2. digital
  3. 179080-171520

Need recommendations for a streamer

I would like to upgrade from a Bluesound Node to a higher quality streamer.

 

The Node sounds fine with my current system, but I am making a second system for my wife, and the Node is going to that new system. I thought I would take the opportunity to upgrade my streamer at this time.

 

My criteria are that it be a streamer only (no DAC/storage/CD player, etc), be able to hook into wi-fi/cloud without a physical wire/connection, have balanced outputs to go to my DAC, and cost less than 2,500 USD. Can anybody think of a streamer that fits this bill?

 

The rest of my system:

DAC: Terminator II

Preamp: Schiit Freya+

Amps: PS Audio M1200 x 2

Speakers: Thiel CS 2.3

 

Thanks.

cowhorn
seanheis1
623 posts
 

You got this wrong bud! They all are consumer grade computers not designed and optimized for streaming audio. You get streaming functionality but they sound nothing like a dedicated streamer, not even remotely close.

@lalitk if you're hearing differences between streamers (digital out) where things aren't even remotely close, your ears are much better than mine ;-)  

 

ghasley
2,487 posts
 

@seanheis1

 

When you experience a really good streamer personally, in a system you know well, it will make you feel like youve been spinning your wheels for a long time while you believed that part of your system was on solid ground. When you experience a truly great streamer, others will sound to various degrees broken. I was in your camp until I heard the difference. All too often, people neglect to recognize that digital output over a cable is an analog waveform representation. You would too. Best.

seanheis1
623 posts
 

I was in your camp until I heard the difference. 

@ghasley I'm in the camp that you have to hear for yourself before discrediting or promoting. Otherwise, I would discredit First Watt due to relatively high noise and distortion and go with Hypex Ncore or Emotiva. 

Also, there has to be synergy with the DAC and the different connections....AES, USB, Optical, Coaxial, etc. 

juanmanuelfangioii
958 posts
 

Need to have a clean signal also. No noise in the digital stream from modem all the way through the digital chain.

Go fiber and clean the data of all the noise, will improve even a weak streamer/bridge. 

ghasley
2,487 posts
 

@seanheis1 

 

I apologize if I gave you the impression that I hadn’t heard for myself. I started streaming years ago and was in the Mac mini is good enough camp. It was when I heard the difference between the Mac and the Innuos Zenith Mk3 and the differences between usb cables when I truly began to understand that a streamer was sending an analog representation of a digital wavestream and that all of the analog variables applied to digital streaming.

 

I was satisfied with the Innuos until I heard the next level of streaming solutions.

 

@juanmanuelfangioii 

 

Properly utilized fiber improves things in many cases, however, I did not find it favorable. There are many roads to Damascus huh? Best.

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