HRT Streamer+

Pretty much the reason I still haven't gotten in to computer audio. It's all still a moving target. Prices will continue to drop as more manufacturers realize the potential market for affordable USB audio. At CES, I listened to Mike Hobson present to a group of prospective European dealers and the entire talk focused on capturing a market of consumers that no one else seemed to be going after. I can't say I fault that marketing strategy. Given a choice between an iPod or iPod docking station and the Music Streamer, I'd take the Music Streamer anytime. It offers convenience, multiple price points, and is well designed.

I own the cheaper HRT Music Streamer. I coupled it with a 40.00 Kimber usb cable and a 50.00 MIT AVT interconnect. For 190.00 total cost, the sound is amazing. Granted, it isn't as good as my 2600.00 cd player, but using iTunes and files ripped in the Apple lossless format, the sound is surprisingly close (pace, rythem and timing) and I can access over 2000 songs from my HP Laptop in a matter of seconds.

When I just want to read and have some background music, this is my choice. Every time I hear it, I am blown away with the quality of sound for so little money.

I'd love to hear from Streamer+ owners. How is this device performing in your system? I've seen a couple in the classifieds, so I know they're out there.

I just bought the HRT Music Streamer II (since the II+ is not out yet) for the fun of it. Honestly, I wanted to see what all the hype is about using a Mac Mini as a music server with iTunes (w/Apple Lossless). Well, for the price, it's a pretty amazing little DAC for $150.

What I mean by that is while it's definitely not going to "destroy" any $1k+ CD players on the market today, the combination is very enjoyable. I'm utterly amazed to tell you the truth on what $150 can get you for sound quality.

I will say one additional thing about the setup. Using just my MacBook with the MS II plugged into definitely beat out my high-end $2k music server system. Enough so, that I'm going to be selling it and then I'm going out and buying a Mac Mini. Not only does it have better sound, but Apple's iTunes Remote App for the iPod Touch is just a better interface for locating music faster (I have 1200 CDs and the music server is just pathetically slow for searching through them.)

Will I be keeping the MS II? Nope, it's going back. Now that I realize what a $150 gets me, I'm going to be setting my sights a bit higher.

In the end, I'm very pleased I bought it and tried it out. It's very good product, and I wanted something cheap that sounds really good - this would be at the top of my list.

Also, the MS II can now do 24/96.

I am new to this so please bare with me. Has anyone compared the Music Streamer+ or II+ or V-DAC with USB connections vs. connecting the computer's optical output to the optical input of a high-end processor? I have a Mac Pro running iTune and AIF non-compressed music files. I connected the computer's optic out to a Krell HTS7.1 pre/pro's optic input and listened to it in two channel stereo mode via Krell KAV 3250 amps and Sonus Faber Ellipsa speakers. Sounds good but far from a CD player. Would the Streamer/V-DAC with USB connection outperform the optical connection as in my system or other less high-end processors? Thanks for your help. Ron