2. digital
  3. 156618-110028

Can we talk streamers based on UI rather then SQ?

I'm a Node 2i user currently and looking for a change.
I've been reading lots of posts for the last week or so and I'm not sure if I'm more or less confused then
when I started. Lol
Looking to move on from the Node platform because the UI is bothering me.

Most of the topic of discussions based around the multitude of streamers seems to be on SQ.
I could be off base, but I think in my mid-fi system, (Wired 4 Sound STI-500V2 >dac to be determined>Dali Helicon 800) I'll be happy with the SQ of most any streamer. I'm much more concerned with the UI as I really just want it to work as intended.

I've got about $2K to spend on a dac and or dac/streamer. 
I see a ton of praise for the Lumin gear but I also see that it seems to be built around the IOS platform and I use Android / PC. Has this issue been resolved or am I making a mountain out of a mole hill? 

I also like the idea of the Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra, just have no idea what the UI is like.
Or any small form streamer that "just works"
I like the idea of being able to DAC swap with these.  

What I want out of it:
 Streaming mainly. Tidal, Spotify and the like. 
 Ethernet Connection to my router and no issues linking to my local music files. (Node keeps dropping my local files)
 
I like the look of my Jriver index but I'm not married to it.
Don't care about Roon at this point.

I don't need a NAS do I? I have less then 1TB of music. 

What will help me make this decision? 
 
Thank you
 
128x128flavo
flavo's avatar
flavo OP
40 posts
 
@mgrif104 
"
I was assuming that you’d prefer to find a solution for $150/year rather than pay $2k+ for a new solution.  Since you’re self described as being cheap - and having problems with keeping connected to your library "

Damn fine point you made there yourself. I'll give it some more consideration. 
flavo's avatar
flavo OP
40 posts
 
@erik_squires 
I had no idea that's how that worked. I've yet to get a single "ping" on this thread. I was trying to figure out how to turn notifications on just gave up. 

"I want to reiterate that the cool part of Roon is that I don't really experience a separation between Tidal and my local library. If I look for Mel Torme all albums show up, whether I have them locally or on Tidal."

Now that is very cool indeed. I really dig that

crn3371
224 posts
 
If you don’t want to use Roon for $ reasons, and can use a pc as your streamer, I would recommend looking at Audirvana.
soma70
153 posts
 
+1 Roon. Advanced musical exploration! 
itsjustme
681 posts
 
+1 more: Roon. And its SQ is as good as it gets.
Roon dos have its issues, but what software doesn’t?
Now back to your problem.  Lost data is not a UI problem, unless you simply don't know how to find them.
All systems struggle, to a degree, with Metadata.  Is Ludwig Von Beethoven the same as Beethoven, Ludwig V., 1770-1827?  Often roon doesn't think so. itunes is pretty confident they are two different people.
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