Combination streamer and music server…without DAC

Not much discussion here of a computer plus Audirvāna or other software, with an outboard dac. This is very flexible and I have found the DAC makes a big difference. Chord Qutest has galvanic isolation on the usb. This sounds markedly better than an RPi with various hats, which I also tried.

I recently upgraded to a Aurender N150, I'd go with them, thing is built beautifully, and sound is phenomenal, dead quiet and I put 500 CDs on the internal SSD in .wav and they sound better than ever.

I used to have a Sonos Connect mod wright and all my music playing from a NAS through the modded Sonos and it sounded awesome, the Aurender playing them directly from the internal SSD blows the old setup away, I do also do a little streaming on Qobuz, but the internal SSD files sound the best, the HiRes stuff on Qobuz is pretty good though.

My vote is Aurender, the only thing I wish they did was include a IR remote, just for play/pause and skip tracks, I dont love having to do everything while getting a tan from a ipad screen during a listening session.

Brandon:  I’m newly retired and the Aurender W20SE would account for 1/2 annual of my combined Pension and SS!  I do want to thank everyone for their suggestions.  A lot to mull over..

I highly recommend the bluos node. You can upgrade the power supply and add fiber making a hard to beat budget streamer. Good luck in your search. Remember you can spend a lot of money with little return, be careful!

everyone is going to recommend the brands they use so here’s mine 

Wolf Audio Systems. I use a LUNA R pure digital. Wolf works with stillpoints and audience for their internal vibration control, and wiring. If your music system is in your TV room, The Wolf 🐺 can hook up to your television and display your music on your TV as well and you can use a wireless mouse to navigate through your server or roon or whatever. They are built in Florida and they can be remotely accessed from the manufacturer who is available almost all the time to help over the phone. I had an issue this week and all I had to do was call Joe and he access to my server and fix it while I was at work.  
 

also the sound quality… it’s amazing but don’t take my word for it. It’s also a stereophile recommended component.