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@stevebohnii 

oh man that’s alot of ad copy!  Look, don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of iFi, their price-to-performance is top notch.  But they too are guilty of hyperbole.  Regarding some of your points:

- the XMOS 16x in the Neo is not for the streamer, it’s for DAC functionality (e.g., MQA processing)

- similarly, the 4 filters you’re talking about are typical of a modern DAC; my Okto and Topping DACs have a choice of 7 filters, and my Gold Note has 192! options, but those filters have nothing to do with the Neo’s streaming finction

- do you really want to talk about those “tantalum capacitors”; are you sure they’re not in the DAC section?

- maybe I have to give you the “Optibox” technology, but do you really think whatever the heck it does, that it’s worth a $900 difference in price?  

So look, when you enter a conversation by telling an OP that everyone else is giving bad advice, all I’m saying is you shoul try not to then talk gibberish.

@mdalton It’s clear that @stevebohnii actually heard significant improvements in going to the Neo from the Zen, so you arguing some individual parts here are there is really pointless gibberish because in the end it’s about the sound and clearly found the added expense was worth it to him.  He expressed his opinion based on his actual experience with the product in question here, which is perfectly valid, while you continually come in here telling people there’s no difference in sound between streamers — now that is gibberish.

@soix 

Hey, I missed you too.  Per Depeche Mode, just can’t get enough.  But seriously, ascribing improved sound of streaming with the Neo to features that are only in the circuit if you’re using the DAC would be like me saying the Rothwell Rialto sounds better with an MM cartridge than the Rothwell Simplex due to features of the MC circuit in the Rialto.  I probably didn’t hear a difference, but if I did, that is obviously not the reason why.  Capeesh?  

@mdalton You can’t hear differences between streamers anyway, so your input as usual is utterly useless and pointless on this topic.

@soix 

so that’s “no capeesh”?