Looking for High Quality Streamer Only Options (NO DAC)?
I'm looking to find a dedicated streamer, ideally <$2k. Here are the objectives:
1. Must be Roon Ready
2. No internal DAC
3. USB, Optical or Digital Coax input
4. Great quality to feed an outboard DAC.
The idea here is to hopefully avoid paying for an internal DAC and just by a stable streamer, giving the manufacturer the ability to dump all the parts and labor costs into the streaming side only. In other words, why pay for an internal DAC I won't use.
@jbhiller there’s a used Aurender N200 on USAM. Great streamer with excellent UI and customer service. It made a huge difference in my system going from Lumin U1 Mini and my DAC’s network renderer as streamer to this unit. I have no affiliation with this seller so if you’re interested you will need to do all the due diligence to ensure a smooth transaction.
|
I’d be careful about Bricasti for a streamer. I’ve created a database on streamer specs from Hifi News reviews over the last few years. Why? Because Paul Miller does “Lab Reports” at the end of every one of them, and he does the most objective, consistent measurements of streamers in the industry. Anyway, the jitter measurements for the streamer board of the M3 are the worst I’ve ever seen. The M5 has been around for years, I think, so if they’re using the same tech, not good. By way of example, his measurements for the Pro-ject and the Volumio are multitudes better, comparable to the high priced Aurenders et al. |
Well my global takeaways are that: in general you get what you pay for. The specifics vary between brands and investment levels. But in general the background noise (except on PCs not usually heard directly... not shhhh but the noise floor... allowing you to hear deeply into the music) drops as investment increases. The amount of detail can be good in budget gear, but the overall representation of the audio spectrum gets more continuous. By that I mean on really cheap gear you get treble and bass and little fleshed out in between... thin sounding. Hardening of treble also disappears with better quality streamers. The rhythm and pace, typically absent in budget gear gets better and better except in designs attempting maximum detail. If you want to look at the two things that most consistently are the biggest thing it is the noise floor and natural nature of the sound. The noise is suppressed through highly refined power conditioning, physical isolation, and vibration suppression. Hence, high quality streamers are heavy... all this stuff weighs a lot. Also, lots of folks attempt to make budget streamer sound good by adding linear power supplies or playing with their routers, and network infrastructure. A, high quality streamer will clean up the incoming signal without the need to clean up your entire network and incoming power supply. The second is the how natural the sound is. The DAC is critical here as well... so if your DAC isn’t great, then a great streamer is not going to shine through. |
Sonore opticalRendu Lite version - Roon Ready DLNA Network Player For Sale - US Audio Mart
The above is a screaming deal (if the power supply is included). I have 3 of these and if I had a 4th DAC I would get 1 more.. |
