Streamer wanted

Spiritofradio,

I appreciate your missing me.
Since I got a wonderful DAC (Benchmark) and high res audio disc digital extractor (GeerFab,) I’ve been more in the digital realm and neglecting records lately. As the novelty wears off, I’ll be getting back to them.
As far as the streamer goes, I’ll see if the Node 2i is any better with the Benchmark than it was with the previous DAC. I’m actually fairly pleased with how good a job WiFi does. I just want to investigate hi res streaming which my Arcam is incapable of.

As an owner of the Arcam st60, I can say that it is a solid piece that checks “almost” all of the boxes one would want.  It has chrome cast built in, will do tidal MQA decoding(important to me), Spotify connect, upnp, and digital in (toslink & coax). It also works with Roon. Has single ended and balanced (important to me) outputs, digital outs if you don’t like the “sound” of the unit(you can adjust the ESS filters on it) and want to run your own dac.  It can also act as a preamp if you’re only running streaming/digital as a source.  The music life application that comes with it is nothing fancy but runs without hiccups. My only “issue” with it is lack of a usb input.  Now in Arcam’s defense it is a “streamer” and not a DAC, but if you’re going to include digital in’s...   I’ve owned or have used streamers from Marantz, blue sound, And the RPi4.  I can say without a doubt I’m very happy with the sound from the Arcam.  

Unfortunately, my RPlay Arcam model, although ostensibly designed with hi res,
has been incompatible with my DACs.  Otherwise, the sound is quite impressive.

I have the Cambridge Audio CNX V2. Paid $700 on ebay for a refurbished unit. Great unit,  greater deal and I could not be happier using it as my only source for my Acoustat 33's w/ Roy E. Rebuilt TNT200 converted Monoblocks..

Interesting post. I wonder if anyone has tested the Matrix Audio mini I-pro 3. It is a bit over $1000. Compared to the Arcam ST60, it has a USB input, it is already already Roon certified, and it has a similar DAC (ESS9038Q2M versus the Arcam’s ESS9038K2M). The only disadvantage is that it is not a uPnP Streamer.

https://www.matrix-digi.com/en/products/489.html