You "need a streamer from your PC"?
No one NEEDS that.
No one NEEDS that.
Inexpensive all in one options
Hello to all. it's been a while for me.
just had a major meltdown with my 10 year old setup and find myself feeling like Rip Van Winkle scrambling to find a new digital front end for a temporary system. understanding a decade in digi can be like dog years, was hoping for help finding a decent streamer/dac with preamp capabilities?.
back story....right before Christmas, my amp went south and took the speakers with (ML436/Aerial 7B's). I'm a part time hobbyist who generally puts together a decent system and enjoys for many years. until something compels me to upgrade/do it again, i just sit back and enjoy what i have. dead amp and speakers are very compelling. don't have the time to rebuild properly right now. all the research/auditions/time required are not doable now or anytime soon. need something to get by for a while...1-1.5 years ish. Not having decent music available was/is not an option. amp and speakers were relatively easy. spent a couple hours researching then picked up a new amp and some pre-owned speakers here on agon. ended up sounding pretty good and thought i was done. this gear will end up in my living room down the road after putting together the real listening room setup.
2nd week with the new gear, my PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport fails. fixed cost repair/refurb is roughly $800, so it's an easy no in my mind. off to the trash bin with the PWT. as much as i enjoyed it, actual usage was down to 10% max with streaming being the remaining 90%. Hi Rez is probably 75% of my streaming. My Perfect Wave Dac mkII was still working fine and could keep me going/happy for a while. done/all set again i thought. THEN!!....the PWD started acting up last night !!. so when it rains it pours. my entire 5 piece system has circled the drain in about 5 weeks. was left with a bunch of nice power cords, interconnects and speaker cables. that's it.
bottom line now/point of this long winded post is i need a quick replacement for my PWD. had used it has a pre-amp w/volume control into the ML/Aerial system (RIP) for many years and loved the sound of not having a stand alone preamp. would like to avoid needing to get a preamp now as well
What I need...bare minimum
Decent/good DAC
Streamer from my PC (wifi and ethernet cable)
Internet radio along with common/popular streaming services
Balanced/XLR outputs
Pre-amp w/volume control
Hi Rez capable (obviously)
Trigger for amp turn on would be a nice plus
would like to spend south of $2k and prefer new or something somewhat new-ish/only a couple years old tops. could go a little higher then $2k if "compelled" to do so. the only two options i've looked into are Cambridge Audio products. The CXN V2 and 850N. both seem like they'd work fine and check all my boxes. Looking for other options my limited/one evening of research might have missed..... or a recommendation on either of the Cambridge products above. want to buy something asap so please chime in early and often.
**as a side ask.....have been using J River for 10 years (old version JR 18 lol!)). am guessing that will need to change depending on what i end up with?. any suggestions regarding streaming software would be great.
thx in advance
cheers
Rip Van Winkle
Levy
just had a major meltdown with my 10 year old setup and find myself feeling like Rip Van Winkle scrambling to find a new digital front end for a temporary system. understanding a decade in digi can be like dog years, was hoping for help finding a decent streamer/dac with preamp capabilities?.
back story....right before Christmas, my amp went south and took the speakers with (ML436/Aerial 7B's). I'm a part time hobbyist who generally puts together a decent system and enjoys for many years. until something compels me to upgrade/do it again, i just sit back and enjoy what i have. dead amp and speakers are very compelling. don't have the time to rebuild properly right now. all the research/auditions/time required are not doable now or anytime soon. need something to get by for a while...1-1.5 years ish. Not having decent music available was/is not an option. amp and speakers were relatively easy. spent a couple hours researching then picked up a new amp and some pre-owned speakers here on agon. ended up sounding pretty good and thought i was done. this gear will end up in my living room down the road after putting together the real listening room setup.
2nd week with the new gear, my PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport fails. fixed cost repair/refurb is roughly $800, so it's an easy no in my mind. off to the trash bin with the PWT. as much as i enjoyed it, actual usage was down to 10% max with streaming being the remaining 90%. Hi Rez is probably 75% of my streaming. My Perfect Wave Dac mkII was still working fine and could keep me going/happy for a while. done/all set again i thought. THEN!!....the PWD started acting up last night !!. so when it rains it pours. my entire 5 piece system has circled the drain in about 5 weeks. was left with a bunch of nice power cords, interconnects and speaker cables. that's it.
bottom line now/point of this long winded post is i need a quick replacement for my PWD. had used it has a pre-amp w/volume control into the ML/Aerial system (RIP) for many years and loved the sound of not having a stand alone preamp. would like to avoid needing to get a preamp now as well
What I need...bare minimum
Decent/good DAC
Streamer from my PC (wifi and ethernet cable)
Internet radio along with common/popular streaming services
Balanced/XLR outputs
Pre-amp w/volume control
Hi Rez capable (obviously)
Trigger for amp turn on would be a nice plus
would like to spend south of $2k and prefer new or something somewhat new-ish/only a couple years old tops. could go a little higher then $2k if "compelled" to do so. the only two options i've looked into are Cambridge Audio products. The CXN V2 and 850N. both seem like they'd work fine and check all my boxes. Looking for other options my limited/one evening of research might have missed..... or a recommendation on either of the Cambridge products above. want to buy something asap so please chime in early and often.
**as a side ask.....have been using J River for 10 years (old version JR 18 lol!)). am guessing that will need to change depending on what i end up with?. any suggestions regarding streaming software would be great.
thx in advance
cheers
Rip Van Winkle
Levy
12 responses Add your response
OP It seems to me, there is something else doing on.. How many pieces of equipment did you loose, in what period of time? 2-4 I couldn't quite follow. My equipment is 6 months to 65 years old. The only failure I had, I caused. It was a cable drop! Why is your equipmed failing? That would be the only question for me.. Is the stuff just poorly made, not being taken care of, used roughly or is there and electrical issue? All equipment requires maintenance and a GOOD VAC supply that's maintained at 120 VAC.. Regards |
thanks for the suggestions. will look into them all for sure. oldhvymec2: that's the first thing i thought of too. something had to be going on to cause all these failures. checked everything and found no issues. i have 2 dedicated/fuse box direct lines for my hifi/home theater setup. 15A for HT and a 20A for HiFi. both work fine. top shelf pc's, interconnects and speaker cable as well. Levinson's are known for cap issues and mine were old. Aerials were pushed hard by the ML436. both components had a hard working life. my thinking is the ML went bad and pumped a lot of distortion into the Aerial's at high volume. PWT/PWDII did not blow up/shut down. vital features failed instead. disc tracking/recognition for the pwt. Hi Rez recognition and playback issues for the pwd. seems to still works fine for reg and low res but i don't listen to much of that anymore. much prefer higher rez recordings just to be clear. i already purchased/have the replacement amp and speakers. new adcom gfa875se and lightly used sonus faber sonetto viii's. sounded pretty good......until my front end started failing within days. the more i think about this, the more i think i posted on the wrong forum. a good DAC that can stream/play a wide variety of internet and computer music (especially higher rez) is what i need. pre-amp with volume control is a *near* must too. thank you for the input/suggestions and i welcome more |
Can’t think of any "good" DACs and streamers that are inexpensive. Soekris 2541 is a great DAC with rotary and remote volume control; cheap. Sold out. If you can get one, pair with an Allo USBridge Signature and load piCorePlayer yourself. LMS will stream anything, all radio stations. Less that $2000 all in including a 1TB SSD for storage and LPS.. And will stream from NAS etc. The only catch is you will need days to set it up. No help from India. Everything is online. If I can do it you can. Close enough to SOTA for "small" investment. |
What about the new KEF LS50 Wireless IIs for $2.5K? Just need Ethernet to enjoy Roon, but has input for disc player and output for subs should you want to extend. Or for an additional $10K the Dutch & Dutch 8C might be attractive, and no need for subs. With the miniaturization of electronics, active speakers may be the wave of the future. |
Well OP, unless you're in sand land.. I'm close, sand dunes all around along with pete and adobe dust in the summer.. The sand is a real killer for somethings though. Caddy drawers take a beating, that kind of stuff.. Environmental issues? Dust, moisture, rough handling, lack of maintenance. OR An outside intermittent electrical issue, even static discharge issues... I'd get the utility to run a tape at no cost. See if the voltage is LOW, that is my concern. Not high.. worse both low and high.. yo yo (ing) voltage, wonderful to deal with.. If you have checked everything.. I'm still wondering.. Looking at a 60 year old MX110z that just sounds wonderful.. I've gone through about 4 sets of valves in 20 years.. The same number of fuses. I have a few OLD pieces, never touched.. 65 years old.. Again just new fuses.. and valves as needed. Happy hunting .... Regards |
https://www.nordacoustics.co.uk/ <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Look at Nord, I have several of his amps, NEVER a problem, great customer service. Good prices.. DACs, Integrated, streamers, all kinds of options.. I use his NC500 with rev D buffer boards and Sparco 2590s. Brilliant, is all I can say. Good looking pieces too. Regards |
no worries Hvymec...had an electrician come by (also a neighbor). he spent a while checking everything inside and outside. 30 year pro so i'm all good. will take a look at Nord and WSRRS's peach tree suggestion Fuzztone: think we established early on there are many things you know/can do that i can't/probably shouldn't even try LOL. will definitely need plug n play and should have mentioned that early on. never heard of Soekris but the 2451 sounds like a great dac. hard to find is another deal breaker. am extremely busy and pushing off the real rebuild for another 1-1.5 years. something that's inexpensive, easy to get/setup/use and sounds decent....maybe even good if possible??. the two Cambridge's on the list (cxn v2 and 851n) is very close. my main concern is sound quality with cambridge. coming from what i considered a good front end (PWDII/PWT), will the cambridge options at $1000-$1500 sound decent/anywhere near as good?. or has 10 years in digital development made current mid-fi as good/close to older hifi? kinda leaning towards just grabbing a cxnv2 and giving it a try. just don't have time for all this thinking and want/need music NOW. can always return it if it lets me down. maybe it'll surprise me?. have never listened to cambridge gear. thx to all for input. |
