Best streamer/DAC for up to $1500

@cakyol - FYI - the Bluesound products also has tone controls built into the software interface

You can customize by the selected player e.g.

• My Soundbar does not have tone controls
• but my Pulse Mini and Node 2 allows adjustments to Treble and Bass
• plus you have the option to enable or disable tone controls

To access select Settings - Player - Audio - Tone Controls from the interface software

I opted not to go for the Vault because it only has one Hard Drive - My NAS has two mirrored RAID disks, which are great if a disk fails - just pop in another disk and the RAID asoftware rebuilds the mirror

You should buy "server grade" hard drives - they are far more reliable

Advantage of the Vault - you can load CD’s directly - but I use my computer, which also has access to the NAS, which I also use to purchase downloads - no more CD’s for me

Regards - Steve

@williewonka

My choice for the Mojo 2 is because of the overwhelmingly positive reviews of the product, as well as the fact that one of the the mojo 2 tone control bands is around 20 Hz, which is the low/subwoofer bass region, which is almost equivalent to the ’loudness’ settings which used to be available on older products and not on the newer ones, which I sorely miss. That is in fact one of the most important reasons I flipped to a Mojo 2 from the Qutest, which is considered to be a better (and more than twice as expensive) DAC.

I am obviously giving up my XLR output requirement but I promise I will keep the wires very short :-)

Thanks on all the suggestions.

Something to consider with a budget of $1,500 is the miniDSP SHD, you get superb core audio performance, true active balanced XLRs, and system flexibility. Then with Dirac Live and you have a game changer.

Dirac Live resolves the soundstage with improved clarity and intelligibility with all instruments and vocals. With the room correction aspect you'll experience deeper and tighter bass free of resonances throughout the listening area, with greater transparency and the removal of distracting artifacts.

The miniDSP SHD is a good example of a streaming high definition digital audio processor with excellent DACs. Dirac Live uniquely combines frequency response correction as well as impulse response (time domain) correction in the digital domain. Fixing time domain anomalies is an impressive advancement for any audiophile system.

The only downside is the increased complexity and effort needed to fully integrate Dirac Live. So having excellent dealer support is important.  Deer Creek Audio is an authorized miniDSP SHD dealer.

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The Innuos Zen Mini Mk3 is available in your price range and has been very favorably reviewed. I’m considering its big brother myself (Innuos Zen Mk 3). You can then later add the separate power supply for another 650.00 to step it up a notch. You can rip CDs to its internal hard drive, which is another plus...

hi guys, 

coming iFi Neo Stream (streamer+ dac all in1) at $1299 then upgrade psu the iFi iPower Elite (12v-15v) at around $300 i think is the best value in the market right now.