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Streamers/DACs

Just picked out gear for our new hifi room and I’m starting my search for a good streamer or streamer/DAC combo.  We have Paradigm Persona 3F speakers, Persona Sub and Anthem STR amp.  I’ve narrowed streamers options down to 3 well-reviewed choices: Aurender, Lumin T3, and Cary Audio DMS-700.  Not sure if I’d go with the Aurender A15 which has the option to just do digital out if I feel the urge upgrade to a better DAC or start with the N200 and either use the Anthem’s DAC or buy a separate unit right off the bat.  Mostly interested in streaming Quboz, don’t care about Roon. The audio room has no realistic way to add an Ethernet port so I’ll need to work around this with a Wi-Fi to Ethernet bridge (or comparable solution) if I choose Aurender or Lumin, whereas the DMS-700 has a built-in Wi-Fi option (but a seemingly rudimentary app by comparison to the others).  Any experience with these products is welcome.  Of particular interest would be experiences from other Persona owners and why they chose the streamers/DACs they did but all input is welcome.  Thanks much, this forum has helped immensely in the build thus far. 

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lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,598 posts
 

@blisshifi

My experience with EtherREGEN was a mix bag as well. It did more harm than good in my system and I end up moving away from it. When it first came out, there weren’t many options to tweak Ethernet so many reported positive feedback. IME, the impact of FILTERS and Switches greatly varies depending on what’s ahead of these devices. If you were using a high quality streamer, their impact may not be profound as opposed to someone using a Nucleus or iFI Zen.

I keep an open mind when it comes to Ethernet tweaks and believe their is no substitute for trying them in your system to truly understand their impact. Like you, I got done tweaking my Ethernet chain when I switched to Telegartner M12 Gold Switch w/JCAT LPS. Further, my switch and router are grounded with a pair of Entreq Macro Ground Boxes, the additions of grounding boxes was like cherry on top :-)

blisshifi's avatar
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blisshifi
1,209 posts
 

@lalitk Thanks for sharing your journey. I hadn't heard about the Telegartner until you mentioned it, but that looks like both a serious AND seriously overpriced piece of kit! :)

JCAT makes incredible stuff across the board from what I've seen and heard. My only experience with them were their XE cards.

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,598 posts
 

@blisshifi

Don’t even get me started on overpriced gear, you and I both know why most of our gear overpriced or carry fat markups….LOL!

benzman's avatar
benzman
417 posts
 

Ok so as an owner of Persona 5F’s and former owner of Cary DMS 700 and the Lumin T2 I can definitely help you out. Also had the Aurender N series of streamers and Aurender A10 combo. 
Please pm me and would be glad to give you my take. 
Russ

woodsworld
22 posts
 

I’m using the SMSL SD-9 streamer, with every output possible including I2S. It’s feeding a Musician Pegasus DAC. The SMSL streamer supports wifi and Tidal and Qobuz 

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