DAC/Pre-Amp Advice

@toro3 

I appreciate you chiming in with your experience with the NAD. The unit itself has everything I want, there is no question about that. The price given what it has is also pretty impressive if I'm being honest. It seems like the QC on the unit however is less than ideal. Some people, like @kota1 and yourself have had minimal issues it seems. Others I'm reading have to constantly reset the damn thing every couple of weeks because of BluOS malfunctions, sound distortion, and a myriad of other issues. It's sad because I'm happy someone out there designed a product for exactly my use case, but there isn't frankly any competition sub $5k that I'm seeing, and the unit itself could only be a temporary piece in the long run anyway. 

I'll wait to hear more feedback on my proposed MiniDSP solution, but lets say I ditch BluOS to go w/ something that supports Roon. (I'd prefer to stay away from HEOS/PlayFi/MusicCast. Frankly have had bad personal experience w/ both HEOS/PlayFi, and have heard of headaches w/ MusicCast) Does that open any doors? The things that aren't going to change in my system are the speakers, the amp, and the turntable, everything else is fluid and if I need to make concessions in a different direction so be it. 

Maybe I’m reading you incorrectly, but you can most definitely bypass BluOS and use Roon on the C-658 (and NODE). This is what I’m doing. Using the C-658 as a Roon end point and a Roon Nucleus (previously a MacBook as a Roon core).

I haven’t had to reboot the C-658, but I have experienced volume issues with the sub output with DIRAC not engaged. I’ve also experienced some clipping issues, but this was remedied by using Roon’s headroom management. In terms of DIRAC - mixed results and mixed emotions. I’ve found additional room treatments to be more my preference.

If this unit fits your needs, I’d say go for it, but I’d purchase from a dealer with a good return policy. In respect to the streamer itself, there’s better out there at this price point, but many fall short in features - especially if the NAD’s features are needed for a given setup. The one reassuring aspect is that this unit is continuing to receive updates which could potentially address the issues I mentioned.

Initially I thought your Yamaha was strictly an amp, but it looks like it’s an integrated. With the C-658 you’ll be putting a preamp in front of an integrated.

I’m gonna reiterate — focus on the DAC, two subs, and speaker positioning first and then worry about room correction after that.  You’re trying to do too much at once IMHO. 

@soix @toro3 

I'm going to just go DAC and subs. The preamp before the integrated probably is not a road I will go down, as there could be a lot of negative aspects. 

Thank you all for you help on this. I've boiled it down to the 3-4 DAC's all mentioned in here, and I'll update this thread when I pull the trigger on one.

Chuck, best of luck and let us know once you order!