For those that have separate Streamers & DACS

I have owned Aurender (very good), nucleus + (very good) and innuos.  With the new Innuos Sense app, the Innuos is exceptional for the money…. One small caveat:

Innuos sounds its best with either FLAC or WAV files.  There is a small but significant reduction in quality with any of the Apple format files (AIFF, ALAC).  I have discussed this with Innuos as well as other Innuos owners and understand that the Apple formats require a bit more processing.  The Innuos software is clearly optimized for the others.  Mind you, this is “nitpicking” but to any of my audiophile friends, I recommend the most expensive Innuos server you can afford.  Even the zenMini (must be with external power supply) is very good for the money, but every increase yields a meaningful improvement.  Integration with QoBuz is exceptional.  I haven’t tried Tidal.  Roon works well but at an acoustic and pocketbook cost.  Good luck all!

I was running a NUC+LPS directly into my DAC via ethernet.

I then bought a second hand Antipodes EX for £2,000 (£4,500 new) which acts as a renderer (but can also be roon core and streamer) between the NUC and the DAC. It has 2 ethernet ports so it isolates the DAC from the network switch.

I thought i had taken most of the noise out of the system (Bonn 8 network switch+LPS and a PSM 156 Power conditioner) upgraded fuses and power cables.

The step up in SQ with the EX in the mix, was far more significant than i was expecting.

I recently demoed an EVO 432 server but was not able to hear much difference and certainly, at £5k it was not tempting. The £2k cost of the EX was a bargain and i would have paid well over £5k for this level of improvement.

Good luck. 

correction: I was running a NUC+LPS to my DAC with ethernet, via a Bonn 8 network switch.

Troy Boys,

Good to know you found Innuos to be the best SQ.

I bought one with:

-No DAC

-Rips

-Stores

To me that is the simplest solution. I shopped  2 years back and got

a new one for $2,200. Zen 3. 

I stopped in at Axpona and looked at the Aurrender display. They have a model

for $5k? that appeared quite impressively built. 

I'll keep mine. 

Aurender here-- just traded up from ACS10 to A30-- WOW-- Great dac!!!!