My HRT Music Streamer HD DAC is a game changer


I haven't started a thread this long for years, I think, so you have a hint right there. The truth is that I can't say enough good things about the new inexpensive DACs that seem to appear every week. I have only tried two -- the Audioquest Dragonfly is the other one -- but when I decided on the HRT Music Streamer HD, I knew I had hit gold for not much dough. I have been an audiophile since the early seventies, now retired, and my audio system is just appropriate for a small room, but forget the system --I don't remember enjoying music as much as I do now-- perhaps during my Thorens/ADC analog days, but that was a long time ago. A few years back I settled on a Squeezebox with Bolder power supply, but there is no comparison between it and the new DACs. My decision on the HRT HD was heavily due to its (true) balanced outputs, since my system is on the opposite side of the room from my computer. When the HRT HD is "correctly fettled," as Alan Sircom rightly puts it in Hi-Fi+ (meaning for me KingRex battery power and Elijah Audio Isolaate BL USB cable magic), it is awesome and then some. Ambience, natural timbre of instruments and voices, performers and instruments that have real body (not paper ships on a paper sea), huge soundstage, the feeling that you are there with the performers. Audio Nirvana!
vladimir

Showing 2 responses by mtruong34

Hi Vlad,
Thanks for the review. I just recently acquired the Streamer HD and had a listen this weekend. Alan Sircom mentioned that without being "correctly fettled" the Streamer was very "meh". I have to completely agree. Now mind you that my current reference DAC is a dcs 954 (pro DAC retailing over $7k) so it's a bit unfair comparing the two. Just merely stating my point of reference. I've got an ifi iUSB on order so we'll see how it elevates performance, but by itself, the Streamer HD is a very run of the mill budget DAC.
Vlad, did you listen to the Streamer by itself? What was your impression?
In my previous post, I listened to the MS HD "unfettled" and found it good, not great. I've recently tried it with the iUSB and improvements can be heard across the board but it still can't beat my reference, which isn't really a fair comparison. For one, the dollars don't add up. And second, I am using a TVC passive preamp. Although the specs suggest no impedance mismatch, there may be a synergy mismatch. With that caveat, I found no glaring faults with the MS HD. But compared to my reference dcs 954, it was missing that elusive "3D holographic" quality.