Thinking of taking the plunge.


Thinking of going into streaming. Any advice on equipment between 1 and 2000.00.

argee

A good way to get your feet wet with streaming is with a Bluesound Node 2i. Available for $400 or less used. HI-Res DAC built-in, uses NAD BluOS (which is stable streaming software) and it’s easy to use. You can obviously get a better DAC and/or Streamer later but its a good place to start.

Three general ways these days:

1) Smartphone, tablet or computer to hifi

2) Media streamer like Roku as the source

3) dedicated audio streamer......Bluesound is the popular place for many there.

@argee  - If you just want to dip your toes into the streaming waters, you can start out very inexpensively since you already have an external DAC. I'm a pretty frugal guy, but have considerable money in my vinyl setup and vinyl media. Because of that, I've stayed on the budget side of digital music streamers (so far).

At the moment I have 2 different streaming platforms. 1). DIY Raspberry Pi3 based music streamer running Volumio OS (about $100) .  2). New Wiim Mini Streamer (currently $89 on Amazon).

Both of these work well and sound very good streaming to the DAC in my Rega Saturn-R CD/Transport/DAC. The Wiim Mini is basically plug and play and very inexpensive. Works well, controlled via the Wiim app downloaded to my iPhone. The Wiim Mini only has toslink optical digital output for connecting to an external DAC, but you should be covered with the Wadia unless you're already using that optical input.

So, for $89, you could be streaming literally tomorrow. I stream Spotify Premium (it is not Hi-Res) and Radio Paradise. I'll likely be doing a trial of Qobuz. I had Tidal for a year and didn't love it, but honestly did not really give it much of a chance.

Anyway, costs almost nothing to try the Wiim Mini or a RPI based DIY streamer. If you love it, invest more into a great streamer, or maybe a great streamer and a new DAC.

Best of Luck...