Next step up on the streaming food chain?
I’ve been enjoying my Auralic Aries G1 for nearly 3 years now. If I wanted to explore a significant step up in my streaming quality, and not a small incremental increase in quality, what devices should be on my short list? Aries G2.2? Grimm MU1? Something else? The G1 is awfully good, however, I still perceive an extra layer of dimensionality and roundness with my analogs set up (see profile for details) that I would love too achieve in the digital realm. Or am I barking up the wrong tree, and should I focus on my DAC, a Bricasti M1, and try as non-oversampling R2R dac? FWIW, I think the Bricasti is excellent- it was the first DAC I ever heard that made me say- "that sounds terrific" instead of saying "that sounds great for digital"
The above sounds very similar to the differences I hear streaming Qobuz with Roon vs. Qobuz with Squeezelite. It is nice to have options. |
I hear you, outside ROON; the UI App should be a top priority in selecting your next streamer. And no one else does it better than Aurender and Innuos (2nd best) in terms of App performance and build quality. I found Aurender’s Conductor app to offer best SQ with least bit of coloration to original bit stream. They are not cheap but totally worth it when paired with equally exemplary DAC like Bricasti. As @kennymacc pointed out, everything in digital chain matters just like analog. Digital is definitely less finicky compare to setting up a turntable but still needs bit of care if you want your digital to rival analog. First thing first, decide on a streamer and then tweak away. |
