportedly possible with PS Audio, Denafrips,and Holo Audio (possibly others). Replies indicated no intention to offer such for Makua and SACD to DSD not supported for existing Tambaqui I2S viewing such as problematic potential violation of SONY patent.
 
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