Fairly new to streaming. Where to start?
artemus_5Then stick with R2R dac regardless of what streamer you go for. If you want streamer and dac in one box the you’ve made your bed a long time ago with Naim "PRat" sound, get a Naim ND 555 a PCM1704 based R2R dac https://www.naimaudio.com/product/nd-555 DON"T!!!! ditch all your CD's, I've seen too many now want to reverse and can't and they just give up on audio as a hobby. Cheers George |
@artemus_5, The Innuos Zen Mini + PSU is a two box, streamer with built in DAC and external power supply. You can start with single box (streamer w/DAC) but it does sounds better with external power supply. If you want to hook up your CDP into a DAC then you would need to pick up a DAC with at least two COAX Inputs. Benchmark DAC3 does offers two COAX inputs. One of the very important consideration outside sound quality is the app interface. Lumin, Aurender, Innuos and Bluesound offers the best App experience that allows end users viewing and playing high resolution music collections a breeze. I own both Aurender and Bluesound and never felt the need for Roon App. Roon also requires a subscription, $119 per year or $699 for a lifetime subscription. |
The original Auralic Vega is DAC only. The Vega G1/2 are totally different animals and do indeed stream as well. And cost a lot more.... Agree with lalitk on Roon. In fact the Aurender Conductor app has a very Roon like look and feel without the cost. BTW. I started with a Bluesound Vault2i and progressed through various items and now use an Aurender N100 streamer feeding a MHDT Orchid R2R NOS DAC via USB. Pretty darn happy so far.... |
Thanks for all the input. Its very helpful. So, it looks like I should go with separates which makes sense. I think maybe I don’t understand some of the terminology used by the mfgs. Though somewhat new to streaming high quality music, I do have 30 yrs experience with computers and stream video via Roku. I also have a laptop to stream from if that is good. But I think its best not to use a computer...Right? BTW, I only have 13 inch width available. NOT the 134 my big fingers put earlier |
