New streamer? N150 vs U2

@txp1

You asked..I’ll pontificate and likely drone.

It’s been a many year trip full of learning and a fun for me to get my streaming music sounding analog wonderful and not ones and zeros sounding. Many here have been very kind and helpful and in the later rounds a big shout out goes to @lalitk (All these folks have the same first name.....AT...)

Years back (10+) I used an iPod or Mac lap top into an amp. The iPod rested in a Peachtree audio iDac and that helped. Next I had the plain crackers BlueSound w/ no stand alone system DAC. Then I got a Lumin T2 w/ an external SBooster.

Time out. (at least Take Five)

Had I known how to implement all the other stuff, then I very well may not have upgraded the Lumin T2 or not been so quick (well under two years) to do so. (At this time I added a Roon Nucleus and have been using it as a shell for Qobuz to my hearts delight!). The learning was in cleaning up the ethernet chain by using a EtherRegen w/ an external Afterdark clock, a good PSU and audio grade ethernet cables all round made for a definite blacker background and better sounding playback.

Time in (Also a great album)

I have another lesser streamer in a whole house stereo. If just listing in the den, then often I don’t use Roon (but do). Many days music is on everywhere. Carport too? Check.

Now the steamer is a Lumin X1 (has it’s own PSU) and with that a terrific switch. That’s the M12 gold switch w/ JCat cables and powered by the JCat Optimo 3 Duo PSU. The Roon Nucleus now is powered by an Uptone audio JS-2 Linear Power Supply and cable. Finally the Lumin and the M12 gold are grounded with the Entreq Macro Ground Boxes.

At one point I used fiber optic but copper wire sounds far smoother to me. Fiber optic was a tad sterile. But that’s me with my gear/room and my questionable taste in music, life, dogs, and so many other unmentionable bits.

Everyone here tends to like their own home-brew and in that spirit get a Lumin T3. If your budget allows a used (8K+/-) X1 then.

You need to decide first if you will use Roon and it’s gear.

Cheers

-ATwsrrsw

Love this artwork!

@txp1  I am one of the people you mentioned who is returning to a Node because of the app.  I sold my Node 2i and moved to a miniDSP SHD with the Volumio app/ OS.  Volumio was a very bad experience, completely overshadowing any SQ improvement from the SHD hardware.  As a result I am very wary of streamer software/UI/app quality.  Improvements in SQ are useless if the user experience is degraded.

I have a Peachtree Gan 1 on order and it comes with a new Node.  I'll look into the Node upgrades (LPS) mentioned in this thread.  Someday I'll move up, but I will take my time - and pay close attention to the app.  Best of luck.

Also tried Volumio. Yuck. 

@lalitk Amen brother…

As I said in my first post, easy way to settle this quandary is to pick a player from Lumin, Aurender or Innuos lineup and listen in your system.

Excellent input from everyone, thank you all very much! So much experience. I’ve learned a lot and I’m sure that other audiophiles will also in the future. I keep rereading this thread.

I’ve planned to get an EtherRegen for quite a while but am obviously waiting for them to get the next generation of it to market. I also need to make the one-box or not decision. Fortunately for me this technology just keeps improving. Unfortunately it seems that almost all high end equipment keeps increasing in price, sometimes significantly so.