Adding a Dac and Stresmer


Looking for some advice and need you guys to check my thinking…
I have a PrimaLuna Preamp and Amplifier…..need a Dac and streamer….Being I have a preamp to my thinking I don’t need a Dac that has a preamp and volume, am I thinking right? The speakers are Klipsch Heritage so I think I should get a mellow sounding Dac, maybe a Denifrips Pontus with the Auralic Aries G1.1…..would be happy with a $5000 budget…

silverfoxvtx1800

Yes Aurenders are not cheap , but I got a great deal on a N200 and have zero regrets.   Super high build quality, great App, sounds great, excellent support.     All that all up and it is a good value.  

Hifi Rose is. Is detailed but not very organic and natural vs a Denafrips terminator 12 th, or even better the. T+A 200 dac ,  for midfi it may be ok but not. In the $600+ 

level. Lab12 is decent but still a step or 2 below the above dacs.

LAB 12 is way better than decent .....   have you heard one Audioman?     It's a sleeper,  

Thanks everyone for all the responses, I definitely have a feel where this is going…

What do you think of a used Metrum Acoustics Pavane and Amber streamer?

My Marantz integrated is capable of streaming and has a decent DAC for the price point but I recently picked up the Cambridge Audio CXN V2 to try out and have decided to keep it. The price had dropped after CA introduced their lower line AXN streamers so that helped justify the trial as well.

It’s DAC is better than the Marantz and I can definitely hear the difference between the two. The CXN is cleaner, more detailed and better soundstage and as a separate it’s not competing internally with itself like the the Marantz IMO. I run my CD transport through it and CDs sound better vs directly to the Marantz. The CA StreamMagic app is pretty nice and access my private digital library much better.

The access to digital radio is also nicer than what Marantz’s HEOS platform offers.

I can also continue to use Spotify premium plus access to all the other HD services. And it’s Roon tested if I decide to do that down the road but honestly I don’t see a need to for me personally.

Overall I was on the fence about it at the beginning but after 2 months of trying it out, it’s a keeper and I enjoy the tactile qualities of the unit itself. The interface and knob are high quality, as is the remote. All around I’ve been impressed w/ the CXN and I don’t feel like I overspent or underspent. It’s a Goldilocks component in my book.