Under $3K streaming dac suggestions, Roon Ready?

@audiotroy   Thank you for the breakdown, much appreciated!

My main reservations with the Mytek is that it's packed with functionality, almost all of which will never be used (but you never know, someday I could use it as a preamp).

About the same goes for the iFi, and since I can't currently use Roon with it directly, I would be using the same configuration I am currently, albeit with a better DAC than the Liberty.  That's not a bad option by any means, but I'm really trying to limit my box count.

Another option that may work is something in the Aurender line, if they make a streamer/dac combo that is Roon friendly.  I believe they do, but probably not for my current budget.  I will search around.

Right now I'm still leaning towards the Teac NT-505 and Auralic Altair G1.  The Cambridge CXN V2 is also intriguing, but to be honest it's mostly from an aesthetic standpoint.  I love the looks, and especially the front panel displaying artwork/sample rate, etc.  Long term, that shouldn't be a deciding factor, I know.

The dac chip in the LUMIN D2 is only 24-bit and was released in 2007, right?  

That is the same year iPhone was released! Ie, stone ages for fast moving tech area (at least as fast moving as audio gets). 

I havent listened to it and I’m sure it’s great for that era but just making the point it is 12 yrs old 

The only thing I would consider is the Ayre Codex, plus whatever you can do for the streaming part. I ended up with the Roonb Nucleus, serving both the endpoint and core functions. It sounds fantastic! For me, the Codex is what transformed the digital side of my system from HiFi, to truly musical. The only better choices I have heard are above $5k. The Aurilic stuff I have heard were not in the same leagu.

@musicloversaudio Thank you for the suggestion.  The Codex was on my watch list last year, but to me it seems like a sideways move from the Mytek Liberty.

I haven't heard the Codex, so I could be way off, but as far as my main goal, it puts me on the same boat.

Interesting post Musiclovers Audio an Ayre dealer. 

We have heard the Codex and quite frankly it is a very nice $2k dac personally we would take the Ifi DSD over the Ayre any day of the week, the combination of tubes and upconverting to high res DSD is awesome  sounding and extremely musical also with its multitude of filters you can have your digital sounding anyway your like

The Mytek is also a sweet little dac, not quite as bloomy as the ifi but an exceptional all around performer.

And if you are going to spend $2,500.00 on a Codex and another $1,200 to $2,500.00 on an appropriate streamer, and a digital cable you are going to be in the $5k price range, and then you have wonderful class leaders like the Lumin T2.

Kren the Wolfson Dac is indeed an older dac, just like the Burr Brown PCM 1792 that is used in the Bel Canto, the same chip is used in the brand new $8k Naim NDX II so the take away is unless you are processing to DSD 256 to 512 or higher res PCM the dac chip is just one part of the equation. 

Lumin uses the Wolfson because it is a very analog sounding dac chip.

We had a Lumin A1 traded in and it easily sounded as good as many of our modern dacs, just lacking a bit or air or prescence compared to the more modern Lumin T2 or some of the other dacs.

So yes it is nice to have the latest chip set back a dac's overall sound is affected just as much by the analog output stage, the dac's filters and jitter spectum and clocking.

For this reason the Lumin D2 is still considered one of the best sounding dac/streamers in its price point. Lumin is a divison of a large engineering company that builds broadcast gear and high performance cable boxes, they have a far greater engineering pool to call upon and  resources than most high end audio companies, which is one of the reasons that Lumin continues to be such a big player in  our little world. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ