What are you using as a streamer? Constructive feedback please.

What sources are you streaming or want to stream? That will narrow down the candidates.

With streaming these days , it’s hard to find bad sound quality. What is good or better can be highly subjective and difficult to determine with certainty. However streamer features vary widely. The right one is probably the one with the right features. Then use an external dac of choice from there if needed.

My streaming sound setup has been in place for a number of years now and still sounds great. I’m considering trying some newer stuff but have not settled yet.

I run primarily squeeze box touch to mhdt Constantine DAC. See my system page . I’ve heard a lot of good setups in recent years and nothing yet has convinced me I must upgrade.  

@mapman Mostly Jazz, Blues and Classical.

Well Roon claims to be very well structured around composers for classical so that is a plus. But what sources are you wanting to stream? Your own files? Spotify? Tidal? Amazon? YouTube? Others? Also what other devices do you have that you might want to cast from? Sources and protocols the streamer can support will come into play. It can be very confusing but varies a lot among streamers. One of the reasons I am not too quick to make a jump quite yet personally. Features in general can vary widely especially when factoring in the app choices for use. Way more than absolute sound quality, which is best addressed via the dac you choose to use with the streamer. Could be internal built in or external.

You should about this in three parts:

1. Music Server

2. Streamer

3. DAC

It wasn’t until I moved my Roon Core to a dedicated computer that I achieved the level of reliability needed to look at Streamers and DACs.   I ended up with a Sonicorbitor i5 music server and a combo streamer/DAC - Bricasti M3 with a network card.  There are a lot of other great options.  This is what worked for me coming in somewhere near my budget.  I went about the process in reverse order and regret it.  DAC, Streamer, Music Server and assumed my MacBook Air would work fine as my music server.  It turned out to be a bad assumption.   I also needed a home for my music collection so I added an internal 4tb SSD to my i5.  Everything works great.

I've run an Auralic Aries Mini, sadly no longer produced, for 5 years and love it. One advantage to Auralic is the fantastic LDS app which they continue to improve. An excellent company with good sounding products and a good track record.