Looking for a bedroom streamer. I have a DAC and headphone amp and don't need to connect speakers or even need a DAC. Your ideas for a budget streamer at $350 or less? Experience is welcome here.
It (refers to Wiim Ultra) is also galvanically isolated, just like the iFi Zen Stream.
I need to self-correct it. Wiim Ultra's USB output is not electrically isolated. If you want to get the best USB output from a streamer under, say, $500, IFI ZS is probably only one you could get right now in the market.
Thanks to everyone for some awesome recommendations. I am leaning towards increasing my budget and getting the new Bluesound Icon. I have a Node, Node2i, Vault and Node X and have been really happy with the GUI and the customer service. I usually run an external DAC but the new Icon has a Dual-Mono DAC design. It has two ESS SABRE ES9039Q2M DACs and balanced outputs. It it sounds good, I will move I into my mainsystem and swap out the current streamer and DAC.
I think the Icon looks awesome. After owning my Vault I would buy one sight unseen and that's something I rarely do.
Bluesound are the best streamers under $1k. You are really buying into a platform that is copied by an entire industry. Lenbrook has tremendous resources and more experience than just about anyone in this space.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.