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Fairly new to streaming. Where to start?

$2k & under budget

Aralic Vega has streamer  and DAC. May be the easiest start?
Then there is Schiit...Yiggy or Gumby...which streamer?
Ladder NOS dac? Or Chip? I'm old. maybe I'll like the old school DAC?
Then there is  Benchmark DAC 3...I think it has streamer?
Then
Exasound E32
Audio Mirror?
Metrum
MHDT Orchid
Border Patrol?
Musical Paradise?
Whats a newbie to do? I am a classic rock fan with lots of FLAC & M4a files. I like detail & PRaT. Love a good bass line. I also play some 70's jazz. I have a Theta Miles CD player from the 1900's & play a lot of vinyl too. But I need to come into the 21st century.  Besides, I will probably become tired of the vinyl ritual and work at some point as I get older. I think I have done enough homework to be somewhat confused. Maybe the biggest question in light of how fast digital changes is the question of streamer with DAC or separate Streamer and DAC. One other question is the streamer & bridge the same thing? OK Thanks!! 
128x128artemus_5
mtraesbo
46 posts
 
I would recommend separate streamer and DAC. 

Regarding streamer I would first of all select one, where your favourite streaming services is embedded (Tidal, Spotify, etc). Secondly, I would vouch for using Roon. I enjoy the music metadata and music management capability. Personally, I am on my 2nd streamer and is using the Innuos Mini and that is great. 

For DAC a initial consideration is whether it is is MQA-enabled or not. Secondly, pending your budget, you could consider a FPGA-based DAC vs chip-based. Currently, I have the RME ADI-2 DAC and that works very well with the Innuos. 

Both sell for around 1k €. 
artemus_5's avatar
artemus_5 OP
1,982 posts
 
Gentlemen, many thanks again for the help/. One clarification I have.

I will NOT be using the services of a streaming service, IE Qobuz, etc. I have been collecting FLAC & Apple Lossless for 10 or more years. I probably have at least 1TB in files now .Plus I'll be ripping more Cd's of which I probably have 2k. Then there are 4k albums. I have plenty of music . So I see no need of a subscription to music. And I have no desire at this time to have a Roon subscription. So, in effect I will only be streaming my own library, which is why the Vault looks tempting. IF i could hook up  my computer to my stereo system and have it sound good, that's all I would need for now. But we know that's not the way to get good sound. Hope I haven't rambled too much . again thanks
big_greg
6,654 posts
 
If you already have a bunch of digital music and a way to continue ripping CD's, then the Vault would be redundant.  All you really need is the Node 2i.  As long as your music is available on a shared drive on your network, the Node 2i can access it.
artemus_5's avatar
artemus_5 OP
1,982 posts
 
@big_greg




Thanks   I figured I can rip the cd's I need to on my computer. Theres quite a few but I have 1TB of music already ripped. Now for another question
I've read somewhere that all streamers are not equal in their ability to hand over the 1's & 0's over to the dac. I don't know if this is correct though. What is the general consensus on that? Do you know? Thanks
electroslacker
375 posts
 
Artemis, just get JRiver for your laptop and connect to a good USB DAC like a used Benchmark.  It will sound very good and you can start your streaming journey from there.

Also, if you go to Radio Paradise and set your stream to FLAC, you'll be surprised how good it sounds...with four streams to choose from and the ability to skip to next song.  Regardless of how big your CD collection is, Radio Paradise will greatly expand the musical landscape unless you just want to stay in classical or jazz content.  Also, you can run a remote desktop  from a tablet to you laptop and be awfully close to the user interface of dedicated streamers. 

Yes, dedicated streamers and reclockers can make an improvement,  but what I described isn't shabby and gets you great sound as a cost-effective baseline.
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