Treating the room should come first.
Then consider your use of streaming. Would it serve as a replacement for playing CDs? If so invest in Streamer and DAC. If not consider the purchase of a quality transport to replace your NAD player.
Start with Upgrade to DAC?
I am ready to set out on an upgrade cycle to my system, which consists of the following, over the next couple of years:
* Rogue Audio RP-7 Preamp (Upgrades: Rogue RP-9 or McIntosh C2800--C2800 includes Phono preamp and DAC)
* Odyssey Kismet Monobloc Amplifiers (Keepers!)
* Lounge Audio LCR Gold phono preamp (Keeper!)
* Fyne Audio F-702 Speakers (Keepers!)
* Definitive Tech Supercube 6000 (Vandersteen Sub Three or Paradigm XR11)
* Schiit Bifrost 2/64 DAC (Schiit Yggydraseil or ????)
* NAD C568 CD Player used as transport (Schiit Urd or ???)
* iFi Zen Stream
*iPad Pro for Apple Music
* Ice Age Audio OFC Power Cords
* Audioquest and mostly Morrow Interconnects (RCA & XLR)
* Performance Audio Speaker Cables, using Mogami W3104 Speaker Wire
I am thinking that perhaps the best place to start would be the DAC, with the idea of moving from the Bifrost 2/64, which I like, to the Yggdrasil (model TBD) DAC, which has gotten superb reviews that speak to sound quality characteristics that are of concern to me. Budget for DAC upgrade is about $2500. OR, should I go for room correction capability?
I recently replaced a highly-rated 100 wpc tube amplifier with the Odyssey mono blocs, and I was stunned by the improvement in sound quality, definition, and imaging, but I think there still is some room for improvement.
Thoughts and recommendations most welcome.
@mike4597 - I feel you are getting a lot of bad advice. Replacing your speakers? Your speakers are amazing. I have the Fyne Audio 502SPs and love them. I am using a sub which I think adds a lot of extension. I think your weakest link is your streamer. I would start with the streamer and then the dac. If you go used and increase your budget a little you could get a streamer and dac for under $5k. I know that’s easy for me to say, but I think you will hear an audible difference with a new steamer. |
??? You have essentially the same streamer as the OP - it’s just yours, the IFi Neo, combines a DAC with the streamer, while his, the iFi Zen, does not. Apparently, in your system, you bypass the internal dac in your streamer, which makes sense, but then why not just go with the Zen? So on what basis are you concluding that the OP needs a “better” streamer? |
Very nice to meet you sir. I greatly appreciate your response and your opinion. I never said the ifi Zen was a bad product, but looking at Mike’s setup the weakest link is the ifi Zen. I also had a Zen before upgrading to the Neo. Using the same external ddc and dac I used with the Zen, Neo’s sound quality is much more open, detailed, and balanced than the Zen. To say the only difference between the two is that the Neo comes with a dac, I believe is misleading. The streamer components within the Neo are much more advanced than those in the Zen. First, the capacitors in the Neo are way more superior than those in the Zen. The Neo also uses a more advanced processor than the Zen. The Zen uses an ARM Cortex and the Neo uses the XMOS 16x. Additional improvements that might not be directly associated with the streamer but has a very big impact on sound quality (that is not come with the Zen) is ifi’s Optibox. The LAN signal from the router is regenerated, reclocked and rebalanced by the OptiBox; true galvanic isolation is applied, with zero parasitic capacitance and inductance (ifi website). Finally, the Neo comes with four digital filters that allows me to adjust the sound of my external dac depending on if I’m using OS or NOS. These filters make a pretty big difference in sound quality. I greatly respect your opinion but to say the only difference between the Zen and the Neo is that the Neo has a dac with the exact same streamer, is misleading. The difference in sound quality between the two components is due to differences in technology. |
oh man that’s alot of ad copy! Look, don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of iFi, their price-to-performance is top notch. But they too are guilty of hyperbole. Regarding some of your points: - the XMOS 16x in the Neo is not for the streamer, it’s for DAC functionality (e.g., MQA processing) - similarly, the 4 filters you’re talking about are typical of a modern DAC; my Okto and Topping DACs have a choice of 7 filters, and my Gold Note has 192! options, but those filters have nothing to do with the Neo’s streaming finction - do you really want to talk about those “tantalum capacitors”; are you sure they’re not in the DAC section? - maybe I have to give you the “Optibox” technology, but do you really think whatever the heck it does, that it’s worth a $900 difference in price? So look, when you enter a conversation by telling an OP that everyone else is giving bad advice, all I’m saying is you shoul try not to then talk gibberish. |