Sound quality differences in streamers

@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.

I have the Volumio Rivo+ for a couple of months now.   It is an outstanding souding unit.  Big improvement from my old IPAD air.  I use it with a McIntosh system, the DAC is a McIntosh D150.   I am using a 5 volt 3.5 amp dual linear power supply - one supplying the Rivo+, the other powering a 4K 13.5 inch monitor.  I also have an audio quest power cable and both my DC cables are high end.  I am using a mouse for control of the monitor, not touch.  I could not get the touch working on my 4K 13.5 inch monitor.  For my music, I am using ripped dsf and wav files that I put on a 1 tb microsd card and Qobuz for streaming.  For internet, I still am stuck with DSL, so, I setup a eero 6+ mesh system and I have a eero node next to the Rivo+.  Wifi worked fine, but, I decided to hardwire an ethernet cable to the eero 6+ node and run the node with an 5 volt linear power supply and use a audioquest cinnimon ethernet cable.  i am also using a Stack Audio Smooth Lan from the ethernet cable to the Rivo+.  For internet, after the DSL routerh, I am using ethernet to fiber to ethernet adapters before the eero6+ base node.  Honestly, sound is really outstanding, and the Volumio user interface is really nice.  I use my IPHONE and IPAD to manage the playback.  It is easy to switch from streaming to the microsd card and the stored dsf (ripped SACD) sound great.   Volumio is now also supporting Qobuz connect and I just tried it and it is also very nice. Of course,  If you want to switch between your hard drive and streaming, you need to use the Volumio UI.