Streamers - Auralic, Aurender, Lumin, others...

@mdalton 

Doesn't sound like we disagree, but have different priorities.  I am trying to ring out the maximum sound quality possible at a given level... not to save dollars. So, we have different priorities. Makes sense. 

Gauging performance based on price is no longer in fashion. If you have disposable income and want to chase the last 5% or 10% of performance, by all means, go for it. But if you don’t—and you believe in diminishing returns—spend your money wisely.

Even a respected reviewer from The Absolute Sound who owns ultra-high-end gear worth over $100,000 has said that a $1,000 streaming device like the Note Icon can compare fairly with a $37,000 combo such as the Aurender N200 with the Berkeley Alpha Reference 3 DAC and its DDC. Take it or leave it.

Chasing 5% or 10% performance… absolutely. I am an audiophile… the highest performance is my objective. That is to the limit of my financial ability. Nothing wrong with having other priorities. Maximum performance per dollar is also a perfectly good strategy.

I am not gaging performance based on price. I am gauging performance based on sonic quality as a result of massive effort put in to find the very best sounding component at the same level as the other components.. Then looking at what the price was. This brings me to the generalization. I believe the relationship is probably based on design time and build quality… probably.

I suspect that it is likely driven by the fact that getting the last ounce of performance out of a device requires massive power supplies, huge effort in electrical isolation, massive weight to mechanically dampen and  isolate. So typically that really good sounding component weighs more and is bigger and has a lot more design time in it. It also remains better than the completion for longer.
 

A lot of advice about getting the noise and bits perfect BEFORE the DAC. A cheaper option is to add a fibre cable BEFORE the DAC and do not worry about what comes before the fibre.

Someone above posted about the PlayBack Deigns streamer that has a glass cable, well that is fibre. I actually owned the Playback Designs STREAM-IF and that also supported fibre but only for PDB dacs (non-fibre for other DACs).

A few weeks ago, I gave a local audiophile a $20 fibre cable that he plugged into his HiFi Rose streamer. It was connected to about $200k worth of gear. He is keeping the $20 cable and told me it was a great upgrade.

Put the fibre just before the DAC and forget about what comes before the fibre. I think this approach is starting to gain some momentum based on the posts I read online.

Op, very happy with my N150… sound, size, build quality & app. The only downside is USB output only. If your DAC likes USB, highly recommended.