@lalitk thank you for the insight really appreciate it.
New DAC or New Streamer?
This should be fun. After I pay to get my amp upgraded at VAC next month I plan to either upgrade my DAC or Streamer next. I should have enough for that by late spring/early summer. I'm retired so I save some each month until I have what I need. My system is in my user profile. But to keep this simple my current DAC is the Dinafrips Venus II I got a year ago. (I also have the Hermes DDC)
My streamer is the Cambridge CXN V2 via coax to the Hermes-> I2s -> DAC which is also 1 year old. I was just getting into streaming then and knew little about it. I have learned a lot this past year, a whole lot.
I think the bottle neck is leaning more toward the streamer. It seems the DAC is pretty good, I know there are much better DAC's out there but it holds it own I think. Maybe not? I cannot afford the likes of DCS, Lampizator, etc.
The next planned upgrades are a Terminator II DAC and Aurender N200 Streamer. Both are $5000-$6000. (Unless I go for the Terminator + DAC that is $7500 but I am not sure it is $2500 better than the Terminator II)
So, since both will get upgraded a year apart, which should I go for first? Which would provide the biggest upgrade?
Thanks. Happy holidays to all.
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@soix Yes I’ve read lots of great reviews of Townshend for sure, although people complain of the price. I did read a few odd accounts where folks said they didn’t like the “tonal tuning” of Townshends, but that was just a few and every system and individual is different. Same deal with Herbie’s; lots of accounts of people relaying their OMG moments. If anything like my experience you will get to experience that with your speakers. Most likely with the Townshends too. But as I mentioned Herbie’s has the advantage of being able to position the feet anywhere under each device, which unbelievably makes a big difference. Took a good deal of experimenting before I arrived at the best footer positions for my ears. With Townshends you are stuck with only one position. That said, chances are you will be happy. Just listen carefully after adding to each component, and don’t do what I did with my amp. I assumed Herbie’s would have the same positive impact as it did on the rest of my gear, and for months I wasn’t happy with my sound not realizing what the issue was! Oh, I also added 4 Herbie’s Giant Fat Dots under my wooden shelf and this produced a noticeable bump in performance as well. Lastly @soix when you seat your speaker spikes into the Herbie’s gliders (assuming you are getting the spike decouplers) don’t make the same mistake I made. One of my 180 pound B&W 802’s wasn’t quite seated in the divot. Speaker went toppling over just with the slightest unevenness! Miraculously I had multiple camping foam mats stacked right where it crashed (was using them to help adjust spikes while speakers were on their sides) and no harm was done. Other than waking up the family with my shouting/screaming….
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My long term thoughts are I'll keep Roon even if I find my proprietary music player to have superior sound quality at some point. Roon SQ good enough to be totally engaging and even more important, the great interface has turned me on to so much great music and artists new to me. Qobuz and Tidal also offer this, but Roon far superior, Roon radio is simply awesome with it's analytics, graphics suggestions same awesomeness. Finally, I don't know how well the other proprietary players organize local libraries, but my Stylus players completely destroys organization of local library on NAS, makes library unusable. Perhaps it would do better with streamer internal drives?
Bottom line for me is Roon cost so little it would always provide more than commensurate benefit. Being able to transfer it to nearly any brand or custom build streamer is another added benefit. |
Smart thinking on holding off to Roon lifetime subscription. Is there a reason why you’re not using Sense App? I subscribed to Roon lifetime membership 2 years ago, barely used it due to inconsistencies with SQ. No issues with Conductor app managing my library. The playback is seamless streaming from my library or Qobuz/Tidal. If you wanna see how everything neatly curated, take a peak at my ‘Digital’ system - Pic 19 & 20. |
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