Curious to know your streaming and dac set up and the best recommended streamer under $15k

@woots if you do end up looking at the Lumin U1, since you wouldn't have need of the X1 DAC, it may also be worth looking at the X1 power supply upgrade for the U1. The outboard U1 power supply is already excellent, but the X1 power supply further improves upon it.

I have another suggestion for penny pinchers, and no, it’s not the troll’s $150 Dac!

It seems someone has developed a new high nickel content transformer already for the PS Audio Directstream MKII. The Dac in its stock form has already been reported to beat out the tambaqui and another Dac around $14k (or maybe it was equal to)

With the $650 dollar transformer upgrade the Dac should be able to comepete with $15-20k dacs. Obviously a Dac with a tube output stage has its own benefits, but the PS unit is only $8k and people like myself who had the MK1 version are getting a very healthy trade in allowance until the end of the month. My MKII should be here next month, and till then I only have access to LP playback.

I’m also an EtherRegen user, but will be going USB with the mkII.

I started with a Lumin X1 and Lumin L1.  Overall nice but wanted more.  Recently added a Weiss 502 Mark 2 (Lumin X1 still used as streamer).  Really elevated sound quality in every respect.  Also, added a Sonore Ethernet to fiber optic and ran the fiber optic cable into the Lumin X1 optical network input.

I have a streaming only rig consisting of a fanless Roon Rock NUC powered by a Farad Super 3 LPS, Paul Pang Quad Switch, 2 FMCs one being the Sonore Optical module Deluxe V2 both FMCs powered by LPS, Aqua LinQ streamer with HQPlayer core module, Aqua Formula xHD rev 2 DAC and Pink Faun LAN cables.

My ISP modem is powered by an Sbooster mk2.

I connect Laufer Teknik Memory Player streamer to Aries Cerat Kassndra II DAC. The streamer is under $15k. Good luck!