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Streamers?

I have 2 dacs.
I like the r2r ladder dac for some music and the delta sigma for others.
I mainly listen to streaming, qobuzz and tidal, with masters and hires qobuz.
I do not yet have a network streamer though.  I cannot find one that I prefer and, being rural, I don’t want to start just running through streamers since it is a long drive into town to send equipment back (for those that allow inhome trials) so mqa pass through, dsd 512, 32/384 preferred.

Everything I listen to is sent from phone over bt ldac.. (not great)
I would like to fix that so I can play tidal masters, qobuz and my dsd files through streamer to, selectable, outputs to each dac.. preferably using the streamer to login to the services directly and not be required to have the path run through my phone or ipad and then to the dac.
Also, I would really like to find a network streamer that caches an entire track prior to beginning playback.   It is frustrating and really irritating, to start a track and have it interrupted 4-5 times during playback of ONE track because of my network here.
I actually have 3 internet services right now: starlink, a local wireless ISP and an

t-mobile 5g “hotspot” device on its own 100gb/month line. (ie, not shared with phone) and each of them have network “drops” of the stream.

One with cd ripper would be fine, but I do not need another dac, amplifier nor pre-amp, nor do I need roon etc.

Anything under $3000 would be great.. I cannot afford a $10000 network streamer..

Figured I would ask.. also am pursuing a daphile server, just waiting on hardware (at least, if it doesn’t meet needs, I can use for something else)

Thank you,

Matt
 

nevada_matt
petaluman
140 posts
 

I'm interested in this post, as I am also wondering which streamers do significant caching to optimize data flow.  Although there were several responses, the only streamer mentioned as meeting this requirement was the Aurender.  Are they really the only one?

nevada_matt OP
155 posts
 

The Aurender is the only streamer that officially states that is uses “caching” instead of “buffering”..

However, they do not specifically state that applies to network streaming. Reading their docs it seems as if only applies to “files” it reads from storage.

I looked very closely at the Aurender N150.. but it only has one, usb, for DAC connectivity.

The innuous pulse mini looks attractive as I don’t use AES. Looks like I can use the usb (dsd native to 512) to the r2r dac and the 24/192 optical to the sigma delta.

For the types of tracks played, I think that would be good.If output is easily selectable on the Pulsemini. Has anyone who has a pulsemini tried that type of configuration?  And does anyone know if the buffering can be configured .. as in, “get the whole track buffered before playing”?

Ps,

I also tried the BS node 2i ….. again.

Still… after “factory reset” it does lose all my configs, and the tidal sub login is gone, but even though it is plugged in with wired ethernet, it still will only try to attempt to use one of the previous (ssid and password changed on router) wifi ssid and password.. ie, the wifi configs “magically” survive the “factory reset” that wipes all other configs and seems to “bar” the wired interface from being used.. (shows no internet connection, even though the router shows it on the wired network with an ip address)

larry5729's avatar
larry5729
1,000 posts
 

I have a Node 2i Bluesound streamer.  Do more expensive streamers really sound better?  If, why?  Has this been blind tested?

rockrider
181 posts
 

The Aurender products do cache streaming content. 

The N100H , N100C, and N100SC are legacy products that are still supported and you can find them used. 

rockrider
181 posts
 

Also, all the digital outputs on the Aurender products are active simultaneously. So the selection of which DAC you want to play is on your downstream equipment. 

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