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Music Streamer Quality

This may be a dumb question but does the quality of a music streamer ultimately affect the sound? So here's some detail. I currently have a Sonos music streamer fed into a Simaudio Moon 300D dac. In the interest of having higher quality sound I could upgrade the dac or I could buy a dac with streaming capability such as the Simaudio 280D. I'm looking at a R2R ladder dac but would have the same Sonos feeding it. Does that make more sense than something like the Moon device? I appreciate an comments.
128x128falconquest
droleg's avatar
droleg
134 posts
 
+1 also for bluesound . Vault 2 w Ayre codex has, for the money, great sound and usability.
falconquest's avatar
falconquest OP
1,108 posts
 
I checked out the Ayre, both the Codex and the QB-9 but unfortunately I need multiple inputs. streamer, tv, & Oppo.
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
If you're looking for a DAC with multiple RCA coax inputs, the options collapse into only a handful, at least based on my search, within a reasonable price range. I don't care much for the optical input. I had a limited budget so I went with a Cambridge Audio DACmagic Plus. I'm feeding my CDP and Node2 into it and the sound quality is quite good. Bryston BDA models all have two coax inputs and depending on your budget you can go new or used.  
williewonka
3,063 posts
 
Another +1 for the Bluesound Node 2

It has a great analogue output stage,which responds very well to great cables - IC's and power cables.

I was using a good mains cable and a C7 power Adapter. I changed the IEC connector to a C7 connector, which did away with the c7 adapter - the improvements were extremely noticeable.

It may seem frivolous to spend more on the cables than I spent on the component, but in this case the improvements in sound quality was well worth it.

I found the Node 2's DAC& analogue output stage was better than my Bifrost 4470 DAC - so it's no longer part of my system

Regards - Steve   
mjmch2003
243 posts
 
I had a Sonos and things didn’t sound quite right, so I tried running Tidal from my iPod through my CD player (it has a USB line in) and that did the trick. Dynamics returned, etc.

I gave the Sonos to a non-audiophile friend.

(note: I did upgrade the power cable for the Sonos to a PS Audio Jewel C7 cable and recall this helping slightly),


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