Take a look at Melco’s. Not as big on this side of the pond but huge in Europe and Asia. Storage as you need, Roon ready. You can stream thru Ethernet without the use of USB. I have had Aurender and Lumin’s and Melco’s are a step above.
Combination streamer and music server…without DAC
Re. Combination streamer and music server without DAC: There don’t seem to be too many of these out there and when I do see them, they tend to be quite pricey (Aurender N20). I would like to use the DAC on my CD player. I’m looking for something used, between $3K and $4K. I suppose Lumin is an option by purchasing an L1 storage unit but I’m trying to avoid having another box. I have about 300 to 400 cd’s. Any suggestions? Thanks.
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Congratulations on your retirement! One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post is App interface and tech support. A robust, well laid out app interface that allows for easy browsing and access to / curation of your stored music is equally important as choosing the right hardware. For longevity, sound & build quality and worry free operation, I highly recommend one of the Aurender streamer that fits your budget. |
Before you spend a few grand on a streamer/server I have a suggestion. For reference, I'm using an ASUS gaming laptop, PSA PerfectWave MkII DAC, PSA PerfectWave transport, Krell preamp and amp, and Thiel CS6 speakers. I have hooked up my laptop to my DAC using an average quality 15' USB cable. I ripped my CDs (over 4,000) to uncompressed FLAC using dBPoweramp. If you have a laptop handy you can do a little test that may be enlightening. I'm assuming that you have Tidal or Qobuz and you also have a CD player. Hopefully your CD Player/DAC has a USB input. On my system I can't hear a significant difference between the ripped file and the actual CD. I'm pretty sure that in a blind test I couldn't tell them apart. Same thing when I play the same version of the CD through Qobuz. I've tried this with several CDs (using one song to do the test) on several different days and I'm comfortable that if there are audible differences they are not significant to me. I'm not adverse to spending good money on a streamer/server but so far I can't justify it. I wouldn't expect a ripped file or the Qobuz version to sound better than my CD player but I'm really surprised that they don't sound worse. If you follow the conventional wisdom, my setup should lead to horrible sound. I'm using a supposedly noisy PC and I'm hooking it up with an inexpensive long USB cable. One possible explanation for this homogenization is that my DAC has a "Digital Lens" that buffers and reclocks all incoming data. All I can say is that I'm glad that I spent an evening geeking out on my system so that I wasn't blindly spending significant money on an alternative setup. I am probably going to go with a Roon Nucleus at some point but more for convenience than sound quality. |
@8th-note ya man…. You might be shocked at what this can do: Pardo LPS > Netgear Nighthawk Switch > SGC Optical > Pardo LPS > Nucleus Evaluating that in my reference system….. amazing for the $ |
Agree with benzman, When we bought the Luxman integrated amp we learned about Melco music streamers, which is imported by Luxman America. As mentioned they are big in Europe and Asia, and made in Japan with Japanese sourced components. We have the N-100 playing through a Luxman DA 150 DAC. Highly satisfied with this combination, and worth looking into. Craig |
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