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Streamer and DAC Combo or separates

I am getting back in the game after a hiatus of 5 years. 

Obviously the landscape has changed and while I have been trying to keep up with the latest, I appreciate the kind advise of those who have been in the know.

Starting with the front end, I see that some of the newer DACs also come with the streaming capabilities inbuilt; such as the new dCS Rossini or the PS Audio Directstream with the bridge 2. 

This eliminates the need to transmit data via USB interface at all, as you will be connecting the DAC to a NAS or a network via RJ45 (or even wireless).

On the other hand the 'traditional' was of doing it is to use a PC/Laptop or a dedicated streamer connected to DAC via USB or by any other connector.

Appreciate if I could hear your thoughts on which way I should go, assuming that the software used to drive the streamer is not an issue.

Thank you very much. 
amal

Showing 2 responses by amal

amal OP
34 posts
 
Thank you both lalitk and dbtom2.

1. If I am going for streamer and DAC separately, I will have a budget of around USD 10K, but if I am able to go for a combo unit (and if this turns out to be the way forward) I am hoping to spend around 7-8K.

2. I already have a Ming DA MC 300B-845A Class A push-pull 845 tube mono blocks. It uses 2 300B tubes as input tubes to drive a pair of 845 tubes per mono block.

3. I have been using Martin Logan before my hiatus so I am looking at buying a pair of ML Montis and use the Ming DA on the panels (the cone speaker is self powered in Montis).

4. As for the genre of music, it will mostly be jazz, small ensemble and some classical music. Nothing earth shattering 

5. I already have a semi-decent collection of high resolution (upto 24/192) music in FLAC and some DVD-Audio .iso files. Recently I have become interested in DSD as well, so I see myself acquiring more music on DSD.

6. We run an 'android-household' so I will need a steamer that comes with an Android control app, but I do not think this will be an issue since almost all of them support Android now.

Please continue to share your thoughts.

Thank you very much!
amal OP
34 posts
 
Thank you very much dbtom2 for your detailed response. Really appreciated.

Yes, my music library (amongst other data) is currently sitting in a 10TB drobo NAS. This NAS is connected to a Roku4 via the home network for video. However, I am in the process of acquiring another NAS for the family photos and videos and dedicating the drobo for music.

What I mean by streaming is both accessing the files stored in a NAS as well as streaming off the net (such as Tidal).

And yes, I am looking for a dedicated streamer for my two channel music only system. As mentioned above, it will have its own dedicated NAS and most likely I will be deployed in a separate network as well, in order to reduce interference.

I have no intention of using a PC / Laptop to steam music.

I too subscribe to the notion that a FPGA based DACs will sound better, because it does not tie you down with the ’house sound’ of the chip used (such as Sabre, AKM, Burr Brown, Wolfson etc) and will also provide much greater upgrade-ability. But the problem with this approach is that not very many manufacturers offer this solution. The ones that I know are dCS (very expensive), PS Audio (I am considering them) and Chord (have not heard them).

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