STREAMER - WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE?

If you can afford it, why don't you try an upgraded power supply for your Eversolo, the Innuos pulsar and whatever Aurender you can afford and test them together.  I certainly wouldn't just pull the trigger on one and hope that I have the best for my system.  You have to compare.  See if a dealer will let you borrow a demo or two.  Or order some free trial stuff.  You owe it to yourself and the amount you've spent on your system to DEMO stuff NOT just take strangers on the internet's opinion.

Also, get a QUALITY USB cable.  You would be surprised how much a difference it makes.  I compared stock cable to Wireworld Platinum, Shunyata Gamma, Theta and Alpha.  The alpha won.  My wallet did not

I will only buy a unit that I can audition in my system.  Sound performance, of course, is a key factor.  My setup is extraordinarily revealing and I need a streamer that will complement it.  If I discover that the streaming section of the A8 is adequate, then I could keep it and use that money to purchase subs to complement my full-range electrostatics.  To lay out $14k for the N20 is significant for me. I struggle with spending that money relative to the Rose’s $5800 price (Which would still leave me enough in the difference to get the subs or go a long way towards my retirement speakers (Sonus Faber Amatis or Kef Blades)

Almost as equally important is how I interact with a unit and what it looks like.  Sometimes, I sit in front of my my A8 to make adjustments and I need a big screen. 

@fliz wrote "Head to head, a lowly A6 w/ a proper supply beat stuff in the 5 figure range." 

RESPONSE:  The A6 is not lowly and I’ve read everywhere that Eversolo products  they deliver value well beyond their price point.  My A8 isn’t going away, but will move to a a new garage system once its retired  from main system duties. 

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My plan is  to compare the A8 used as a streamer to other streamers that I’m considering. 

@glennewdick wrote “I would use the USB input and keep the Eversolo. Unless you want bragging rights on a shiny new streamer. From my experience with 5-6 Streamers now you won’t hear that much difference between a more expensive streamer over the already good Eversolo.” 

COMMENT:  If what you say is true, then why isn’t everyone buying the Eversolo T8 (or other moderately-priced streamer) which is supposed to be a better streamer than the one in the A8?  I suspect it’s system dependent.  I imagine that less  revealing systems will benefit less from streamers the perform better than a system can reveal. 

Besides, while the Eversolo DMP-A6 / A8 are good mid‑range units.  They’re not reference‑grade transports for a DAC in the BAT’s price/performance class.

@soix wrote “Glad you got a response from BAT — USB it is!!!”

Not from BAT.  That was a response from Copilot when I asked why the unit performs best when using a USB cable.

@glenmschneider – yes, I’ve read great things about the Grimm.  It’s is on my list. 

 @gkelly wrote “That is one nice DAC. Maybe I’m being a snob, but I would not have an eversolo nor a Hifi rose to mate with. Take a look at these guys. It’s what all the cool kids are using. Lol. https://innuos.com/”

I looked at the Rex 3 DAC for a long time and really didn’t consider anything else.  My amps,preamp, and phonoo stage are all BAT.  So, it’s was the logical choice and supposed to be one of the best available at any price. 

With all that said, I’ve learned that the Aurender has strong AES performance, and as previously mentioned, the REX 3 DAC is optimized for asynchronous USB.  So, the RS130 is the more technically aligned choice becuase it is engineered as a ISB-first reference transport which directly supports the Rex 3's needs.  This combination works better than transports that are AES-centric (like the N20--which are fantastic) but USB allows full%-rate PCM/DSD support allowing Rex 3 to operate at its full resolution (384 kHz PCM, DSD256). AES and Coax cannot do this.  

I asked AI to put together a chart ranking all of the streamers that I’m considering and how well each mates with the BAT Rex 3 DAC.  Here’s what it came up with (5 = best match):  

Streamer	Noise Floor	Clocking Philosophy	USB Output Quality	Roon Support	Budget Efficiency	Synergy with BAT REX 3
HiFi Rose RS130	5	5	5	5	3	5
Aurender N20	4	3	3	1	3	3
Lumin U2	4	4	4	5	5	4
Auralic Aries G2.2	4	4	4	5	3	4
Playback Designs MPS-X	4	1	1	5	1	1

 

I've yet to listen to any, but the data points to the RS130 as the best choice. 

 

 

Not from BAT.  That was a response from Copilot when I asked why the unit performs best when using a USB cable.

Ask BAT directly as they designed the thing.  I asked Chat or Gemini that said AES/EBU was the best input for your DAC so obviously AI is not infallible here.  This is too important to get wrong so best to go right to the source and get the definitive answer from BAT as to which input they optimized to work best. 

@soix I don't blindly trusst AI.  I have confirmed with my dealer and the instructions indicate that unit is USB 2.0 / Audio class 2.0 compliant and asynchronous mode is the method through which DAC generates a high precision clock master and the computer (i.e. the streamer) is clock slaved.

What's interesting is that Chat GPT gave me an answer that correctly identified the USB port as the best connection. 

 

 

 

 

I have the Innuos Stream 1 with LPS1 power supply and Phoenix USB module, and the sound quality is quite excellent, with my Gungnir2 DAC, which I may replace in the next year.  The Innuos Sense app on my iPad is excellent and integrates superbly with Tidal.  I had an occasion to deal with Innuos Tech and Customer support, and both were superb.