Re: streaming recommendations for newbie

I use a separate DAC which uses the new ESS9032Q2M which for single ended use with the SET preamp and amp, outperforms R2R ladder DACs. (Some reviewers consider the more expensive R2R ladder DAC better for balanced output.) 

I purchased a Bluesound Vault 2i a few years ago. While it does stream any classical music station in the world and other sources, it does not lend itself to storing my CD collection in its enormous memory. Calling up a composer and a symphony, overture, or a concerto is impossibly complicated because it is designed for pop songs accessed by song title and singer or group. I have to put my CD collection on a flash drive with folders for each composer and this often does not work the right way. Downloads do not always get onto the flash drive in a playable format. 

What I manage to keep on the flash drive does sound spectacular with the separate DAC that can also take that disc player as a digital source.  

Follow up from 4/18,

’’@soix , yesterday I tried to handshake my phone to the Oppo, no dice. Did a google search & came up with an Oppo app for my droid. No dice there too. I can connect my Comp. via Cat 6 wire. I have an Creative sound card there. I’ll give that a try. I also tried the Comp. via bluetooth & didn’t like the SQ. I have to say that, using my phone to steam Tidal was better than the Comp via bluetooth.’’

The only way to connect my droid to the Oppo was to download Roon to my phone & eliminate my AVR via bluetooth. I’m still processing Roon via wifi to the Oppo, but I can’t make out if there’s a difference in SQ. So then I downloaded Roon to my Comp to see if there was any improvement in SQ. Again, I can’t desifier if it’s any better than Tidal alone. I’m going to give it a few more days & see if it’ll get any better.

I have a 14 day trial from Roon, I shall see.

@danmar123 Yeah, at this point I’d highly recommend getting a streamer rather than tying yourself in knots trying to get your phone to work.  It needn’t be a very expensive streamer, and your sound quality will improve significantly. 

If you're happy with using a computer, adding a  USB dac is easy. I like my Schiit Modi multibit. Using other streamers will have you using your phone as an interface. I use ifi zen stream. Very inexpensive ways to try out streaming.

Just bought a smls sd-9. It seems to be of good quality. It’s more a renderer than streamer, but works for me. Has an abundance of connection options and a screen, albeit, very small. You connect it to a dac of your choice, no dac built in.