Better DAC or better Streamer

Thank you.

As evidenced by the answers in this thread there is no way to know. There is probably a slim chance you can review both yourself in your own system to compare I would wager? 

Having said that I then went and looked up this Astell & Kern thingy. That little portable player is how much? 

Going to ramble on with some of my thoughts: 

You can stream with that little portable A&K thingy, or you can stream with something like my streamer, which has a mass of 42 lbs. Logically how could this little thingy serve up files with the same sonic clarity as a huge dedicated box with 2 computers and massive power supply capabilities? 

Using the same logic, the Nagra is also a dedicated box designed to just do the same thing: serve/stream music files, so I don't think the A&K thingy has a chance to sound as good. The Nagra streamer is just 4 lbs- but that doesn't include the outboard power supply- is that a wal wart? notably one can upgrade its power supply- no idea how much that is and it is probably so new there are no reviews of that. But if one just needs that: to stream using Tidal/Spotify connect that is a nice, small, discrete, and attractive looking streamer, (mine isn't as shelf friendly) it may be a great choice. Nagra has a stellar reputation for top notch sonics, and Swiss (like my DAC) made quality. One review I just glanced at puts it above Lumin U2 mini for sound quality, but is should as it is twice the money, and Huff is drooling over it, probably because with a good review he can keep their $30k DAC longer...

I don't know- there are plenty of great streamers for the same amount of money, and that is before upgrading the power supply $$$ but the possibility of upgrades is appealing. 

End of rambling. 

No doubt the DAVE will eclipse the HUGO TT2, but to answer your question: which will upgrade your sound quality more? my money is on the Nagra- without a doubt. 

@yyzsantabarbara

There was someone comparing my $3k PBD streamer to the $13k or $20k PBD streamer and they could not tell the difference.

And then there was someone who demoed/compared the Antipodes streamers with Aries Cerat DAC’s.

His results were that the Oladra with the Aries Cerat Helene was preferred to the Antipodes K50 with the Aries Cerat Kassandra.

So the pricier streamer with the (cheap ) $19,000 DAC was better to his ears than the cheaper streamer with the $60,000 DAC.

I have read this more than once: some people have heard significantly greater differences with high end music servers than they have with high end dacs. That is once one gets to a certain level the diminishing returns are more quick with Dacs than they are with music servers.

And no, a fiber connection does not make streamers sound the same.

@mclinnguy

I have a A&K SP2000 DAP and an Aurender N100 (10 pounds) and an Aurender W20SE (46 pounds). I actually like talking weight. It isn’t there just for looks and is a pretty reliable indicator of sound quality. 

I’ve used all of these through my main system which has a good DAC. The A&K is a joke in comparison to either of the Aurender... obviously I have the W20SE because its sound quality justifies its cost.

Spend $2k less and get the PBD lower end streamer which seems like the same as the Nagra. Mostly likely because Nagra licensed it from PBD.

A fibre cable did not sound the same with 2 of 3 fibre streamers that I had at the same time. The Lumin X1 and OpticalRendu were fibre optical, and the Playback Designs was SPDIF in my test (though it supported fibre). All were great but very different sounding.