Came across the following from a member at WBF:
Last year I purchased a Lumin U2 mini streamer which was a nice improvement over my Sonore OpticalRendu. It had better resolution which increased musical tactibility. Added a SBooster MKII linear PS which kicked up the sound quality by a notch especially in bass extension/resolution. The only drawback with the Lumin is I had to put my HQPlayer software aside, since they are not compatible. Since I improved my sound quality, told myself that this was still a good situation.
A few weeks ago while I was surfing on Vinshine Audio’s web site, I noticed that they had developed a new Arce streamer @$1K USD. This bad boy is a Roon bridge, (Roon Ready certification is pending). The Arce can be sourced with the HQPlayer NAA software, has a I2S output and can be externally clocked by the OCXO clocks of my Denafrips Terminator Plus DAC.
Denafrips has developed a proprietary streamer module optimized for sound quality. So told myself that I had nothing to loose. Worst comes to worst, if the Arce is not up to the audio quality of my Lumin combo, I could always resell the Arce with minimal loss. I placed my pre-order the same day and received my streamer last Tuesday.
I went for the fast track using the coaxial output cable to my T+ DAC. I was just blown away by the quality of this streamer which is still in its break-in phase. The Arce is extremely quiet, dynamics are up the roof, bass is extended and very impactful. Stage width/depth and imaging is excellent. Instruments timbre sound very natural and rich.
Fiddled around getting the I2S and external clocks configured. Had to request Alvin Chee from Vinshine Audio to help me out. I was confused by selecting HQPlayer LED instead of the Airplay LED, all my bad . So cleared up these configuration issues and enjoyed additional audiophile bonuses (another notch of added resolution).
Finally used my HQPlayer NAA to feed my Arce streamer, which is an improvement over the Roon app. I am now enjoying a dramatic increase in musical enjoyment with my Arce bad boy!
The only issue I’ve had with the Arce streamer is that there is occasional stuttering when playing music. I’ve had 4 interruptions over a listening period of about 8 hours. Contacted Alvin on this matter and he indicated that Denafrips was aware of the situation. They will come up with a new firmware to solve this issue.
So my Lumin/SBooster combo is up for sale. This Arce streamer will be a giant killer IMHO. You will have to pay ´mucho pesos’ to get the equivalent performance of this streamer.
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/denafrips-arce-streamer-review.37487/#post-908858
