A/B Comparison On A Pair Of Moderately Priced Streamers

I’ll just piggyback on @ghdprentice that in streaming, as with all or audio, the chain is only as strong as the weakest link.  But, my experience with streaming this is on steroids, perhaps because the signals are so minuscule and thus susceptible to intubations from noise, timing issues, etc. that it’s amplified 10-fold down the line.  Anyone who’s heard an Aurender N20 has been overwhelmed by its sonic benefits, so for you to say a Node is adequate with your awesome DAC, no — just no.  Again, try a better streamer that is much more befitting your DAC.  

I agree with the statement that the quality of your DAC is far more important than your streamer.  After all streamer just sends bits.
 

@drbay Due respect I couldn’t disagree more.  Streamers are instrumental to minimizing noise among other things — the arch enemy of good quality streaming.  You’ve got an awesome DAC, and if you think the Node is on the same plane as Lumin, Aurender, Innuos, Aries, etc. I think you’re sorely underestimating the role of a streamer.  I’d highly encourage you to try one of these better streamers in your system and see what you think, because IMHO you’re leaving a lot of performance on the table.  Just my $0.02 FWIW. 

Would be best though if iFi would update their devices to work better on Wi-Fi in the first place, since that functionality is part of their marketing to consumers

@moonwatcher   Amen brother, I’m right there with ya.  And I’ll add their complete lack of customer service is downright unforgivable.  But, at $399 and the sound quality/$ I was willing to do a workaround rather than punting it off my roof in anger and disgust.  But if it gives me any trouble with the extender I’m hitting the roof immediately. 

When I heard that, I stopped watching.  I don't have an easy or elegant way to feed an Ethernet cable into my listening room, so a solid wireless connection is paramount to me.

@cwatters0 ​​​​@moonwatcher A way to both get around the Wi-Fi issues with the Zen Stream and having to run a long Ethernet cable is to use a Wi-Fi extender, and an added bonus is you’ll get better sound than using Wi-Fi.  FYI I bought this one but there are many others available…

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MR90E3A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Just plug this into an outlet and run an Ethernet cable from it to the Zen Stream and you’re done.  I haven’t been able to set mine up yet, but I’ve heard from several people that this solves the Wi-Fi issues.  Hope this helps. 

If one follows these guidelines, digital audio will reach the USB DAC ’bit-perfect’, as Denon calls it. It can’t get any more perfect than that can it?

Ugh.  🙄

@rudyb Its fine you’re happy with your Node, but don’t come in here overconfidently spewing crap you think you “know” when you’ve obviously no idea what you’re talking about. That might fly on ASR or Reddit, but people here are more knowledgeable and experienced so better to be a little more measured than coming in here telling us what you supposedly “know.” It comes across as both arrogant and ignorant. My advice — try a Lumin, Innuos, Aurender, Aries, etc. and then reassess what you think you “know” and if you’re still happy with your Node.  I bet not. 

@soix Let me first say there’s no need for us to quarrel...I use a Bluesound Node Mk2 with my main system.

@rudyb Wow, a Node Mk2!!! I can certainly see why you think you don’t have a noise problem. Good luck with that. Heh heh. I refer to @ghdprentice above. 

 Let me rephrase ... I know that not to be the case. A 'high end' streamer still streams the same digital data to my DAC as my tablet or PC or Bluesound Node does. If I suffered from noise, I'd invest a little in an optical cable, or a galvanic separated USB dongle.

@rudyb What streamer are you using, and how exactly do you “know” you’re performance isn’t being compromised by noise (I think the more accurate descriptor here would again be “believe” rather than “know”)?  I started streaming from my iPad and upgrading even to a modest iFi Zen Stream brought my streaming to an entirely higher level in every way.  And streaming from a PC is fraught with noise and if you think that’s a suitable way to get good streaming performance, well, I think we know what we have here. 

So ... what you’re saying is that, given the same (uncompressed) source file, different streamers send different bits and bytes to the DAC? I can’t believe that to be the case.

@rudyb You’re free to “believe” whatever you want, but there’s more to it than just sending “bits and bytes,” not the least of which is the elimination of noise, which is the mortal enemy in streaming.  Most people here will tell you streamers make a big difference in the ultimate performance of a streaming system, and I suggest you try it yourself instead of relying on a belief.  

Upgrade your DAC. In my experience the DAC has 95% of the sound the streamer is really not as important IMO.

@glennewdick While I see how in your situation and with your streamers this could be the result, my experience is upgrading a streamer is at least as impactful as upgrading a DAC. IME everything matters, and matters significantly in a streaming setup. If I was recommending to someone how to build a good streaming setup I’d recommend something like a 50/50 split between spending on a DAC and streamer. Again, just my experience FWIW.

Would anyone make the argument that an Innuos Zen mini is an upgrade over an N100?

No   The proper comparison would be with an Innuos Zen.