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Ready to move onto next stage of streaming

So for over a year I have been streaming Tidal via my Bluesound Vault 2.
Now I bought this mainly to rip all my cds to but after "discovering" Tidal I find that I rarely even playback from the Vault hard drive, I usually just find it on Tidal even if I know I have it in ripped format.

It boils down to 2 main source areas for me now,vinyl and streaming. Very happy with my analog as I do not even try to compare the two just let them happily coexist knowing they are different.

But here’s where I am at. I am sure there is probably a better setup for streaming Tidal with better sq than the Vault now.
However it still has to be as user friendly as the Vault to operate for the other denizens of chateaux Uberwaltz!
No computer science geniuses here!
Needs to be as simple as the Bluos app is right now for all to use.
Any suggestions that again does NOT revolve around any mac or pc setup.
Thank you
128x128uberwaltz
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Have some thinking ahead.
Aurilac, Mytek, Lumin.
All look like excellent products.
Thank you for suggestions so far.
randyhat
156 posts
 
After owning a Bluesound Node 2 for a year I moved it to another system in another part of the house.  I replaced it with a Lumin T-1 Streamer.  The T-1 does sound better but not by a huge margin.  This is not a knock against the Lumin, rather a testament to how good the Bluesound unit is.  I am glad I am able to use it in my second system.  The law of diminishing returns is invoked rather severely when it comes to upgrading from the Node.  Yes there are better, but at what cost?
robelvick's avatar
robelvick
619 posts
 
I think as long as you’re using the Lyngdorf, you need not worry about MQA. It’s not possible to play full MQA with the 2170 in the chain anyways, as it will always convert/resample all sources feeding it.

That was the main reason I reluctantly parted ways with the Brooklyn DAC+. There was no need for it and the 2170 in the same system.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Robert
Are you saying that even if the Mytek unfolds to full 24/192 and I send to the 2170 via xlr analog for instance the 2170 will resample back to 24/96?
robelvick's avatar
robelvick
619 posts
 
Uberwaltz,

The 2170 will read the correct incoming sample rate, so if you click "info" on a 24/192 (MQA) is will indeed say 24/192, but the 2170 will then resample the MQA to PWM (24/96) before the final output, as it does with any incoming signal.  So you're getting resampled MQA.

My Aries Mini, which had a BETA firmware installed, was MQA capable with it's internal DAC and would do a full MQA unfolding.  I'd send MQA to the Mini, and then singled ended out into the Lyngdorf's unbalanced input.  I did not like the sound at all.  I'd send the same MQA file through the Mini's digital out into the Lyngdorf and the sound was a bit better, although there was no MQA unfolding, since I was using the Lyngdorf's DAC.  So I ended up just playing the FLAC files (Mini digital out to 2170), and to me that sounded better than MQA

Before the Lyngdorf, I had a Hegel H160 and did the same test.  This time, using the Mini's DAC and playing MQA, going into the Hegel's unbalanced analog input, the sound was always superb.  I always preferred the MQA version, over the normal FLAC.

Hope that makes sense.  ramble ramble
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