Streaming 102

I own the Yggdrasil and give it two thumbs wayyyy up. 

what hasn’t been discussed to you so far is the ease of streaming with associated software. I own a Bluesound Node in a bedroom system, and the Beaty of it is bulletproof software that doesn’t crash and hardware that robustly comes back from being accidentally turned off (like with loss of power). The software interface matters a lot.

 I use an Aurender N100H with my Yggdrasil, and one reason I got it is that the controlling software was intuitive and easy to use, a bit more sophisticated than the Bluesound but with a steeper learning curve. This combo sounds much, much better than the Bluesound. However, when this unit loses power, the return to functionality is not graceful. Often several reboots are required, and I mean hard reboots. It is not possible to follow the software commands from a controlling iPad, as the unit doesn’t communicate after losing power. The Bluesound is a much more robust consumer product.

so my recommendation is to play around with controlling the server before you buy. 

The streamers job is to interface with the service in a robust way. 

Node2i is very stable and 0s and 1s are all the same really. 

Upgrading the DAC will make a big difference. 

Get a MQA DAC if you are interested in using Tidal 

Vinson totally wrong there is a very large improvement moving from anode to a real server

The cleaner the signal fed to the dac the better your dac will

sound

We sell servers from 432evo the sonic

difference between models is easy to hear

Bit quality does affect a dac

DAVE AND TROY

audio intellect nj

US IMPORTERS 432EVO MUSIC SERVERS

One option if you decided to move on from the Esoteric is one of the Bryston BDP products.  In addition to Streaming Tidal/Qobuz is attaching an external DVD drive and playing or ripping your CDs to external storage.  Then your digital stream and CD library is all under one interface control.  I have been going to the library and checking out jazz and classical CDs and ripping those to local storage ,a small Terabyte flash the hangs off my BDP.

The BDP series stuff ain’t cheap but a used BDP-2 can be had for about $1.5k.  But this investment its a platform you can build on.   I found a BDP -pi for less than $600 but that model is discontinued along with the 1 and 2 series but they still support them and there is an active community over on audiocircle. Manic Moose interface is widely panned but it works and those units are all Roon Ready endpoints.   

I went through a few phases of this. I cannot say enough how both do matter.  A bad streamer can send noise to DAC. 
 

I can also say tons of deals out there used. Hunt and find and save a ton. I got a Sonore Rendu Signature SE and PSAudio Directstream DAC for almost exactly $5000 off Facebook and eBay. They go for about $10k new. Amazing sound. 
 

I am a true believer in the Sonore line. DACs i have only owned a few so not much help other than a recommendation for PSAudio. You will be much happier with the Sound quality by splitting your funds and upgrading both.