mgrif104

Responses from mgrif104

KEF Reference 3 or Raidho X2?
I suspect you’ll get a range of opinions shared here from those who like KEF or Raidho and those who suggest you look elsewhere.  As i own KEF Ref 3s after taking a very long time in evaluating them against many others in their general price range... 
BluOS Node vs Auralic software (or other streamer)
I own both a Node 2i in a cabin system, and an Auralic Aries G2 in my primary system.  I used to have a Roon subscription but dropped it (see below).  I’ve auditioned Lumin and Simaudio and formerly owned Aurender. For user interface in terms of p... 
Seeking lower cost alternatives to Berkeley Audio Design Alpha USB converter
The Schiit Eitr does the same thing (USB > SPDIF coax and works very well.  I bought one a couple of years ago but it’s now retired as I went to streamers and DACs that are better w/ USB.  I hadn’t planned on selling it - because i forgot about... 
Auralic Aries
@rfnoise - I personally use a google WiFi mesh system with 3 waypoints, plugging the primary unit into my initial router, (which I have completely locked down for security purposes and have turned off WiFi broadcasting),  In essence, I can have tw... 
Auralic Aries
@paulcreed I found Auralic actually plays fine with Roon.  However, as I noted in an earlier post in this thread, Lighting DS (“LDS”), sounds significantly better than Roon whether streaming Qobuz or playing a file on a NAS. I’m not the only user ... 
Auralic Aries
Congrats on your purchase @rfnoise!  A couple of observations/user experiences that might be helpful to you:It’s likely (but not assured) that you would be rewarded by improving the quality of your USB cable.  Though i can’t explain why, the diffe... 
Auralic Aries
I’d like to restate that others have a very different experience with the Auralic Aries G2 series.  My own experience (and in direct A/B comparison with other units from Aurender, Lumin and Simaudio) indicates that it does not have a high noise fl... 
Auralic Aries
@ghdprentice Interesting.  I’m not going to suggest the Aries G2 is the equal of the W20SE, but I have one and had an Aurender N100H.  The G2 is/was quite a bit the better unit between those two (I sold the N100H) and I  know several who think it’... 
Sonic differences between servers
IronlungAt the time, I was running Roon Core on an optimized Mac mini and using the Auralic Aries G2 streamer. I had (at the time) both Tidal and Qobuz though I’ve since dropped Tidal as Qobuz sounds better and their library is satisfactory.  I ho... 
Sonic differences between servers
@Ironlung makes good points and provides useful clarification, too.And, I would agree with the last sentiment he/she shares: “Personally, I would avoid Roon altogether if SQ is actually your ultimate goal.  I have direct experience w/ Roon vs othe... 
Sonic differences between servers
My mistake in the use of the term server instead of streamer. That said, the OP was asking about variations in sound between Innuos, Antipodes, etc - which I believe are streamers.  And, so the question was posed about the differences in sound qua... 
Sonic differences between servers
Though it doesn’t intuitively make sense, my own experience is that servers do sound different.  Of course, there are plenty of forum participants who claim otherwise, so YMMV.  Like Fuzztone noted, they’re not big differences, but better systems ... 
Simaudio 680D?
@skohlmey sorry for the tardy response.  I still plan to audition the Simaudio 680, but I will share that I’ve come to recognize that the Vega G2.1 is very good and fully competitive with other units of similar price. A few things worth sharing. I... 
Streaming Sound Quality - Want the very best sound quality? Network Acoustics ENO...
Time to report my findings.  As a refresh, I ordered the ENO Ag system (filter and cable) and an English Electric network switch. I got the ENO a few weeks ago.  The switch was on backorder and I just got it today.Honestly, there was minor improve... 
Do I need a new DAC/streamer. Considering?
My apologies - my comments were directed to djones51 - not at you, the OP.  Sorry for the confusion.Best,