Streaming 101

I think you can access the DAC on the Esoteric X-01 D2.  It has a coax and an optical input on the back correct?

@joeyfed55

i also procrastinated several years with getting into streamed music until covid locked me in for several months back in early 2020... with over a thousand lp’s and another thousand cd’s it was hard to get off the dime... it has been a lot of fun climbing the learning curve, and now, 20 some months later, i stream from qobuz or tidal 90+% of the time

it is so much fun literally having the all the music out there at your fingertips, and sounding so beautiful so often

Thanks jbuhl, I'll have to see if I can access my DAC on the Esoteric, it's in the shop being repaired right now. The drawer wasn't working.

At first glance it appears that CD player has a Bur Brown 1704 DAC which was state of the art when it first came out , albeit many many audiophile moons ago. Regardless I can only image Esoteric went full tilt on the implementation and its a good place to start with a DAC.

The default answer for people starting out here is Bluesound Node. But if you want to explore a high end option take a look at the Bryston BDP-3. It will stream Tidal and Qobuz and go Coax out to your Esoteric. It also supports DSD files. There is a BDP-3 on audiogon now for $2.2K. New they are $3.6K I think.

The Lumin products also get mush love on this site.  You might include the Lumin U1 in your exploration.

Note, Do you have wired Ethernet to your rig or only WiFi?

just checked the player no inputs outputs only

 

so you have two options

 

1: dac and streamer

 

2: streaming dac: an lumin x1 will exceed the sound qualiy of an esoteric cd player

 

we were esoteric dealers a properly set up x1 is neerly impossible to beat

 

in our shop it takes an outlay of 25k to 50k to actually better the x1

 

we have a vast collection of dacs streamers and servers

 

the node idea is a poor idea as it wont show you the potantial of streaming

 

the node sounds decent but it doesnt possess the same kind of sound as your esoteric does, a bricasti m3 plus 432Evo server will sound as good or better

the lumin x1 will better it

 

We have swithed over entirely over to treaming because when it is done right you can get the ease of instant playback, with better then cd performance

 

Dave and Troy

Audio intellect nj

streaming specialists:

bluesound,,bricasti, 432Evo servers, llumin naim, roon chord dealers