2. digital
  3. 160436-150944

spend on the streamer or on the DAC ?

I a considering splashing north of 5000 (euro) for a new source for my rig (MOOON 340i, OPERA QUINTA speaker, McIntosh SACD, Node2). Better to spend more for the DAC or the streamer ? I was thinking about a Schitt yggrasil.Or would it make sense to spalsh on a more expensive DAC and use the Node2 as a streamer, or, for that matter, stream from my Macbook Pro. Regards.
olica
djones51
4,947 posts
 
Invest in the DAC. I've used streamers from a raspberry pi4 to Node2i,  Bel Canto, Simaudio, Aurrender and there isn't a nickel worth of difference between them. If you want to stick with digital input use the Node if you want USB get a raspberry pi4 and get the best DAC you can afford. 
nekoaudio's avatar
nekoaudio
489 posts
 
@olica the DAC will have a much larger impact on the sound character, regardless of where it is getting its audio data from. Changing the data source into that DAC will not be able to significantly change that character, and is instead probably best thought of as optimizing for it.
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 
There are also plenty of streamer/DACs built into one unit, like the Bryston BDA-3.14.  Sometimes eliminating two sockets, one cable, and everything that goes along with that, pays dividends.
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,428 posts
 
“Bel Canto, Simaudio, Aurrender and there isn’t a nickel worth of difference between them.”

I bet you saved lot of nickels staying with raspberry pi4 😂
facten
2,876 posts
 
Went from a Cambride Audio CXC to a SimAudio 260DT CD transport feeding my Mojo Audio EVO DAC ; it made a positive difference in SQ
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