Fairly new to streaming. Where to start?

@big_greg




Thanks   I figured I can rip the cd's I need to on my computer. Theres quite a few but I have 1TB of music already ripped. Now for another question
I've read somewhere that all streamers are not equal in their ability to hand over the 1's & 0's over to the dac. I don't know if this is correct though. What is the general consensus on that? Do you know? Thanks

Artemis, just get JRiver for your laptop and connect to a good USB DAC like a used Benchmark.  It will sound very good and you can start your streaming journey from there.

Also, if you go to Radio Paradise and set your stream to FLAC, you'll be surprised how good it sounds...with four streams to choose from and the ability to skip to next song.  Regardless of how big your CD collection is, Radio Paradise will greatly expand the musical landscape unless you just want to stay in classical or jazz content.  Also, you can run a remote desktop  from a tablet to you laptop and be awfully close to the user interface of dedicated streamers. 

Yes, dedicated streamers and reclockers can make an improvement,  but what I described isn't shabby and gets you great sound as a cost-effective baseline.

You won't get a consensus on the importance of the streamer. IMO the DAC matters more but in your case you're also dealing with a server could be a computer, NAS, or a streamer/ server like the vault. Just have your music shared and the Node2i can access it, the thing with the Node2i is the DAC is the weakest part of it, the app  interface and streaming capability is pretty good. 

@artemus_5I have not been able to a/b them directly and am going on others comments. However this weekend I listened to an Innuous Zen Mk3 playing on a much more expensive system than mine and I thought OK, but it not that much better. It did not knock my socks off and it was streaming Tidal while I listen to Spotify. I have a/b'ed the internal DAC of the Yamaha with a Topping D50s DAC playing externally on the Yamaha and there is not a huge difference there either.Recently I bought some hi res recordings from Channel Classics and Blue Coast. I guess I've begun to appreciate that the quality of the recording is more important than the player. That is not to say I think you can't do better than a Yamaha wxc-50, not at all. Just that it is a pretty good entry point that can take you a good distance. The Musicast software that comes with it is very versatile and once set up, pretty easy to use with almost any source you could want. Here is a thoughtful review of it:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovrS88tddmo

@electroslacker  @djones51


Here's what I am trying to decide. I have a hifi shop here in town who services  my equipment when needed. They are good & honest and been around for a long time. I've known them for a long time as well. They have been trying to sell me a Yamaha WXC-50. It gets good marks from Hans Beekhuyzen who reviewed it as well as others. Just a bit below Node 2i in sound quality.  I have heard is and it sounded good.   I will need to upgrade the DAC for the Yamaha or the Node 2i. But the Yamaha is $200 cheaper. They also  suggest JRiver ($60). So the question...will the Yamaha send the 1's & 0's to the DAC as good as the Node 2i? I haven't bought anything from them in a while  and I need some more equipment to be serviced which would keep me on their good side (if that makes sense)
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_022WXC50DS/Yamaha-WXC-50.html?awcp=&awcr=309983056457&awdv=c&awkw=%2byamaha+%2bwxc+%2b50&awmt=b&awnw=g&awug=9013327&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6sHzBRCbARIsAF8FMpWdUmwUmixMneDZl3N_G3KUNGjnbGnJhW8_-FZRUDpwFFoI_GDgaaYaAgSVEALw_wcB