advertisement


High end streamers, waste of money or not, please?

Gervais Cote said:
I might be old school but............
It really seems to me hi-fi is not ‘’stable ‘’ these days and nobody longer agree on what is the best source, media, files or anything else.
As a reaction to this, personally I prefer to stay with all my ‘’analog ‘’ equipment ( separate preamp, amp, speakers) and add a DAC to it.
This allows me to get a better sound from my CD player, I can add another digital source as well but if the consensus comes back and most of the audiophiles agree a turntable is the best source, I will still be able to use most of my equipment.
Some trends in today’s hi-fi look like they won’t last very long so better not invest large amounts of money into these, IMO.
Click to expand...
I know what you mean. Vinyl is still my first choice. I built up around 2000 CD’s however from the 80’s onwards as new vinyl releases were either non existent or astronomically expensive. I was never really a fan of the CD though, despite owning a CDS3, I always found the sound fatiguing. Despite all my perceived wisdom, streaming was a revelation to me. I have now ripped all those CD’s to a Core and stream via the NDS. Honestly, the sound is amazing, far, far closer to vinyl than I could of ever dreamt or hoped. I have no idea why it sounds so good, but the 150 quid Auna sounded better than the CDS3 and it’s 2K power supply! Give streaming a go. I have no interest in Tidal, Quobuz e.t.c, if I want new music I buy the files and add to the Core, so having ‘the latest’ is of no interest to me.
 
A streaming service is a great way to discover new music and try before you buy, you don't need to pay loads for a service. I sub to Qobuz as I think it's worth the money for the sound quality and convenience provided. A lot of the control Apps will also suggest similar artists which can lead to finding stuff you'd never have come across before.
 
onlyconnect said:
Personally I feel a NAS + Raspberry Pi or similar is ideal and then get whatever DAC you fancy. So no I would not spend a lot on a high-end streamer for the sound; but it might be worth it for ease of use or appearance.

Tim
Click to expand...

why add a Pi, just install some streaming software on the NAS, such as roon.
 
Yes! Both valid!! If there’s the option of making it silent with SSDs and fanless or silent fans, then it becomes viable - it’s what I’ve been using for 2-3 years now with NAS/roonserver>usb/out>DAC/amp
 
Boxes marketed as 'Streamers' are like boxes ISPs give you called 'Routers'. They amalgamate a number of functions in one box in the interests of convenience. A DAC and digital media reader in the case of the former and a modem, router and switch in the case of the latter. You could get separate boxes to do each of these functions, but it's not always worth it.

....except for the function of reading digital audio media. Linn and others charge a fortune for something that really only differs from a pi in terms of firmware and ui. The output is identical. Would you spend £1500 extra on a washing machine just because it had a touchscreen? In effect that is exactly what many hi fi manufacturers are suggesting you do and they deserve your contempt and, possibly, pity.

Buy a fancy pants streamer by all means, but you are being ripped off. I'm still out on DACs. I've tried a bunch of competent DACs over the years retailing from £100 to £1000 and the differences are marginal. I suspect a very old audio alchemy dde 1.1 that only handled up to 48/16 is still the most pleasing dac I've used to my ear, but it's marginal.
 
I think that if you are technically savvy and take the time to put together a competent streaming system for both local and internet streamed music you would probably be able to approach/equal the quality of what is generally perceived a high(er) end streamer. The cost of this exercise however also begins to climb rather quickly once you add good components, a decent DAC, and storage solution - and you are still likely to be dealing with a computer based system? I would personally say that nowadays if most of your music is streamed (as in my case), a good streamer like Naim, Innuos, Auralic and others, including Melco having improved their interface, is very much worth going for. Not sure if Cyrus have updated their models recently?
 
EPear said:
I think that if you are technically savvy and take the time to put together a competent streaming system for both local and internet streamed music you would probably be able to approach/equal the quality of what is generally perceived a high(er) end streamer. The cost of this exercise however also begins to climb rather quickly once you add good components, a decent DAC, and storage solution - and you are still likely to be dealing with a computer based system? I would personally say that nowadays if most of your music is streamed (as in my case), a good streamer like Naim, Innuos, Auralic and others, including Melco having improved their interface, is very much worth going for. Not sure if Cyrus have updated their models recently?
Click to expand...
Cyrus are lagging behind in the specs game and their Cadence App isn’t the best, dunno if they have anything in the pipeline.
 
Indeed, you have to put up with quite a lot with the Cadence Cyrus app, it's a pity if they haven't improved it...
 
EPear said:
Indeed, you have to put up with quite a lot with the Cadence Cyrus app, it's a pity if they haven't improved it...
Click to expand...
Yeah I would have like to add the Stream XA or Sig to my system but went with another solution. My OCD is kicking in cos it doesn’t match :)
 
I think you will hear a difference between high end streamers but I think this is more to do with the internal DAC than anything else. For example if you took a naim NDS and compared with a NDX using the optical or coaxial out in to the same dac I doubt you would be able to hear an audible difference.

If it were me I would buy a top notch dac and a decent streamer based on features and software. This could be a raspberry pi if you can find a software you like or a bluesound node potentially or equivalent. Moon also do one without a inbuilt dac which could be a shout.

This way you can just update or change the streamer as technology advances. The dac is likely to be good for much longer.
 
I have replaced an NDX and NAC112 with a MiniDSP SHD (streaming Pre, with some clever DSP) and have absolutely no regrets. With active monitors this solution would be even tidier!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top