A/B Comparison On A Pair Of Moderately Priced Streamers

@scottya118, IMHO having the best DAC that you can afford with the cleanest power is far more important than looking for a streamer that can supposedly do everything. I use a Chord Hugo TT2 DAC with a Chord M Scaler that use Nick Bacon’s excellent WAVE Storm BNC interconnects. Both have their own linear power supply units that are plugged into an AudioQuest Niagara power conditioner.

I use a simple Roon Nucleus music streamer with its own LPSU because all I needed was a small dedicated computer to help me navigate through the millions of tracks available to be streamed over the internet. I didn’t want another multi thousand dollar box with its own internal filters, a display screen, and that weighed several kilos between me and my music. The Nucleus is just a pass thru for the internet signal. It’s what’s in front of it coming from my router, and what’s behind it going to my M Scaler that makes the real difference in sound quality in my system. And as @richtruss said, things sound a whole lot better with a cleaned up Ethernet connection.  

@ghdprentice Thank you for an as reasonable written contribution.

@soix  I'm happy with my Node.

Get the node and add an external LPS and a separate DAC. 

@cwatters0 I've heard it (the iFi NEO Stream) uses the same software as the iFi Zen Stream, so I wonder if it too is hampered by Wi-Fi connection issues or must be used wired? Would be good to know. 

@rudyb Its fine you’re happy with your Node, but don’t come in here overconfidently spewing crap you think you “know” when you’ve obviously no idea what you’re talking about. That might fly on ASR or Reddit, but people here are more knowledgeable and experienced so better to be a little more measured than coming in here telling us what you supposedly “know.” It comes across as both arrogant and ignorant. My advice — try a Lumin, Innuos, Aurender, Aries, etc. and then reassess what you think you “know” and if you’re still happy with your Node.  I bet not.