Don’t waste your money on those expensive streamers, after all they are just computers, get the Wiim Ultra or any of the wiim products…I bet you can’t hear the difference. Spend the money on the best dac you can afford.
Streamers - Auralic, Aurender, Lumin, others...
Any recommendations, please? :)
I'm looking for a streamer only – without a DAC.
I’ve been leaning toward the Auralic Aries S1 since it’s reasonably priced and available pre-owned. It also has a coaxial input, so I could connect my CD player as a transport. I’d mostly use it as a Roon endpoint, as I run Roon on a Mac Mini and really enjoy it — especially for its great music recommendations.
I’ve read some threads here, and many of you seem to love Aurender and Lumin. Has anyone had a chance to compare them with the Auralic?
Thanks!
- ...
- 116 posts total
I’ve gotta say — I don’t really get the whole streamer thing. These companies love to brag about stuff like femto clocks to reduce jitter and all that, but as far as I know, when you’re using a USB connection to a DAC, the DAC’s master clock is the one that actually matters, not the streamer’s. I can buy that filtering out noise might make a difference in sound quality, but beyond that, I’m not so sure anymore. |
@timothy468 Innuos is not listed on Roon partners website. Do you use is as a Roon core or Roon endpoint?
|
@charles007100 Incorrect. About USB. If you are using the coaxial / digital connection or AES then the Sreamer times the bits... if you use USB then the DAC does. A bit of an oversimplification, but gets the point across. It comes from history. Whenndigital audio began the dominant low voltage connection was coaxial... RCA. Then the computer came around... it could stream bits but not in the same format as DAC inputs. So retiming and conversion was required. So, DAC manufactures added a USB input, with a bunch of additional processing so they could be timed and converted. Some companies produced only USB DACS. Anyway, most now have both. Which input sounds better is largely a question of which of your components is better... if your streamer is better then typically RCA, or AEC (Balanced as is XLR in interconnects) will sound better. If your DAC is much better than your streamer... then it is likely USB sounds better. When your DAC and streamer are of similar quality you have to try them. I have a high end DAC and streamer... I tried them both,... very little difference if any. The DAC manuafacturer worked on making both really good.
If you really have questions go into a high end audio store. Audition a Bluesound Node and a high end streamer... this should dispel any questions you may have about streamers making a difference. |
- 116 posts total