PS Audio AirLens supports Spotify Connect and Qobuz Connect apps and Tidal. Those are around $2K new and around $1.2K on the used market. That be fairly strait forward upgrade. Then Phase II would be a higher end DAC.
late to streaming, recommendations?
Vinyl and tubes guy here but I recently got my act together and figured out how to do loseless spotify into my system using a dedicated computer, usb to Cambridge Audio DacMagic100 and then rca into my tube preamp. sampling rate is 192 (whatever that means). was a definite improvement over what I was doing before and streaming finally sounds pretty good to me. Now I'm starting to use it a lot and wondering, well, how could it be better? What would be the logical and most worth it bang-for-the-buck upgrade path for me?
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ghdprentice +++1 Definitely will see an improvement with Qobuz vs Spotify. The other site has a used (dealer owned) Aurender N100 which is well in your budget at $1195. I think that would be a reasonable start. It has been replaced by the N150, so likely why good prices are available. The danger would be once you hear how great streaming sounds through a quality system, you may get the upgrade itch. That's how I ended up with the N20 lol |
@ghdprentice that looks like a Sony PlayStation 5. |
If I was starting from scratch with your budget I'd by a Bluesound Node ICON and a Qobuz or Tidal subscription. If you have SXM radio in your car, the BluOS has native integration which is free and is great for casual/background listening. Wait a year and when the warranty runs out add a Teddy Pardo linear power supply. IMHO this will get you a long way, with a neat and tidy one-box solution with a good app. You'll need to spend 3-5x for the next upgrade. I just demoed the ICON in my system. See my mini-review here if your are interested. I strongly recommend ethernet rather than WiFi with the ICON. Good luck. |
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