A/B Comparison On A Pair Of Moderately Priced Streamers


Based strictly on signal quality and what makes your ears happy ( I don't care about storage for sake of question).......Would anyone make the argument that an Innuos Zen mini is an upgrade over an N100?

scottya118

@soix Let me first say there’s no need for us to quarrel...I use a Bluesound Node Mk2 with my main system.

@rudyb Wow, a Node Mk2!!! I can certainly see why you think you don’t have a noise problem. Good luck with that. Heh heh. I refer to @ghdprentice above. 

@scottya118, IMHO having the best DAC that you can afford with the cleanest power is far more important than looking for a streamer that can supposedly do everything. I use a Chord Hugo TT2 DAC with a Chord M Scaler that use Nick Bacon’s excellent WAVE Storm BNC interconnects. Both have their own linear power supply units that are plugged into an AudioQuest Niagara power conditioner.

I use a simple Roon Nucleus music streamer with its own LPSU because all I needed was a small dedicated computer to help me navigate through the millions of tracks available to be streamed over the internet. I didn’t want another multi thousand dollar box with its own internal filters, a display screen, and that weighed several kilos between me and my music. The Nucleus is just a pass thru for the internet signal. It’s what’s in front of it coming from my router, and what’s behind it going to my M Scaler that makes the real difference in sound quality in my system. And as @richtruss said, things sound a whole lot better with a cleaned up Ethernet connection.  

@cwatters0 I've heard it (the iFi NEO Stream) uses the same software as the iFi Zen Stream, so I wonder if it too is hampered by Wi-Fi connection issues or must be used wired? Would be good to know.