A/B Comparison On A Pair Of Moderately Priced Streamers

@rudyb I absolutely agree with not quarreling.

You present a reasonable argument why streamers should not make a big difference. I told myself that for years. I streamed with every conceivable device.

Then I finally took home a reasonable mid-level streamer (Auralic Aries G2)… jaw drop, and all that theory went out the window. The problem is, in the real world it is not true.

The streamer is like a turntable in… if you do not have a great source… it doesn’t get any better. Now having owned streamers from the $3K range to over $20K… the streamer is absolutely critical in the playback.

My most expensive component is my Streamer.. to which non-dedicated devices cannot hold a candle… assuming you are being reasonable and not pairing a $200 streamer against a $2,000 carefully optimized PC… or some stacked comparison.

@soix Let me first say there’s no need for us to quarrel...I use a Bluesound Node Mk2 with my main system.

@rudyb Wow, a Node Mk2!!! I can certainly see why you think you don’t have a noise problem. Good luck with that. Heh heh. I refer to @ghdprentice above. 

@scottya118, IMHO having the best DAC that you can afford with the cleanest power is far more important than looking for a streamer that can supposedly do everything. I use a Chord Hugo TT2 DAC with a Chord M Scaler that use Nick Bacon’s excellent WAVE Storm BNC interconnects. Both have their own linear power supply units that are plugged into an AudioQuest Niagara power conditioner.

I use a simple Roon Nucleus music streamer with its own LPSU because all I needed was a small dedicated computer to help me navigate through the millions of tracks available to be streamed over the internet. I didn’t want another multi thousand dollar box with its own internal filters, a display screen, and that weighed several kilos between me and my music. The Nucleus is just a pass thru for the internet signal. It’s what’s in front of it coming from my router, and what’s behind it going to my M Scaler that makes the real difference in sound quality in my system. And as @richtruss said, things sound a whole lot better with a cleaned up Ethernet connection.  

@ghdprentice Thank you for an as reasonable written contribution.

@soix  I'm happy with my Node.

Get the node and add an external LPS and a separate DAC.