I was expecting and hoping to see more about the dCS Bartok. I recently visited a dealer that was over the top of how amazing they are. There seem to be a fair share on the used market so that could be good or bad as they have a few levels up from there. If I remember correctly they developed a new design DAC, called ring. I haven't read too much but have been very curious about having that combined DAC-Streamer.
Ethernet streaming
Many high end dac’s now have built in streaming capability via Ethernet. Is this a better way to go than adding a separate streamer to feed the dac? In my case, streaming Qobuz and using roon. Also have an Aurender dac/pre that wouldn’t be needed if dac only streaming was used. Wondering about the advantages and disadvantages of these two approaches. I’m sure this has been discussed before, but I can’t find it.
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It’s a trade off- cost vs performance Cost savings: keeping multiple functions (streamer, DAC) within a single box saves on additional casework costs and extra cabling Performance: it’s usually better to separate functions to separate boxes minimize electrical noise. Streamer quality also impacts sonics. Also, upgrade path easier as you only have to replace one component’s function |
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@thyname no one has made idiotic claims about imaginary network performance improvements in this thread yet, so nothing to debunk.
I use a streamer / player (nad m50.2) and the DAC in my preamp (Classe delta Pre) and connect the two with AES/EBU. |
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