Suggestions for a streamer only (I have a great DAC)

Unbelievable!  What is it with audiophiles that they feel they  have to spend crazy amounts of money on such simple things?  

Any decent laptop PC can do all the streaming you want.  Pick one up for $300 off of Craigslist and then spend the rest of you budget on...   Well you don't need to spend it.

I've been running low cost laptop PCs running Ubuntu Linux feeding a USB line into a Peachtree DAC for years now.   Sounds great.  I can stream from an Internet service, or from my sizable collection of ripped CDs.   I also do location recording, so I use it to play back the recordings I make.

Hi Naperaudio,

My suggestion would be to get an ifi Zen Stream (only $300 or so), and an upgraded power supply. I recently upgraded from a Bluesound Node 2i to the Zen stream, paired with a linear power supply from McRU (around $350). Beats the pants off of what I had before, and costs far less than most streamers (and probably sounds just as good, though I haven’t heard others like Auralic. In any case, I’m using the Zen Stream to stream from Tidal using Tidal connect and it works and sounds great! 

Rasberry pis are for nerds :)

Josh

i agree that the ifi zen stream is really a terrific streamer for very little money, esp with an lps powering it - it has a good deal of noise filtering built into both input and output sides of it, which is why it sounds very pure

some wifi connectivity issues have been reported but i suspect software updates have solved this -- i use it with ethernet feed and roon, so have avoided some of the early pitfalls

It will interesting to see what the PS Audio streamer quality will be. I believe they will release it 2020.

@naperaudio

If an Innuos Zenith Mk3 ends up as a contender, it just so happens that I placed an ad for one on US Audio Mart yesterday evening. The price falls within your stated budget: https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649831352-innuos-zenith-mk3-music-server-2tb-storage