Sound quality differences in streamers

@devinplombier That is not the Mikrotik model I had, can't recall the model but it had dual internal power supplies, I'd have to look back on ebay past purchases to be sure of model. In any case it was both the internal mods and conversion to allow for external linear power supply that complicated matters to the point I thought of the simpler method of adding a second router for 'dirty' side of network.

I've made the decision and have ordered 

Volumio Rivo+ w/Lineo5 power supply.

Will hardwire to a wifi extender with Ethernet 

port into MHDT Orchid. Hopefully this is a cut above laptop

USB to Orchid.

Hell of a discussion this has been - 

@sns - I don’t have any noise issues I am aware of and the fiber to the streamer in my main system probably helps mitigate any noise but your post gave me an idea.  Since the two auxillary systems source 99% streaming, and I do not need my stored music files for those systems, I could indeed set up another Roon core on the network for those two systems but, unfortunately, that would require me to purchase another Roon license, which is currently about the only thing I have that is free since I signed up as a lifer early on.  Based on all that, I am going to consider the issue not broke, and therefore not in need of fixing. However, thank you for the ideas.

@kckrs 

Cool!  Let us know how it goes.  What’s the ETA?

fleschler

Sure you can get really good streamer for well under $1,000, that you can use with your Poseidon. Buy a used BlueSound Node 130 (not 2 or 2i) for about $250, and add a used Denafrips Iris DDC for about $350 to $400.

The Node 130 only outputs via USB (which you could also send direct to the Poseidon) into the Iris. The Iris does it's magical DDC stuff, and then will allow AES/EBU, optical, RCA, and I2S to the Poseidon (I know the Poseidon does not accept I2S)

As long as you want very good, and not state of the art, this combo will work really well; and the Node has a terrific interface.