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Anyone else feel like it’s the Wild Wild West?

I’ve been following the streaming threads here for a while now, and I find it both exhilarating and intimidating.  I mean, we all know everything in high-end audio matters to some degree or another, right (Ok, maybe except for the flat earth contingent)?  From what I’m reading and from my own experience the process of optimizing steaming has near unlimited potential, and some even say it rivals or even surpasses vinyl if taken to the max.  Cables, routers, optical, filters, extenders, power supplies, switches, etc., they all seem to make a significant difference despite the naysayers who say bits are just bits.  I’m all in on this steaming renaissance, but most of the jewels of useful info are buried in other posts, so I’d like to have this be a consolidator post of your best streaming experiences and recommendations for others who could benefit greatly from your hard-won victories and maybe save a lot of people the agony you went through to get to streaming nirvana.  So have at it — let’s empower this community in this noble task and help everyone realize the amazing potential of this magic gift to audiophiles.  What say you?

soix
ghdprentice's avatar
ghdprentice
9,473 posts
 

@attila7

 

Streaming not need to be difficult. Think of it this way:

Turntable —> Phonostage —> Preamp

Streamer —> DAC —> Preamp

 

The two analogous.

No management software is required. Buy a Aurrender, Aurlic, Lumin, or budget Bluesound streamer. The first three higher quality.

 

If you really just want a simple solution you can get a Streamer / DAC. Although future upgrades will be harder. I recommend Aurrender. I have two after trying others. Plunk it down, connect. Download the app and start streaming. If you are not close to your router… just buy a wall wart wifi extender… plug it in next to your system and plug that in to your streamer… it will just work.

attila7
23 posts
 

I am hardwired in, so much faster and morecrelisblecthan wifi. I also have a dac in my amp thru the optical or digital plugs. Is a standalone sac significantly better than the built in ones?

ronboco
1,118 posts
 

@attila7 

Most people think a stand alone DAC is better but I think it depends on the level of the component the DAC is in. The DAC in my Boulder 866 is fantastic. The one thing the stand alone does is let you try different ones until you find one that sounds best to you. 
 

Regards

Ron 

attila7
23 posts
 

Good point Ron, I didn't think of it from that point. I was looking from the "junk" perspective. As I can't remove a built in dac the the current flows thru it, if I add on an outboard unit the current flows thru 2 dacs, everything in the signal path has an effect on the signal. Seems like additional "clutter"? It would seem that the best way would be individual standalone single function devices but that would require a wall of components, an end to end row of plug ins and miles of cable. So much for plugging a cd player into an amp to minimize signal degradation 🤣?

curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
6,008 posts
 

Just started streaming a couple of months ago. Bought a New Node and it wasn’t right and returned it. Got a second one and it works well. Last week had some issues with BluOS and the customer service was pretty good. They responded fairly quickly and took responsibility for the problem and emailed when it was fixed. I have no complaints with BlueSound, however I feel they are but a gateway drug for upgradeitis. 

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