Should I add a DDC? Looking for experienced advise please.

@yyzsantabarbara  Ok. I have a cheap computer. Its called a Zen mini MKiii by Innuos. Its designed to handle music and that's it. It cost $1000 with external Innuos power supply. I don't use Roon as I can't justify the cost. The Innuos sense 2.0 app works great for me and its free. I pay about $25 a month total for Qobuz and Tidal.

So following your path it sounds like I would need to add 4 more components to my system. 1, another cheap computer. 2, an OpticalRendu. 3, a media converter. 4, a network switch and all the extra cables and power supplies.

Since I don't have a multi story house to hide this stuff in as you do. I would have to try and put it all in my listening room. Being a simple average person the space also doubles as my dinning room when someone thinks they want to eat!

This is kind of why I am interested in the Denafrips Hermes option. I have one available to me for $1000. It has an optical isolation stage within plus would allow me to connect to my Pontus ii via I2S. Going this direction I add 1 component the Hermes, 1 power cable and a short HDMI cable.

What I am trying to decide is if I think its worth the $1000 or not. Starting to think I might just go for it and see for myself, I shouldn't have any trouble getting my money back if I decide it wasn't worth it.

J.F.

I recommend getting the DDC. I've made a lot of changes to my streaming setup over the past 2 1/2 years and adding a Gaia DDC was the most significant improvement. I'll chronicle my journey so you have some idea of the steps I took. 

2 1/2 years ago, I had a Roon ROCK server connected over ethernet to a Bryston BDP-2 streamer, which was connected to my Denafrips Terminator via AES/EBU (also tried SPDIF and preferred the balanced connection). The Roon server was connected through a cheap switch to the Bryston. 

I upgraded the switch to an EtherRegen with the Bryston connected to the quiet side. 

Added a linear PS for the EtherRegen. These last two changes were noticeable but quite subtle.

Added the Gaia connected via i2S to the Terminator. Wow. This was immediately obvious even with a cheap $15 HDMI cable. The Bryston was connected to the Gaia with AES/EBU. 

Upgraded the i2s cable to a Tubulus Argentus. Subtle difference. 

Then I tried connecting the Roon server directly to the Gaia via USB. I could barely notice the difference with and without the Bryston streamer, so I sold the Bryston. Without the Gaia, the difference between connecting the Roon server directly to the Terminator and using the Bryston was quite noticeable. 

Upgraded my DAC to a Terminator Plus and used the slave clock connections to the Gaia. This was a nice improvement (after a few hundred hours of burn-in), but adding the Gaia to the Terminator was a larger (and way more immediate) improvement.

Bought a Sonore Optical Rendu connected to the optical port on the EtherRegen. This was a more noticeable difference than the Bryston was. 

Upgraded the Sonore to a Signature Rendu SE. Another somewhat subtle improvement. 

Replaced the Roon ROCK and EtherRegen with a SonicTransporter i9 optical connected optically to the Signature Rendu. I didn't notice any difference in sound quality, but the SonicTransporter is faster and allows me to use more DSP functions and support more zones throughout the house without having any drop-outs. 

Of all these changes, adding the Gaia to the Terminator was the most significant improvement, followed closely by upgrading from the Terminator to the Terminator Plus. I spent many times the cost of the Gaia on all the other upgrades (including some cables and power supplies I didn't mention) and the Gaia provided by far the most bang for the buck. 

That said, everything counts and my system sounds considerably better now than it did 2 1/2 years ago.

If you are not a ROON user then what I suggested is pointless. However, for the readers that are ROON users then what I use is rather cheap and maybe hard to surpass.

@johnfritter

your zen mini is a good streamer/endpoint but even in innuos’ line, there are better streamers, with better internal noise management, isolation, clocking... so there is better sound to be had, otherwise who would buy the more pricey innuos models right?... question is, with your current speakers, will you notice that much of a difference? we can’t tell you that...

roon users using a core machine plus optical rendu driving its usb out to dac is very very hard to beat, but there are others ways to skin the cat -- none are cheap, many require a number of small boxes and power supplies... gets to be spaghetti time in a hurry

i had gaia into pontus, i did not hear a significant difference in sq from using coax spdif into pontus, but then again i wasn’t using a noisy everyday multi use computer to feed the stream

my sense was, pontus + gaia was $3 grand -- could do better with other gear...the pontus is nice as a 1500 dollar dac... there are notably better in the 3 grand range

@yyzsantabarbara I agree with you. Long ago I compared an overbuilt mini PC to my since sold, Innuos Zenith Mk3 with PhoenixUSB. The comparison involved running Roon core. The overbuilt fanless miniPC (since then, an Intel NUC running ROCK) beat the Zenith Mk3 hands down for stability, no crashes of Roon Remote, DSP and SQ. The differences were not subtle. Sold my InnuOS gear and saves thousands. My fanless (Intel NUC) MiniPC cost me around $1000 to build from parts from Amazon. Never looked back. I do have a high quality ethernet cable running from the NUC to an audiophile ethernet switch, as I did with my InnuOS gear, butIMO from my experience, and YMMV, these Roon Core server vendors are the emperor without clothes.