Ready For Digital Source...Computer?

I was not trying to "push" the Antipodes product. I was just stating what I compared the Innous to when I listened to it (it was an audio shop in San Francisco). There are a lot of streamer options. I’m sure there are going to be competing arguments here, but I think you would be extremely happy with a Roon Nucleus with linear power supply. You don’t necessarily need to spend $5k+ on just the streamer part. It’s all about your budget. My point was that the Innous is definitely coloring/changing the waveforms and most other streamers are not doing this (unless you forcable enable some sort of DSP in your streamer). Like I said, many people have listened to Innous and think it’s the greatest thing on earth. Everyone has different points of view of what the "best sound" is.

Also, depending on what you want to do. the lesser priced Roon Nucleus ($1459) might be good enough. If you don’t need to do DSP on DSD audio files or have a need for multi-channel audio, then you probably do not need the Roon Nucleus Plus ($2559). The lower priced Roon Nucleus will still do DSD, but you won’t be able to apply much DSP to that. Lower priced Roon Nucleus will still do all DSP functions against PCM audio (such as CD, 24/96, 24/192, etc.).

The Nucleus is using an Intel i3 processor; the Nucleus + is using an Intel i7. This allows Roon Nucleus + to do all the extra DSP on DSD files. Some examples of DSP functions are Sample Rate Conversion, Procedural or Parametric EQ, Convolutions, Crossfeed, some Speaker Setup and Headroom Management. I’m not exactly sure what the Roon Nucleus provides for DSP.

As far as how I know this stuff, I’ve been in this audio game for 22 years at this point. My hobby also includes rebuilding/upgrading audio electronics (replacing/upgrading capacitors, internal wiring, rectifiers, audio stages, power supplies, etc. etc.) I’ve been doing that for about 15 years now.

I don’t know if this is something you want to consider, but there’s a used Roon Nucleus Rev A on audiogon for $995. It’s Rev A which means a limit on SSD thickness size and you only get one HDMI output, but this item does include a 1TB internal SSD for song storage. It’s used, of course.

What auxinput is suggesting is exactly what I thought you should do all along. Get the Roon nucleus with lps, and those dacs are the exactly what I suggest. I use the Musetec 005, wonderful dac, recent comparisons with Holo May and Mola Mola Tambaqui favored 005. Still, any of dacs mentioned would be superior to the server/dac combo.

Ah, a little bit of further googling and found documentation on DSP that Roon provides:

https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/articles/dsp-engine#Getting_Started

Just for kicks, I looked into that “432 Evo Essence” streamer/dac that you asked about earlier. It’s essentially a 432 Evo Standard (all the Evo are computer motherboards, which is not necessarily bad). They just put in an Asus Xonar Essence STX II PCI computer audio card and use that as the “DAC” (hence the name Evo Essence). This sound card originally sold for $200, but is now selling for $400-600 for some reason. I am intimately familiar with this card since I used to run this in my system many years ago. I also did modifications (upgraded capacitors / opamps). I used this for some years before I switched to using an external DAC. The stock Asus card uses Nichicon FG capacitors and somewhat low resolution op amps. This presents a very nice and pleasing sound, but it is not going to be super high resolution (due to the FG caps warming up the sound by slightly messing the high frequencies).

There’s another point of concern here. The Evo website has a bullet point on this item that says “Oven controlled clock for low jitter”. I have a gut feeling that this is a marketing falsehood. The Asus Essence card uses a TCXO, which is a temperature controlled clock. This is completely different than oven controlled clock (OCXO), which are generally much larger in size and require more power supply voltage. Unless Evo did significant modifications to this Asus card, I think they made a mistake on the description (I could be wrong here – others chime in if they have the definite knowledge).

Because of this, I think the Lumin T2 would be a highly superior all-in-one box. The Lumin T2 would be much higher resolution and more transparent as a DAC when compared to the 432 Evo Essence. It is entirely possible that this is the reason Audiotroy did not push the 432 Evo Essence dac when you asked about it.

A note on the Evo 432 products. They have a DSP mode called “432hz tuning”. This is another form of coloration where it changes the waveforms. I have never heard this, so I cannot say what it’s really doing to the music and if this is a good result. However, the 432 allows you to enable/disable this DSP mode whenever you want.

Further note on Denafrips. Based on listening and descriptions, the Denafrips generally have a thick sound that has a lot of “weight” to it. However, they are not the highest resolution / transparent DAC. Many prefer the Denafraps sound because of some reason or another. I have heard one person say that when they listen to music, they want a very pleasant sound that they can just relax/veg to. If you want a really forward / transparent / exciting sound, the Denafrips product may not be for you. It all comes down to personal preference. If this is what you’re looking for, then awesome, get a Denafrips.

sns - Thanks, auxinput really does know what he is talking about. Yes, I will check out those recommended DACs. In the past, that is exactly what I had, a Roon Nucleus USB’d to my W4S 2v2 SE DAC (9038 Pro).

auxinput - Thanks Sherlock! Lots & lots of investigation, and yes, I do remembering playing around a bit with the DSP in Roon.

Great info on the Evo & Denafrips too. It would be nice to hear all this stuff first, but tough to do, so, at present.

How about the Pegasus Musician DAC, are you familiar with it?