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Streamers and software

It's been a battle.  I have had a Bluesound Node 2i for 5 yrs.  I upgraded the power supply.  There is nothing wrong with function or sound.  I switched to Qobuz a few months ago.  I transferred my songs from amazon to Qobuz.  Qobuz works great when using the Bluetooth function.  When I want to play Qobuz thru BluOS, I am missing several thousand songs, called Favorites.  Loading and searching times are not usable.

Finally after 2 months BLUOS says they have no solution.  QOBUZ is working on a direct connect app to the streamer, but no release date.  

So, reluctantly, I started looking at a streamer.  I find several other streamers but have buggy software.

So, from what I see the Innuous pulsar mini has good software I would like to spend as little as I  can but it looks like $1-$2k?  It would be nice to have a linear power supply. Thanks for any suggestions are welcome.

Here is some I looked at.

Holo Audio Red, Ever solo, Innuous, Volumio

 

128x128daledeee1
lmr27
25 posts
 

Get an Innuos Pulse and be done with it. The Sense app is superb.

lanx0003
889 posts
 

If you believe that the CA MXN10 with its internal DAC sounds as good as:

  • EverSolo A8
  • HiFi Rose RS250A
  • Holo Spring 3
  • iFi Neo Stream
  • Lumin P1
  • LTA Aero

—all of which are rated Class A by Stereophile—then your choice of owning budget-friendly audiophile gear is valid. Personally, I’m convinced and impressed with its performance after a side-by-side blind test with the highly praised Gustard R26, a well-regarded R2R DAC.

daledeee1's avatar
daledeee1 OP
589 posts
 

Briefly, here is my system 

Streamer, Topping d90, khozmo passive pre, pass xa25, crites type B(think Cornwall)

I spoke with TMR.  I want to avoid frustrating software in the streamer.

We settled on a innuous Zen Mk 3 or an Aurender A100. He recommended the zen with a little softer sound.

Just thought I would update the thread.  Both have built in LPS. The zen has dual LPS and I think the Innous LPS is very good.  The zen is $2000, aurender $1300.  

And the Innous needs a USB which I am not familiar with.  He offered a Nordost for $200.  Any recommendations, I am not an expensive cable guy.  Thank you!

zlone
748 posts
 

To preface, this is just my opinion, but I owned an Aurender N10 for awhile and found the software (v4 I think) quite frustrating. The sound was good. I switched to Innuos and found it much more to my liking. The sound was good as well. 
 

As for cables, the used Innuos I bought came with a Transparent USB cable which I used for awhile. I replaced it with a WireWorld Platinum 7 USB cable, a surprising and very significant upgrade. Note that with USB, results can be very DAC dependent, as it offloads clocking to the DAC rather than handling it in the streamer. 

daledeee1's avatar
daledeee1 OP
589 posts
 

Well, I have an Innuous Zen Mark 3 coming with the Nordost Purple flare USB cable. I read in another thread right after I purchased the Zen that the DAC USB connector must be galvanically isolated or it causes problems i.e noise. The Topping has an XMOS 208 connector and board. I think it is OK but haven’t found out for sure. The newer XMOS has more processing power and I don’t know what else. There is a part I can buy to fix the isolation. Now if I could just put a DAC right behind it, my system would shine. We will talk about that later.🙂

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