Streamer upgrade? follow up.
I posted the first part of this earlier in the week. There are a few other threads running concurrently here about this same subject.This is my personal experience with this situation.Ive been using a Aurender A100 streamer/dac which is they’re entry level unit, the SQ wasn’t horrible but I was pretty sure I could get it better.In a attempt to do that I purchased a Denafrips Pontus two and a DhLabs Mirage Usb cable to use with the A100 utilizing its Usb out.The two local hi fi dealers here in SO Cal both told me this would not produce much of an result and in my opinion after trying it they were both correct. So… as I stated in the first post I was coming from a “bit is bits” perspective which was I was convinced adding a better Dac would accomplish my goals, I just couldn’t believe that the zeros and ones could possibly effect the quality of sound. But not being one to give up I decided in for penny in for a pound Id see for myself if there was anything to the other side of this conversation, I wanted a new toy for Xmas anyway.So I traded my A100 plus some cash to TMR ( nice people btw) for a shiny new Aurender N200 which arrived yesterday. Last night the moment of truth, I hooked up the new unit with the exact same everything as before in my system nothing different but the streamer.I let the tubes and everything else warm up for a few hours,picked a song I knew inside and out sat down and pressed play. Immediately within the first few notes of the Stones “ Wild Horses “ I knew I had made the right choice and that I was wrong believing bits are bits “. I really don’t have adequate language to describe the difference in sound quality other than to say I feel like Im in someone else’s home listening to they’re far superior system, its that drastic.I can with complete confidence say this has got to be one of if not the most significant upgrades Ive made in my system, scouts honor! PS. Grinin ear to ear here.
Thanks for your post and kudos for keeping an open mind. General purpose laptop are just that, they are not optimized for high resolution audio. Music is an emotional experience, the better the sound, the more you feel! The big question is what are you willing to do, to attain the sound that has the power to move and engage us. I am convinced that once you’ve had a taste of high quality sound, you’ll never want to go back. But if you still have doubts, all I can say is: Retune your ears! |
@bikeboy52 Nice! enjoy the newfound sound in your digital front end. Thank you for sharing. |
Thanks for outlining your Ethernet setup. I say, enjoy your time with N200 until you’re ready to ‘tinker’ with Ethernet. Don’t know how long is your Blue Jeans Cat 8 cable run is? If it’s a shorter run like under 2M, then I recommended trying the ENO or Muon streaming system which comes with their excellent LAN cables on both ends for most bang for your buck. If you’re using a longer run then keep the BJ Cat 8 and just get the ENO filter which comes standard with a captive pig tail LAN cable for streamer end. The market is flooded with inexpensive noise suppression alternatives so try and compare them at your will…IME, most serve as band aids and doesn’t quite measure up to a much superior noise filtering solution like ENO or Muon. Bookmark the thread started by @ketchup, lots of alternative noise suppressing gadget recommendations. |
Very interested to hear more about ethernet tinkering. Not sure if that would be a new post or whether it makes sense to tag onto this discussion. As you can see I don't post a lot...not that I'm not interested...simply that my experience is limited to 2 amps, 2 preamps, a handful of DAC's and 1 streamer. My situation is a pretty long run (maybe 30 ft) from my standard AT&T router to my streamer. Using a no-name CAT 8 cable I bought from Amazon. Runs under the house through the crawl space. No fun down there.. Anyway, would be very interested in hearing yours and others experiences and recommendations as to what tweaks make the most sense/have the most bang for the buck and what sort of improvement each might bring. Glad to initiate a new thread if that's the better way to go... |
@fthompson251 Sorry I forgot you asked about ac cables. Ac cables on both dac and streamer are entry level Nordost. I read your post the other day about your deciding to go new dac or streamer first. My personal experience has led me to the conclusion that a lot of people are looking at this backwards, this is clearly a case of the new streamer making my old dac sound far better, best of luck on your endeavor either way. |
