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Advice for Streaming Newbies - Best Bang for Our Bucks

Hi All,

I'm currently building up my 'streaming only' system having read more reviews and forums in the last three weeks than in the preceding three months!

I'm a firm believer that I don't need to spend thousands upon thousands to get the best out of Tidal but conversely, there are good investments to be made to get the best sound.

I'd like to call on your collective wisdom for either general recommendations or specific product recommendations that give good "bang for the buck".

To start the ball rolling, my specific system looks like this:

Tidal Premium

5G Mobile Router with stock PSU (on separate extension lead)

Audioquest Pearl CAT6 Ethernet Cable to English Electric 8 Switch with stock PSU (on shared core extension lead with 2 x ifi AC iPurifiers)

Chord C Ethernet Cable to ifi Zen Stream with stock PSU (12v iPower 2) (on shared core extension)

Wireworld Chroma USB3.0 to ifi Zen DAC v2 with ifi iPower X  (on shared core extension)

ifi 4.4mm Connector to ifi Zen Can with stock PSU (on shared core extension)

Topping PA5 with stock PSU (on separate extension lead)

Audioquest Rocket 11 Speaker Cable to Wharfedale Diamond 12.3 Speakers

I have an ifi iPower Elite on Order and two more iPower X's

Possible upgrades I am considering:

Improved PSU for the Router

Improved Power Cable to the iPower Elite

More use of iPower Elite's

eno Ethernet Filter

Gigafoil v4

Improved Ethernet Cables

Improved USB Cable

Additional AC iPurifiers for other extensions

Starting from a basic system what areas of investment have yielded the best results? An improved PSU on the DAC or the Swtich? An ethernet filter? A better ethernet cable? etc.?

jabbaman

Showing 3 responses by atlvalet

atlvalet
55 posts
 

Don't a lot of DAC's and/or streamers solve these problems without needing to purchase all this extra stuff? It's packets of data, correct? 0's and 1's.

It seems all this money spent on magic routers and cables and other doo-dads could just be spent on a better streamer and/or DAC?

atlvalet
55 posts
 

@jabbaman even though I am not a big fan of ASR, I find myself caught between two sides with regards to streaming. Like, a lot of people say they loved their EtherRegen, but ASR was like, "This thing does nothing." Same for some of these audiophile routers.

Higher end pieces have linear power supplies, so that should fix the "dirty power" issue. Good DACs incorporate galvanic isolation. I totally get the jitter thing and better clocks. Shit, I just paid Parts Connexion to upgrade the clock in my old Sonic Frontiers SFT-1, but good DAC’s incorporate good clocks.

I also get RMI and EFI because, in my old place, one of my speakers liked to broadcast low levels of a local radio station. I tried a whole bunch of stuff, but only thing that fixed it was an SET integrated amp. No idea why. A push/pull valve amp and SS amp both had the same issues.

I mean, I’m willing to try things, but a lot of streamers and/or DACs already have the upgraded stuff people are paying extra money to add on. And I agree ears should be the final judge, but short term memory is a terrible thing to use to determine audible changes.

atlvalet
55 posts
 

I like the Rose 150B. It has everything I’d want in a streamer, except I don’t need the DAC (I’d get it anyway because that screen is hard to say no to (outside of all the other benefits).

Can someone explain to me like I’m 5 what the benefits of adding a switch to the Internet router supplied by the service provider can do? Assuming the clocks are good in my streamers (Audiolab 6000N and an NAD M50.2) and are galvanically isolated, what will the switch/router provide?

Also, I’m at the point where I have 3 systems. One uses PlayFi and the other uses BlueOS. I need to buy a 3rd streamer. I like the Aurender stuff, but don’t feel like dropping that much coin just so I can have the same interface. Leaning towards a Node (each system has a separate DAC). Has anyone else run into this problem, or am I an outlier?

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