2. digital
  3. 189364-130193

15k for streamer and dac....how much on each?

for a music first, streaming only, two channel system.......with 15k in pocket (can buy new or used)  is the general rule of thumb 50/50 split on the budget?

do any all in one units at this price point compare to separates?

What choice did you land on at your respective budgets?

I've not had the greatest experience with streamers.....sound more similar than dissimilar to my admittedly non golden untrained ears

 

 

 

 

 

 

audiocanada
johnread57's avatar
johnread57
227 posts
 

$300USD streamer...Cambridge MXN10 coaxial to

$9000 DAC in the Audio Research Reference CD9 cd player

Sounds wonderful.

kairosman's avatar
kairosman
278 posts
 

If you go separates a 50/50 % split is recommended. Good all-in-ones are the Tambaqui, Aurender A20 and Lumin P1 (I have a P1 and it has more features than the other 2 all-in-ones I mentioned, and its cheaper). One thing I've discovered recently is local high-rez file playback (in my case via a Lumin L2) beats streaming and CD playback easily, and gets CLOSE to my vinyl setup. IMO it won't be long before digital becomes indistinguishable from analog.

wsrrsw's avatar
wsrrsw
1,003 posts
 

Used Lumin X1. 7-8k. Great pkace to start/stay
Aurender too. 

A lot of info these forums helping w/ the whole chain. Router/swiches/fillers/cabels all help and are important to SQ. Worth the cost. 

riie
219 posts
 

MSB Discrete with Renderer

 

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
4,892 posts
 

@ghdprentice just a heads up on ARC DAC9.,.not all of them support Linux based streamers (when you use USB interface). Older DAC9 will require updating the USB card which is done by ARC and isn’t cheap. 
I was looking into this DAC and that’s how I know. If you plan on using AES/EBU or SPDIF then there’s nothing to worry about. 

OP keep in mind not all streamers are optimized for AES or SPDIF. Majority is optimized for USB out - they don’t feature an internal clock of the highest possible quality and this is where the DAC quality comes into play 

More to discover