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Going from computer audio to dedicated streamer

A few days ago I purchased a Bluesound Node 2. Immediately after hooking it up I noticed a more relaxed less digital sound than I was getting from my Mac mini into my Wyred 4 Sound Dac-2. My hookup for the Mac was via a good usb cable into a Musical Fidelity Vlink192 coax into the Wyred 4 Sound. It is every bit as detailed as streaming Tidal through the Mac but is more "musical" and relaxed. An example would be on high dynamic contrasts the Mac could sound harsh and a little piercing in the highs. This was with every speaker I have owned. Not that it sounded bad overall, actually sounded quite good but I am loving this upgrade so far. No more messing with Amarra or Audirvana for me and dealing with the associated crashes etc.   
I am curious of others experiences good or bad moving away from computer audio to something else.
Also is anyone running an external hard drive with their music collection and running though the Bluesound or similar device and how is that working out?   
mofojo
mdelrossi1
79 posts
 
@mofojo 
I'm running a synology NAS as my music drive. Just point the Node to the folder on the NAS and it indexes the music and plays just fine. the only problem is album art. My collection is a mess that I made in iTunes and doesn't  transfer well. I'd say half of my collection need to be fixed.

project for a rainy day.

samac's avatar
samac
499 posts
 
@mofojo 

I've had my Bluesound Node 2 for nearly a year. Like you I heard an immediate improvement; more musical, refined and easy to listen to. I'm very glad to have the computer out of the way and I can't see ever going back to USB.

I believe I'll also try the W4S Remedy soon. Too many good reviews and user comments not to give it a try.

Cheers,

Scott
rbstehno
1,470 posts
 
Went from a nice Mac/audirvana setup to the auralic Aries and a big jump in performance. The Aries was hooked up to my w4s dac 2 dsd using a aq diamond USB. Since the Aries had a Fenton clock in it, I didn't need to use the w4s recovery USB reclocker. The GUI interface iPad app is fantastic, I could use the ds lightning app or the lumin app to control the Aries. 
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
If you want to try an external DAC, keep in mind if the external DAC is not MQA compatible you'll not be able to take full advantage of the MQA processing which Node2 delivers.
mofojo OP
2,304 posts
 
Does your DAC-2 have the femto clock in it? I am sending mine in to get converted to 110v from 220v and adding the femto clock. Not sure I'll hear any difference or not. I was thinking about going the V.2 route but decided to wait and see if they add mqa support. 
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