I am so so confused. Close to 70 years after playing my first vinyl 78 kiddie record I’m going (quasi) digital. I am swamped with Do THIS, then No - Do THIS.
Took delivery of my AirLense on Monday 04/08. I’m connected to my DirectStream DAC. Ethernet connectivity is in place. Downloaded Mconnect to phone and Mconnect HD to iPad. I have Qobuz and Tidal subscriptions. So why do I need (need is in air quotes) Roon? And do I need some sort of additional repository to tell my AirLense what to play? I’m just streaming music, that’s it. However, I can foresee eventually wanting a permanent device to store music. I Roon has some brand new piece of hardware coming out in May. Do I need (again, “need” is in quotes) Roon’s newest hardware?
KISS principal applies here. And consider my nearly 70 years analog experience may not lend me to immediately understanding or deciphering abbreviation terms.
If you’re just streaming from Qobuz and Tidal then Mconnect or some other similar software is all you need. For know just keep it simple and get familiar with streaming before taking on more complicated and expensive options. They are not necessary.
I was about to give you the same advice as @dawkinsj, but he beat me to it. You don’t need anything else at this point. In the future you may want to investigate things like ripping CDs that you own. But that’s all for later; now just enjoy your system with the AirLens.
Don’t take this wrong, but for SIMPLE streaming for a first-timer, AirLens probably isn’t the best choice for you.
I would suggest an Eversolo DMP-A6 or a Bluesound Node or similar.
the Eversolo has a nice big screen and natively accommodates all the streaming services. Qobuz, Tidal, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM, Radio Paradise, etc… (And yeah, it supports Roon.)
If you go AirLens, you probably will be happiest if you have Roon. Then you’ll use Roon’s interface.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I don’t own an AirLens, but seriously considered one for a recent streamer purchase.
You’re good to go. If you have a digital music library or intend to move in that direction, consider Roon.
If not, live long and prosper. 
(That said, I like the Roon control interface better than mconnect/mcontrol, Qobuz and Tidal. So, if you have the coin, you could get Roon Core and run your Qobuz and/or Tidal subscriptions via the Roon software. It’s a neat way to access the content from both at the same time.)
Small steps first and if you at some point want something a little slicker than Mconnect there is another option that doesn’t require a “core” and also has it’s own “radio” function. But that’s something to look into after you are comfortable with streaming in general.
You don’t need Roon. You have everything you need and it should work just fine.
Mconnect will get you music. Roon might give you a better user experience for looking at album art and info, but not much more.
Remember the 1930s Little Rascals TV show? I don’t but in the early/mid 1960s the reruns were all over the three TV stations broadcasting from NYC. Teacher asks one of the little rascals, “Can you give me a sentence that has the word isthmus?” One of the little rascals answers, “A ha… Isthmus be my lucky day.” Yesterday evening was my lucky day.
Thanks all. And thanks Paul I was SO-O-O overthinking this. Mconnect alone is all I needed to stream music. Once I got past this idea that Roon was somehow required I started streaming no problem. Dang it sounded good. And I never have to get off my chair to flip a record.
I should have looked into streaming ages ago. Now I’m hooked.