Help With Streamer - Aurender, Auralic, HIFI Rose, Eversolo A10, etc.

sounds like an Innuos ZenMini Mk3 is what you need!

You will find people recommend the streamer brand they have or have used a lot.  There are quality streamers in your price range form Innuos, Auralic, Aurender to name a few well known brands.  You really need to decide if you want a DAC in it.  You will get advice if you let us know what DAC you have or plan to use.  An Auralic Altair G1.1 for example, has streamer, DAC, analog input and volume control (pre amp).  Not saying it is as great as separate Streamer / DAC and Preamp, but much more simple.  Aurender makes quality streamers, some with DACs but I feel is known for its streamers.  All of these brands have their own software to organize and select your music.  You can get a streamer with or without an internal hard drive, or easily add one.  Easier still is to put your music on an external hard drive that most of these streamers have a USB input for connection.  This makes your music very portable and easier to move from your computer to the hard drive.  Innuos is loved by many here and already recommended.  From your comments I doubt you would hear the difference between comparably priced units from any of these brands; but you will notice the difference in software.

I recommend looking at Auralic Lightning, Aurender Conductor and Innuos Sense software examples and see what draws you in from a user interface perspective.

I love my Aurender.   Have used Innuos, Bluesound (which I still own) and Eversolo 

Since having an entry streamer like Bluesound and a really good one like my Aurender N200 all I can say is it comes down to support.  

Aurender is incredibly well built and has for me been super stable.  Support is top notch , they can remotely access the device and add or delete software if there is a problem.   

I used Innous in a room environment and thought it sounded great but I can't tell you about the sense software

My Dad has an Eversolo A6 Master and honestly I feel li,e its mi e because I have spent so much time troubleshooting it.  Worked fine for 11 months , then a software update rendered its USB out useless with the DAC it was used with for almost a year.   Their support is non existent. The worst I have (N)ever experienced

Their support is their forum or revert back to previous firmware and wait for another revision.   3rd revision, 6 months later no fix.  Anyone spending $4k on anything from Eversolo is wasting their money.   Throwing it away if you are expecting support.   No after. Warranty repair either.  

Want real support?   Aurender and Innuos.  Maybe HiFi Rose , maybe others can speak to them.  

Happy Eversolo A8 user. It meets all your requirements and it’s easy to use.

I am over 70 and have followed the development of streaming / streamers over the last couple decades. It is not overly complicated, if you do not want it to be. The good news is that you can skip the many intermediary steps and go right to the highly reliable, high quality sound you can get today,

I have owned Aurlic Aries, and now own two Aurender. I have also heard the Rose and many others. I recommend Aurender. Conductor is a great app for control.

First it would be really helpful to know what other equipment you have. But assuming for now that you have high quality and high resolution equipment, then the sound of a CD, ripped file, stored file on NAS and streaming will sound exactly the same with a good streamer.

In general, streamers are like any other high end audio component in that you get what you pay for. So, you do not want to get a streamer with a DAC if you don’t need one because you will be buying a lower quality streamer (extra function you are not using and more noise and interference in the box). Also, you do not want to spend less... if you can get away with it unless you do not care about sound quality. My $45K vinyl leg sounds the same as my streaming digital leg. I don’t playback ripped files (although I have them on my streamer) or CDs... because they sound the same as Qobuz streamed music. Qobuz has over 10 million albums and over half a million are in higher than Red Book CD resolution. Years of delight and discovery and probably all of you old music.

So, I recommend as high a quality streamer as you can afford. In general, each jump in a thousand or so will result in better sound up to and beyond $20K. So you want to make sure your streamer is not your weak point (just and in vinyl playback). I have found that if you get the best in class for the money then the most cost effective investment is Streamer = DAC = Preamp = Amp... if you have vinyl also = phono stage = tt.

You are correct to want a good App to control your streamer. Aurender’s Conductor app is well respected and getting better daily. It works on iPhone, iPad and MacBook... I am sure on other non-Apple devices, Friends of mine have purchased other streamers... very expensive ones and complain about the app.

You get an Aurrender and you plunk it down, plug in the power cord, ethernet, preamp, and find it on your iPad. If you already have an Qobuz account (Yes, that is the one you want) all you do is logon once through the Aurender app and start playing music... no more fooling around. Done. Sounds like that is what you want.

You can get one with internal storage if you are bored and want to play with your computer. But you’re probably not going to be able to detect any difference in sound quality even with a bottom of the line Aurender N200. I would completely avoid antiquated means of playback: CDs, ripped CD, and purchased files. 

Aurender is easy to use and it sounds great. Amazing customer service so in an event you need help, they are very prompt. You will need a wifi extender.
If will probably discover that you don’t need to rip CDs or only get those that you can’t find on streaming done. You can use external drive on computer to rip.

As Audphile1 suggests, getting a wifi extender is certainly an option.

That is how my system is set up, as too complicated to get an ethernet cable to it.

I then run an ethernet cable to my streamer from the wifi extender.

Well, as I was typing everything out, my browser crashed and I lost everything, so this one will be shorter.

I don’t need an internal DAC in a streamer.  I currently use an Audiobyte Black Dragon DAC, coupled with a Cary/AES tube amp and preamp.  I’ll switch out an old ADCOM 5503 in two channel mode or a B&K 4420 amp.  I generally listen to Focal 1008be Electra’s.

I have a Cambridge CXUHD that is boxed up as I’ve only used it about two hours to check it out one time, but I’d like to use it as an SACD transport.  I guess I’d need a Geerfab B.O.B to fully utilize it though for SACD.  Yet another cost.

I don’t use streaming services and have no desire to.  I prefer to rip my CD  collection.  With that, I’m going to have to re-rip everything and I’m hoping I could connect a CD drive to a streamer and rip directly into onboard SSD storage.  I’m also hoping that a streamer has the capability to add album art work.

Apple’s music app/system was fine for me, until it decided to no longer work after their IOS 18 update some months back.  It has never been fixed.  I’m just tired of the never ending changes to Apple’s ecosystem as well.  So often, it seems as though it’s released “half baked”.

I’m just looking for simplicity and reliability in a streamer that I  hopefully could transfer the library off of and onto my phone or iPad for “on the go” music.  Maybe such a thing doesn’t exist.  I don’t know, that’s why I have reached out to all of you fine folks.

Thank you all for your help!

Check out the Bluesound Node Vault.  It’s well within your budget and has plenty of storage.

@curiousjim 

Thank you, Sir!

You should consider ripping your CD' to your computer through DB Poweramp. Then copy them over to an external SSD. That way you always have a backup depending on how often you make the copy.

@koestner Thank you.  

That sounds like a good idea.  I’ll have to check and see if DB Poweramp will automatically pull album artwork.

Thank you again.

Boltapuresource,

I’m 70and I went through what you are. I started with the Eversolo A6 that had just come out. Rave reviews everywhere. Like you I did not want to stream, just digitize  my cd collection to have it all at my fingertips. I wanted my music to sound just as good as using my Mac air as a transport. The Eversolo was easy to use and you could do all your editing right on the machine. However the Eversolo imparted its house sound on my music and I did not like it. Tried the master edition to the A8. Same thing and none sounded as good as my mac air. In frustration I moved up to the Hifi Rose 130. Beautiful machine and I wanted to love it. Not only was the software a pain to use it still did not leave my music alone. Thank goodness it was hot at the time and sold it in a day. After much research i stumbled across Aurender. Specifically the N200. Finally a unit that played my music right. Software was easy  to use and understand. I Used it for a while then the up ites hit. In comes the Aurender N20. Endgame streamer for me. 
 

Having said all that, I believe the bluenote model with the cd player model is a good choice for not much bucks. I’ve heard it at a dealer and I was impressed. 

Here’s an Innuos Zen at a very good price.  You can rip all your CDs right into it, and their Sense app gets the highest marks for being user friendly to the point that some have even dropped Roon — high praise.  They also have excellent customer support if you have any questions/issues, which is important.  Best of luck. 

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisbcfc8-innuos-zen-mk3-mkiii-music-server-streamer-cd-ripper-2tb-music-servers-docks

@dwest1023 

Thank you for the details on the Eversolo, especially the app software on the HiFi Rose machines.  I was considering one those, but I do not want glitchy difficult to use software.

I don’t think any of the Bluenote models have a screen and I’d really like to have a screen to display album art, etc.  

Thanks again

@soix 

Thanks for the heads up on the Innuous.  I will check this out.

Thank you, Sir!

I will give a +2 for Innuos. 

I first owned the Bluesound, then Aurender, but settled on Innuos.

I liked the Aurender, but it was limited in streaming choices (which has changed since my usage). I liked the sound quality, a definite improvement over Bluesound.

I ended up with Innuos because it works with Roon and the sound quality is much better than the Bluesound.

I will say that Bluesound offers a wide array of streaming services to choose from,  but in doing so, they seem to have compromised sound quality.

B

@gdnrbob 

Thanks for your insight on the Innuous.

In all honesty, I plan to only listen to my ripped CD’s, so any music streaming service is of no importance to me.  I guess I could change my mind down the road, and sometimes I do.  In fact, I had never considered a streamer until Apple’s Music app has become unusable and completely corrupted my library.

I have nowhere near the CD collection that many the folks here do, but even with around a 1000 CD’s, I only want to have to rip them one time.  Fortunately, I have all of the time in the world to do this though.

Thanks

Agree to go with an Innuos streamer.  A lot of options with your budget.  I don’t think any have a screen but they make excellent streamers with a CD ripper and various TBs of storage.  My Zen Mk3 has 1 TB and sounds great.  Their Sense app is easy to use.  I stream Qobuz and it’s easy to control from my iPad or iPhone.  Suggest finding a local Innuos dealer if possible to help you with your selection.