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Another streaming newbie

Guys, I have tried to search and figure this out, because I know this topic has been well-covered. But I am still wandering in the dark, so plz forgive my redundant questions....

First, here's my current rig,: I built a Lenco table 15 yrs ago with a JMW 10 arm/London Super Gold that I run into a phono pre that I built from a pretty high end kit  (can't see the name, have no idea what it is now!) thru a VTL tube IT-85 integrated amp and then thru some SF Electa Amator II, supported by a sub I built.  So pretty mid-fi setup, but it really works for me.  Sounds great, to my ears.  

The Covid thing has me home (no golf in Los Angeles!), listening to music more. Would love to stream something that approaches the vinyl sound quality with a music service, but being retired, budget is more a concern now... I just subscribed to TIDAL with its premium level (MQA) that I was running straight from my iphone 6 to the VTL. Meh.  Then my daughter ran same stuff through her iphone 11 and, hey, that sounded better.  So, clearly, I am in need of a streaming DAC.  

I know MQA gets mixed reviews. I have no way really to test this or to go listen to stuff. Everything is shut down here. So here's the criteria that matters most to me:
  • A great UI app because now streaming is like going to the Smithsonian.  There's a lot to organize. 
  • Great sound. (whatever that means!) 
  • One box.  Cables get expensive & messy.  
  • I'd like to keep it under $2K. I'd really like to keep it under $1K, but that may be wishful thinking.  I mean, is Bluesound Node 2 up to it? I am sure it would beat my daughters iphone 11, but ... what are reasonable streamers/DACS?  Where's the killer solution that isn't $10K?  I know it's out there....
I am not so far into TIDAL that I can't change. My system is in the same room as my router, so I can run an ethernet cable to the DAC.  As I have looked at all of this, it has occurred to me to get an older, much higher quality used DAC that I can somehow mesh with TIDAL (or another service with high quality streaming) and forget the MQA.  But this has to somehow hook into my internet directly and be able to be run by a remote UI.  So now my head is spinning.

Thanks for your input.  Chuck
chuckccs
djones51
4,947 posts
 
The player has Ethernet cable in, but how do controller/player talk?
Your  iPad and surface are on the same network as the player(whichever one you choose). You download an app, for instance on the iPad if you use Node2i you go to app store and download bluOS it finds the Node2i on the network which you use to control it. 
big_greg
6,646 posts
 
Do you mind explaining this one a bit more?  I don't think the analog analogy is the best one to use here since we are talking digital and ones and zeros.  The reason a high end cdp cost so much mostly the dac, you can only do so much with the rest of the internals to improve sound-wise.  

Using a great UI with proper connections with an upgraded DAC doesn't seem anywhere near as bad as you are suggesting but if it is I would like to know why.

It's a pretty easy to understand analogy isn't it?  How about trying to build something on a less than great foundation?  Does that make more sense to you?

I'm not saying the Bluesound is bad, far from it.  For its price it's a wonderful product and delivers very good sound quality.  Nor did I say that adding a good DAC to it is "bad".  It's not.  There's just a better way to about getting better sound from streaming, which is what you're after if you're going to add a DAC to a device that already has one, right?

Go read the other "streaming newbie" thread that spun off this one.  You'll see that a lot of people have done that and see little to no improvement in sound quality.

Upgrading to a better streamer/DAC (the TEAC NT-505) resulted in a much greater improvement in sound quality, not to mention soundstage, than adding a $3500 DAC to the Bluesound. 

I don't know the exact "why" of it, since as you said, "it's just ones and zeros", but I know what I heard.  Spending less than $2K plus recovering a few hundred from the sale of my Node 2 was also a better deal from a cost/performance standpoint than buying a Bluesound and an external DAC.

big_greg
6,646 posts
 
@chuckccs I started out with the Node 2 because I wanted to dip my toes into streaming and see if I liked it.  I also got a good deal on the Node 2 because the Node 2i had just come out and ended up getting most of my money back on the Bluesound when I replaced it.  That's not a bad way to start, but if sound quality matters, you'll probably end up doing an upgrade at some point. 

It sounds like you've already embraced the world of opportunity that streaming will open up to you, so my advice would be to make an investment that you'll be happy with right away.
chuckccs OP
42 posts
 
PS: this is so much fun to talk about and learn. Midnight last night I’m reading schematics and discussions by engineers re diy dac’s - totally over my head on a good day, but bleary-eyed at midnight... ha. 
I am getting such a great education from you guys. It feels like most of the options that are in the ball park of my needs are on the table. At least in theory I have a clue, see mainly what the major pieces are and how they fit. But sound is so subjective. Just no way to know till you plug it in and play it in my system. 
djones51
4,947 posts
 
I had a Node2i and I thought it worked very well with an external DAC. The DAC in the Node2i measures lousy and to me didn't sound all that great. I have been assembling computers for years since old 386 processors and when I read Roon could run on a put it together yourself NUC that's  the route I took. I wasn't  going to spend a couple thousand on a Nucleus especially when the Roon OS is free. I also put together a raspberry pi4 running Ropiee as an endpoint and connect it by USB to my integrated amp. I would rather run the Roon OS called ROCK than a regular computer since the OS is optimized for Roon and music playback. There is no GUI you configure it through a web base interface and it runs headless. If you decide on Roon that's the route I would go if I wasn't intimidated putting a few components together. 
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