Keep in mind that if you're using USB or I2S to connect your streamer to your DAC, you're defaulting to the DAC's clock rather than making use of the clock in the streamer. That may or may not influence your decision about how much to pay, since there are lots of other factors that could influence your decision. But as far as accuracy of the bits streamed, you're now defaulting to the Yggy by going USB. Buying a streamer because it has a better clock would mean a move to SPDIF to take advantage of your purchase.
Streamer Selection - Thoughts Requested Please!
I have been talking way to much to myself on my next purchase - a streamer, no DAC. I have reached the point of going round and round with the same three streamers - Innuos Pulse, Auralic G1.1 and Aurender N150. Mid $3K price range max. The Auralic G1.1 list just dropping by $1K to $2,249. The Innuos Pulse list is $3,250 and the Aurender N150 is at $3,500. Would be open to lightly used to upgrade my choices but the upgraded next step in each product line is a significant jump.
I began streaming with a Blusound Node 2021 Gen 3 which I converted last year with the PD Creative board LPSU and added an SBooster P&P Eco power supply. This was an improvement in my digital listening using the BS node for the DAC and streaming mainly TIDAL. Six months ago I added a Schitt Yggydrasil LIM (Less is More) and oh my goodness what a difference overall. I have the BS Node connected by an ethernet cable to my router. Use an iPad to run BlueOS and the Tidal app. The BS node is connected via USB to the Schitt Yggy.
I don't have a need for storage or playing CD's. Reading a few threads here have convinced me that a streamer upgrade with my system will provide better sound overall. How much is certainly an open question but I am willing to go forward. The rest of my system is a First Watt F8 amp, Modwright LS100 and Modwright 9.0 along with a Clearaudio Concept table and Zu Dirty Weekend Supremes.
Whats important to me would be the sound quality, an app with solid integration with Apple and TIDAL. I am leaning to Aurender as their players/transports are "streamers" / no DAC, they seem to integrate well with Apple and the Conductor app gets mixed reviews but mostly is well liked. I am just not sure if with my present system it makes sense to be over $3K for a streamer, although if down the line I move on from the Yggy, I wouldn't want to then add a new streamer.
Please jump in with thoughts, suggestions and let me know if I have missed any important criteria or other approaches/audio streamers. Thanks in advance.....
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OP here ..... Wow, impressive number of replies to my request. Very thankful and enlightened. Appreciate all who have contributed. A shout out to @peipaul as his experience with several of the streamers I am contemplating and his environment with the Yggy LIM provide me with somewhat of a baseline. A clarification on my environment re Apple and a few questions based on the replies -
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We can offer you the 432Evo Servers he Evo is a full Roon core and endpoint and it has been designed from its inception to run Ronn:
in fact we are one of the very few servers designed to explloit a multi core cpu for better Roon sound quality: we have created a proprietary os that runs Roon in its own cpu core, while using another core to run housekeeping and backend processes wile another core addresses streaming file allocation and caching. We have actually compared our 432Evo Aeon $7800, vs the 12k Aurender N20 Everyone who heard the demo felt the Aeon produced a dramatically better sound out of the same Dac. The Aeon was more three dimensional, and had greater depth of field, and the midrange was richer, all in all the Aeon was a more engaging sounding server.
On another note, we have a few advantages over aurender and other servers:
1: We are an upgradable, modular platform, this means you can upgrade an Aeon to our flagship Master. Our Master 16k is shockingly close to the $30k Taiko extreme so we represent a server which is very close to the worlds best server yet is half the price. The upgradable modular nature of our servers means as better parts become available, we can swap out new parts so we have a platform you can grow with. We compared our $7800Aeon to a 25k Innous Statement with upgraded power supply after AXPONA at a Chicago dealers’ showroom. all listeners concluded the Aeon sounded just as good as the Statement. Now consider our Master sounds even better, yet still costs considerably less than the Statement. This means you can start with an Aeon and upgrade to a Master later.
This also means our products can evolve so if a better sound card or Clock card comes out, we can easily upgrade our server. also, our Master actually contains 3 separate toroidal transformers which is far superior to Innous single transformer design
As per is2 being better it is not better then usb and the lack of standards makes it impossible to support. we have done everything possible to maximize performance while eliminating digital noise.
dave and Troy audio intellect NJ us importers 432 Evo music servers. |
I use a Aurender X100L with a external DAC....You don’t use the conductor app when streaming music, you just have to start the app and make sure its connected, then minimize and start Tidal or Qobuz and your good. You only use the Conductor app when copying or playing music through the internal hard drives.
BTW the sound is really amazing , im listening to (Tidal) CD quality sound right now and its impressive, I may switch to Studio quality later. However I thought Qobuz has excellent sound with just the basic subscription.
Matt M |
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