2. digital
  3. 188071-178608

New streamer

I recently opened a discussion on upgrading my DAC. I started at the beginning of that discussion, that I was a vinyl guy, but with my purchase of the Chord Qutest, I realized that digital music can be outstanding and want to now upgrade my Node.

That will provide 2 benefits: Maximizing my current systems digital, and allow me to move the Node & Schiit Modi Multibit 2 to the family room, a small HT setup with a Yamaha AVR driving a Goldenear soundbar. Streaming there is currently MusicCast using the AVR DAC.  The improvement there should be very nice. 

My 2 channel equipment is as follows: 

Rogue RP-1 w/ NOS Brimar’s, LSA Warp 1, KEF R11’s, Rhythmic F12SE, Pro-ject 1Xpression w/Hana ML, Rega Aria, Bluesound Node w/Qubuz, Marantz CD6007, Chord Qutest. Good to very good power, speaker, interconnect cables.  
My weakest link (I believe) is now my Node. 
I don’t want or need amplification or volume control, ripping storage, nor an internal DAC. Sound signature should be neutral. 
My budget is $2,500, but willing to spend less. My current favorites are:

Lumin U2 mini. Very well reviewed, beautiful, perfect form factor, good app & controllable via my Harmony One remote. It is currently my #1 choice.

Auralic Aris. If new, the G1.1, if used G2.0 or 2.1. Very well reviewed, good app, OK form factor, but not controllable via harmony.  
Naim ND5 XS2. Considered the best high end streamer by What Hi Fi  Would need to buy used to stay close to budget.

EverSolo DMP-A6. Included based upon reviews, but may not be a serious contender. 
HiFi Rose RS250A. The streamer EverSolo seemed to copy  

Aurender. Don’t think they have anything within my budget, but included for discussion.

 LPS upgrade for Node. Included because I know it will come up. Plan to reuse my node downstairs, so out. Would prefer LPS upgrade for one of the above.  

Please let me know your thoughts and/or recommendations. Thanks!

 

 

128x128signaforce
mclinnguy's avatar
mclinnguy
492 posts
 

congratulations on your new digital front end @signaforce

Like Linn always stated, even before there was such a thing as digital:

"Our first-ever product, the modular and upgradeable Sondek LP12, revolutionised the hi-fi industry by demonstrating the huge musical difference a superbly engineered turntable could make to any hi-fi system. Its demonstrable ability to extract more music from the grooves of a record than the standard of the day led to the step-change in doctrine that the source component in a system, and not the loudspeakers, mattered most."

 

"Are you Digital or Analogue?

Either way you have to get it right at the source. The more musical information you retrieve from the source, the better the sound.

Information lost at the source is lost forever. No matter how good the amplifiers or loudspeakers that follow, you can’t get back what has already been lost, so it’s essential you put the best source possible at the front of your system."

 

signaforce's avatar
signaforce OP
197 posts
 

@lanx0003

Thank you for the clarification…

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,169 posts
 

@signaforce there is no upsampling option with the Aurender. I think you might be thinking of the streaming service Quality setting that allows you to select a high res 24/192 option for Qobuz. It will simply allow Qobuz 24/192 album versions to be streamed. It won’t upsample. It just passes through the max available bit rate to match your DAC. 
For your Qutest, select that 24/192 

signaforce's avatar
signaforce OP
197 posts
 

@mclinnguy @audphile1

Thank you!

To quote Cat Stevens… I am old… but I’m happy…

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,553 posts
 

@signaforce

Upsampling upto 24bit/192kHz is only available on Aurender’s higher end digital models like N20, W20SE or N30SA through SPDIF/AES output. All of aforementioned models also features superior OCXO clock. USB is always bit-perfect with no digital signal processing. Your N150 will simply pass on the bits in Qobuz original available resolutions, 16/44.1kHz, 24/44.1kHz and 24/192kHz for internal processing by your external DAC.

Aurender’s analog players (with built-in DAC) are capable of upsampling any non-DSD files up to 705.6/768kHz through the analog outputs.

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