Solo streamer

THANKS!

I thought that the WiFi connection was a tick sonically below the wired connection.

I had a similar experience with my secondary system via Wi-Fi with or without the extender. The degrading is ever so slight but audible.

+1 Aurender + extender. Capable of outstanding sound quality.

I have to say that the Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra connected to a Denafrips Pontus II DAC sounds surprisingly good for its price. I got it as a starting point expecting to upgrade it. I'll admit ,it looks like a toy, but I'm realizing how good it sounds in comparison to much more expensive equipment.  in last two years, I've been listening to more expensive streamer-DACs to see what spending more money can get. 

A $14.5K dCS Bartok was okay. I was QUITE surprised to come away from that listening session thinking that I liked the sound of my setup better for 1/6 of the price. A $32k dCS Rossiini was good objectively, but it didn't  capture my attention. The only thing that I found that I liked better than my current setup was the Linn Organik DAC in the Klimax network music player. I think you can get the same DAC in a $22k Selekt setup.

@calvinandhobbes

(love your handle!)

your experience is consistent with what I’ve been arguing here: streamers don’t have a sound.  The difference across streamers is just differences in jitter and other noise.  So the best streamers just get out of the way so you can hear your dac, amp, preamp and speakers.  And btw, if you look at the lab reports section of the HiFi News review of your streamer, it has vanishingly low amounts of jitter and other noise.