Streamer opinion.. Pease comment on validity.

I went from an Oppo Sonica streamer dac to a Lumin T2. I hear a much more detailed and natural portrayal in my streaming playback. It was worth the money to me and I'm very satisfied. As always, if you can't hear the difference you can save a lot of money and stay pat.

I went from an Oppo Sonica streamer dac to a Lumin T2. I hear a much more detailed and natural portrayal in my streaming playback.

I totally believe this. From my own listening the Oppo DACs were severely overrated, but it's hard to tell from this experience if this is due to the streaming or the DAC. My guess is the latter. :)

Best,


E

Thanks all for the comments. I beleive this thread has shed some light on a topic that has been wondered about by many members looking to buy a streamer. It definitely has for me. For myself, the system I have warrants at least a mid level streamer to take advantage of my systems already open /airy sound.

Anyone looking to part with one let me know. (Oops, am I allowed to say that? ;) 

PK

I have a Node 2 in a system going into an outboard DAC. While it’s a killer device for the price, it sounds “flat” relative to my Aurender N100 and Auralic Aries G2.

I've read this before, and it is fascinating to me that if the data is 1's and 0's and both are being fed into the same good DAC, that one will sound noticeably more open and spatial.

Does anyone have a technical explanation?

It’s a good question.  I lack the technical knowledge to comment on why.  But, I can comment on what.  And, the difference is pretty easy to hear - and it was validated by a dealer who carries the Node, but not the streamers I have.  I brought them in to audition on their system.  

Perhaps it’s similar to cables. Why do digital cables, speaker cables and analog interconnects sound different?  Heck, why do power cables sound different?  Though some doubt these differences, an audition reveals otherwise (I acknowledge the presence of confirmation bias).  But, the differences I hear were pretty clear - and confirmed by someone who didn’t want them to be there.  In audio, everything seems to make a difference.  Unfortunately....