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
fredcdobbs
128 posts
 
I'm just getting into streaming so after ditching the throw way interconnects and hooking up my Node2i with an Audience Cable, I am quite impressed. My next move will be to have an ethernet cable strung to my listening room and I've ordered some optical cables so I can feed the Bluesound stream into my Gugnier DAC thinking the Gugnier must be better Schiit than the Bluesound DAC, but keeping an open mind and will listen for results. There is only one Coax input on the DAC which is occupied with my CD transport so I am hoping for better results from than I've had in the past with optical cables. I might just be prejudiced but I have the feeling it's going to be a "fail" and I'll be back to using the RCA outs from the Node 2i into my amp. Not been impressed with glass cables in the past. I wish the Gugnier had two COAX inputs. 
fredcdobbs
128 posts
 
There's always MSB for about $20k with power supply. 
fredcdobbs
128 posts
 
There's always MSB for about $20k with power supply. 
tjkurita
47 posts
 
I just recently switched from an oppo bdp 103 as a streamer to a Node 2i. Both feeding an Emm Labs dcc2 SE. One thing that is absolutely obvious in my case is how much better both streamers sound when the Emm Labs handles the processing (including clock). Direct from the source the oppo outclasses the node by a good bit. I have found the node significantly lacking as a stand-alone unit. When they both feed the Emm Labs their differences are much less discernible. As transports go they are kind of lateral comparisons. 
From my experience if you get yourself a high performing DAC the quality of the sound will scale with your transport upgrade. This might not be the case the other way around. I think a great transport will be more limited by a bad DAC than a great DAC being limited by a bad transport. 
As far as digital is concerned I am strongly of the opinion that the DAC and clock are the most important factors. 
saika2
31 posts
 
@deep_333
...LOLOLOLOL...."emperors new clothes" indeed. The Audioengine BFi is pretty neat, and costs less than a couple of benjamins! Folks should try.
More to discover