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Where to invest the most in the "digital chain"?

Dear All,

I'd love to get everyone's opinions on where best to invest/invest the most, in the "digital chain".

Using my current "basic" system as an example I have very good Internet service into a very good router with the stock PSU on a dedicated power conditioner strip with an ifi AC iPurifier. From there I have Audioquest Pearl Cat6 to a Cisco 2960G with an upgraded Russ Andrews Power Cable. There follows another AQ Pearl Cat6 to an English Electronics 8Switch with an ifi iPowerX. From there I have the Chord C-Stream Ethernet to my ifi Zen Stream with a 15V ifi iPowerX. Then a Wireworld Chroma 8 cable to an ifi iPurifier3 into a Zen DAC v2 also with ifi iPowerX. The EE8, Stream and DAC benefit from a power-conditioner/surge protector and a pair of AC iPurifiers.

I've got a SotM iSO-CAT7 on order which I am intending to put between the EE 8Switch and the network transport with a dCBL-CAT7u into the network transport.

Phew, that was a lot of words!

My question is, and this applies to all systems as a generic question, where is it best to invest the most? Should the best Ethernet cables and/or switches and/or isolators be first in the chain (i.e. from the Internet source) or at the end of the chain (into the DAC/Music Streamer/Network Transport)? Similarly, where should the best power supplies be placed? Or does it all matter equally?

This is purely about the digital chain, I'm well aware that great speakers and a great AMP with good power and speaker cables make all the difference too!

I'm interested in opinions and I will of course experiment for myself.

jabbaman
wmorrow's avatar
wmorrow
14 posts
 

HI guys I'll start out by admitting I'm an analog/vinyl guy. I am how ever wanting to listen on multiple systems without have to reproduce my expensive system in every room and also want to travel with music.. So I have been playing around and have the same questions as posed here. I have serval inexpensive digital sources a Hiby r6 DAP I started with this for travel witch got me started down the digital path. I also then did a Raspberry PI into a IFI Zen dac and also own a Bluesound NODE 2021. So the test I ran was to take my digital and put it on 2 USB drives one on my router as a network drive the other plugged directly into the NODE. I hear little to no difference between the two setups. I heard a bigger difference in sound quality with the changing cables between the NODE and my Pre-amp. So my next step will be to buy the best DAC I can afford with the best analog section. I do think the streamer makes a difference but less than the DAC. IMO   

oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
4,200 posts
 

I would argue that if you mostly stream , the streamer’s quality is just as important as the DAC.   It’s a “Transport “ in the sense that an optical drive is.  It’s job is tougher than a transport because it has other issues aside from error correction like an optical drive has.   
 

I almost got the Aurender A200 but I got the N200 instead because much effort went into giving it clean digital outs.  I’ll always have an external DAC so I figured why not. Plus the features and display.   Also most importantly is that it is a caching player.  It loads the data to a SSD memory buffer and then plays it.   In addition it has user removable drive bays.    There is a lot of tech packed in there.   

ghdprentice
8,121 posts
 

The key to streamers is that they isolate vibration, electrical noise… etc. the signal sent to the DAC is incredibly important. They make a huge difference. Keeping the DAC and streamer separate (as long as they are both high quality) also makes an important difference.

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smortega
70 posts
 

I'm also on the DAC camp being the most important. Then that the DAC uses ethernet as the conduit- it's the most direct route to the 1's and 0's.Then Roon to organize the 1's and 0's. After that, it gets subjective. I did put in a non-audiophile grade network switch on the advice of my workplace IT guy who agrees that separating what's going to the audio outputs from the rest of the router noisiness was a good idea but I could get that for $200 rather than $800, or even much more. As for cables, I moved up to Blue Jeans uncut and borrowed some tools from my IT friend to attach the RJ-45 plugs. The switch and the cables together did indeed make a difference, but nowhere near as much as a DAC with an Ethernet card. 

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