Streamer Recommendations


I am looking at streamers. I am building a system from scratch so I don’t have one I am replacing. I have heard of the brands but not sure how they compare. From my research the software that the streamer comes with is also important. Is their a streamer that is modular that you could upgrade later on? I don’t mind purchasing used and can spend up to 2k.

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I own an Auralic Aries S1 streamer with separate PSU. It seems to sound very good to me, connected to a Chord MScaler + TT2. Has anyone else tried it?

You might take a look at Magna HiFi's Mano MKIii.5 with it's matching Farad power supply. I have one on order so can't speak to it's performance yet but I have high hopes. The reviewer Hans B likes his and the company offers several optional upgrades and software choices.. Worth a look and in your budget. 

Look at a few reviews of the Cambridge Audio CXN v2 or CXN100 (its successor).  My first streamer was the CXN v2 and it was delightful.  I ran the Streamagic software on iPhone 11.  You could save about 1/2 of your $2K budget!  I only went with Innuos Zen Mk3 for CD ripping, and the Sense software supports desktop MS Windows 10.  The Innuos Zen Mk3 is excellent but may extend a bit beyond your $2K budget.

Eversolo support is non existent.     You are screwed if there is a FW bug.   The fix is reverting to the previous FW and turn off auto updates.   Essentially you are stuck at that FW level if they don't correct it.   Not a good value at $4k.