@mdalton I was using mac mini as roon core only. Not a streamer. The comparison was done using auralic with lightning ds vs Auralic as roon end point.
There’s no jitter. Just different way of processing the stream by the Auralic.
Another post about a streamer upgrade
Hello
I’ve read a lot of the threads here about streamers and moving up the chain.
However, it seems there’s not a ton of info for relatively modestly priced streamers … most threads focus on the Bluesound / Ifi Zen range or the Aurender N200 range.
I have an Ifi Zen Stream with an LPS fronted by an Ether Regen and would like to move on to something better… mainly from a usability and app standpoint but would like to spend significantly less than $2k.
I think the writing is on the wall with the Innuos Pulse Mini but curious if others have a suggestion that would be a sq improvement from the Ifi and a much better user experience for around $1500 give or take.
I currently use the JPLAY app to access Qobuz to stream DLNA to the Ifi but it’s frustrating and connectivity isn’t great.
I don’t use Roon so the Sense app from Innuos is probably the best bet from what I gather. I’d also be interested in the Aurender system but according to many the N200 is where to start there and that’s significant higher priced than where I want to go at this point.
Are there any other options with great usability and sound that I’m not thinking of.
I typically run Spdif coax out to my dacs but could also run usb.
thanks in advance
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Thanks, very helpful, but not sure I understand your response. I’m not highly technical, but my understanding is that a Roon core, even if not used as streamer, is essentially a digital transport, and therefore is virtually by definition a potential source of jitter. Here’s another link to an evaluation of a Roon nucleus, showing it as a source of jitter, but substantially less than a pc. Am I missing something here?
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@mdalton no. The steamer is what is connected to the DAC. |
Again, I apologize for any confusion but isn’t the data stream from a Roon core to a streamer (or dac) a digital data stream? And if it is, isn’t that a potential source of jitter? You’re right that the link I included had a different setup from yours, but the point was that the data stream from the Nucleus included jitter, but at a substantially lower level than if a pc (e.g., a Mac Mini) had been used. And that is completely consistent with a huge number of comments I’ve read from Roon users, and I believe Roon itself - that they hear a “substantial” improvement in sound quality between using Roon on a pc vs a dedicated core (e.g., Nucleus, or, in my case, a Small Green Computer). In summary, I was trying to (gently) suggest that perhaps your test between Auralic and Roon was a test where the Roon side was decidedly suboptimal. No offense intended, and of course, I could be completely misguided. |
- 67 posts total