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"Need" Roon, Bluesound Node, or or other streamer?

I am thinking about adding a streamer, and have hopelessly confused myself, and hoping you all can straighten me out with some advice/options here.

All I want to do is stream my Tidal with MQA quality, Quboz, new Apple tier, Amazon, and my ripped CDs, all with as much sound quality as possible (with a budget of $1200 maxish).   Integrated playlist capability, and ideally with full MQA for the Tidal (but low priority in the scheme of things).   I do not need wireless, multizone, etc. 

Currently my Macbook Pro is the "streamer" using Tidal, Quboz & Apple supplied apps.  I USB out to my DAC.

-- If I buy the Bluesound Node, I lose full MQA if I connect my external DAC.  They tell me I have to use their internal DAC.  Otherwise I can connect my external at a lower "quality".  Yet, many people here trash their DAC...
-- Trial of Audirvana Studio is a train wreck so far... 

 Questions: For my situation, in you all's opinion:

  • Buy the Node, and call it a day? I could switch between Internal Node Dac for MQA and external DAC...
  • Buy a Cambridge or other streamer and call it a day? Are they worth the extra $$ especially if I would ideally like to stick with my external DAC?
  • Buy into Roon solution and either build a NUC server or go Little Green or Nucleus?  OR use one of my old Mac laptops maybe?
  • What the hell is the difference between Roon and the Bluesound Node anyway?

Sorry, all over the place here, but evidence of my frustration...

Any advice is greatly appreciated!






bogbeat
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 
Aurelic Aries is very good sonically assuming you're using it with their or another high quality linear power supply. Current models are Roon-ready, but if you're getting an older one, it's worth confirming that it's Roon-ready or you'll be stuck with their proprietary software, which is pretty good, but not as engaging as Roon. 

An advantage IMHO of the bridge approach is that you can invest in a NAS based on the size of your library and keep the NAS in a different room allowing you to use standard disk types (e.g. Western Digital Red) instead of having to pay for SS drives(quieter but much more costly). 

Another worthy line of "bridge" devices aka renderers is Sonore, which I am biased towards, and feel offer the most sound quality and flexibility for the cost, along with superb support...especially if purchased from Small Green Computer. Cheers,
Spencer
bogbeat OP
46 posts
 
Thanks a lot, Spencer.  The Sonore/Small Green Computer offerings are a very enticing option! Still need to look into whether the ARIES is ROON ready.   I like the bridge approach as well. 

In the meantime, I jumped on the Cambridge deal to buy me some time to more carefully sort out what I really want/need.

All of you all's info and advice has opened up my eyes to a bunch of possibilities, and a new lens to evaluate with/through!
naseltzer
7 posts
 

Ignore the anti-MQA jihadists. It sounds fantastic. I’ve blind tested it--with repeated trials, the proper way--with dozens of tracks. In most cases it sounds equal to or better than Qobuz. People just don’t like it because it’s closed source and technically lossy (it doesn’t lose anything that matters, while preserving some sonic information that is normally lost in conventional PCM). When people talk about FLAC being "lossless", it only refers to the preservation of the PCM data itself. But what really must be preserved is the original sound. MQA does a better job at this.

But haters are gonna hate and they’re going to hear whatever they expect to hear.

audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,778 posts
 

ho  the dedicated servvers all sound better

mrklas
441 posts
 

Trial Roon to see if you find it useful - I choose not to use Roon simply because I only stream to 1 system and use Moon's MiND2 app that enables usage of music from the server or multiple services.

Tidal vs Qobuz try them out and test them.  I preferred Tidal and part of the reason was the music selection. 

MQA is a nice capability; I wouldn't make it a critical capability.

Good lucn and enjoy the journey!

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