Any improvement of using 2K$ Dac with Cambridge CXN

@wallpoom, it sounds like part of your desire to upgrade DACs includes the desire to experience high-res content. If you’re willing to wait until the end of this year, Amazon will begin streaming CD and high-res content through its service, Amazon Music Unlimited. The price appears to be $15 USD/month for an individual plan, which is cheaper than Tidal’s $20 USD/month. Amazon’s high-res content will not be MQA based. So, you can take advantage of 24/96 content on your current Cambridge streamer via its the Chromecast ability. If you’re willing to wait a bit, you can effectively save money and get an upgrade at the same time.

I suspect, like the Schiit owners, that MQA is just a fad. Amazon’s recent announcement to tackle high-res content may prove that out. Amazon positioned its streaming preamp and streaming amp at the mass consumer $300 threshold. Further, Amazon may be taking a loss at its streaming price of $15/month, knowing that its streamers will own Prime memberships, and that Amazon will recoup its losses elsewhere. Ultimately, a plan to make CD and high-res music cheaper and easier to access is great for all music consumers, but this particular way of doing may spells bad news for MQA, and may be bad for Tidal too.

If you buy an MQA DAC now, and if MQA goes the way of SACD and DSD, you may find that you could have purchased a better non-MQA DAC for the same money.

@audiotroy Clearly consumers, including audiophiles, are beginning to prefer all-in-one systems over separates. Although customers prefer streaming DACs, would you say that streaming DACs are more likely to be sonically superior to a separate streamer connected to a separate DAC over SPDIF?

I currently run an integrated amp with DAC (the Peachtree Decco65). My problem is finding a decent streamer separate, not to mention one at the relevant price point. Almost all the streamers out there have DACs included, and I would prefer not to duplicate equipment costs unnecessarily. Any thoughts on how to build a decent budget system without spending hundreds on a second DAC that isn’t used?

@wallpoom separating out the DAC and the streaming technology in order to upgrade those over time without constraint does favor going with separates.

The only issue would be MQA, if that is important to you, since that technology usually requires both the network streamer and the DAC to support MQA.

I would recommend getting a Lumin U1 or U1 Mini for the network streaming and a separate DAC that provides the sound quality you're looking for. Lumin's software is constantly updated, and their hardware is excellent and compatible with non-Lumin software too. Since you're in Thailand, I think you should be able to demo one locally.

Your choice of DAC will come down to personal preference.

There are good arguments between the integrated streaming solutions and separates.

One of the reasons we recommend the Lumin products so highly is that both their entry level D2 streamer and the T2 can morph into very good streaming transports, because they have digital outputs, in the T2 a USB output is also there.

The truth is that a properly designed all in one, will almost always beat a two piece dac and streamer, because of the issues which occur in transmitting data and the likelyhood of introducing jitter into the dac.

Are the Lumin's perfect no, but they sound fantastic are extremely well designed, and offer an upgrade path because they have good digital outputs and as mentioned previously Lumin is all on implementing the streaming choices that people want.

MQA is a good option for Tidal users, does MQA sound great yes it does, Will it endure, who knows with the streaming content wars, the good thing either way is how Lumin will always offer the best in streaming services. 

As per Naim and Cambridge always winning What Hifi awards hey they are both British kind of looks like in house nepotisim. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Lumin dealers