New streamer needed

@ghdprentice 

I curious as to your statement about the future of Roon.  I am not a Roon user and have no axe to grind here.   I have seen it used and while it impressive I just simply don’t need it.

  I have wondered why a company like Apple doesn’t torpedo it. Apple Music service and Qobuz both seem to offer Roon like features about music that you choose to stream.  Roon will integrate stored music into the streamed music in your library, but Apple also does this with music that I had previously scanned into iTunes or purchased from iTunes.  It would seem to me to be easy to access any stored music and then integrate it into the UI, thus obviating the need for Roon
 

stievus OP

6 posts

03-02-2024 at 09:10pm

… I then connected my (older) Accuphase transport to my DAC, which sound blew me away. What should I invest, and which ones to check, to keep me blown away :-)

@stievus seems you’re comparing older CD’s to streaming; you’d probably do well to make sure it’s not just different file quality vs. device performance differences you’re perceiving. CD files (production data known) vs. streamed files (production data often unknown) can easily be apples to oranges.

I wasn't comparing. Old and new CDs sound great with my APh transport. I am just curious which streamer would perform on a similar level and how much one should invest te get that.

The pro-ject is designed to facilitate the direct connection of an external drive to a usb input, and I think the iFi is as well.  not sure about the others I referenced, but you should check. Regarding the difference in sound you heard, there are two other reasons I could think of:

1) It could be that your DAC is not fully immune to jitter or other noise introduced to it from either your streamer or your cd transport.  If that were the case, you could hear a difference between the two. Btw, you never mentioned what model your old streamer was - that could be the culprit.

2) When you changed to cd, you listened intently for differences, and could simply be hearing what you were listening for.  That’s a classic opportunity for confirmation bias, something we’ve all experienced a time or two.  For a more in depth discussion of that, you could check out the thread “The Emperor Has No Clothes” (though full warning, you’ll have to wade thru a lot  of discussion of cars!).

Snd regarding synergy with your system, the folks in my camp generally believe that a streamer, properly implemented, does not have a sonic signature of its own.  That’s established in the analogue realm, which means somewhere between your DAC and your speakers.  Hope that helps.

WiiM Pro, 5v LPS, Roon into a RME ADI-2. Super nice when cascading Cisco switches, Finisar FTLX1475D3BTL transceivers and a short Blue Jeans ethernet cable into the WiiM Pro. 

Before dropping a ton of money, consider using the WiiM Pro as a streamer only with a similar configuration.