IFi Neo streamer. Comes with a linear power supply and a converter that changes ethernet to optical. $1299. Get it on amazon, audition it, return it if dissatisfied. Use the digital outputs to go to your dac. Came out late 2022. It will automatically recognize your dac if you turn on your dac first. Recognizes Roon and Tidal. Use mconnect for Qobuz. That’s one downside. The other is that you sometimes have to choose the output when you first turn it on. Otherwise, it’s a great value. it has bit perfect and up sampling options. The instructions stink imho. Try it. Return it. Can’t go wrong. You might even keep it.
About ready to give up on Roon and my streamer
Last December I started a thread to address the question of whether a true AES/EBU cable would sound better than a standard XLR when connecting my Sonnet Morpheus DAC to a Sonnet Hermes streamer. As the discussion evolved, (and in the end I abandoned both connections in favor of I2S via ethernet cable) I began sharing my trials and tribulations setting up Roon and getting it to work. Though I was finally successful and did get to spend some quality time streaming favorite music through Qobuz on the Roon platform, I've never been entirely happy with the sound. Apart from the headaches of getting everything to connect together every time I turn it on, I've also experienced some bizarre intermittent sound quality issues with Roon that I'm becoming very frustrated with. Sometimes it sounds pretty good, and sometimes it sounds tinny, shrill, and no stereo image. I haven't changed any settings anywhere, but something's clearly not getting processed correctly. At this point I'm tired of fighting with it.
What I'd really like to do is take Roon out of the equation entirely and connect directly to Qobuz through a streamer, but the Sonnet Hermes is designed to be a Roon endpoint and as far as I can tell, nothing more. If there's a way to get it to connect directly to Qobuz, I'd surely like to know about it.
Meanwhile, I'm happy to take suggestions for a streamer in the $1K to 1.5K range (new or used, happy with either) that can do this. I really don't want anything with a built-in DAC, as I'm really happy with mine, despite some minor shortcomings in its array of input connections.
Advice greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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- 38 posts total
- 38 posts total