Streaming Services

@rbschauman

KISS. Before ever posting I read for many years. @lalitk knows his stuff and his consise entry recommendations are excellent.

The typical pathway into steaming is from conputer to low end streamer and then to mid to high end gear with cleaned up internet. The pursuit of high end streaming yields sound as good as a fancy cd setup, most turn tables but maybe not a high five to six figure record rig. Many here agree/disagree with this and there’s a trove of previous “discussions” on steaming and vinyl setups. And now DSP’s able to fix room problems too. Thanks Pandora.

Forgot to add. A better steamer into your DAC could be all you’ll ever need
especially if you put some care into your signal via ethernet in. Like power internet signals can be and often are dirty.

I’ve been down this path a few times.  Ended up with Roon (meta data manager and music search engine and catalog, Qobuz,  Bricasti w/ network card and Small Green Computer (dedicated music server).  The SGC solved all my network interrupts and latency issues and offered a great solution for storing and integrating my music collection.  Roon is managed but SGC, Bricasti serves as steamer / renderer.  There are a lot of great DAC’s out there.  You have a wonderful system and I suspect you will take some time to land on the DAC that fulfills your tastes.  Enjoy the journey. Access to all the artists and music available on Qobuz and the ability to search, store build playlists and the convenience will make it all worth while. 

One additional thought.  I went with Roon because it is a really easy user friendly application that allows for integration of all music to most any systems (end points) in Roon terms.  In my case I have two separate Sonas systems in addition to my main system and Roon enables all music on all systems at the same time ( ie surround on TV, home office as well as phone, car, etc

Besides audio performance per se, there are other things a streamer might or might not have or do that can be useful to the user:

1. Have a useful display. The current Auralics by default display the IP address on the startup screen. That can eliminate a lot of fussing around. Then, the album cover when playing.
2. Internal storage. I’m not a user of that, but some like it. (I use a NAS.)
3. Access to different streaming services. Amazon can be difficult to use in a WiFi streaming context unless directly supported by the streamer.
4. Compatibility with different playing software and quality of the manufacturer-supplied software. Cambridge units have been incompatible with standard software, which rules them out for me. And even if one doesn’t use the manufacturer’s software regularly, it may be important occasionally, e.g., for configuration.
5. Roon Ready. Critical for many of us, not for everyone.
6. Ability to play and/or rip CDs. (see my previous post)
7. Ability to play audio files from an attached USB thumb and/or hard drive.
8. Ease, quality, regularity of software updates.
9. Quality of tech support. A good forum solves a lot of user problems.

I probably have forgotten some others.