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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 2 responses by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
6,473 posts
 

If you are after outstanding sound quality then the key is a high quality streamer and high quality DAC. You can take inexpensive equipment and incrementally improve performance, but if you want real performance you want a carefully chosen streamer, DAC, preamp, and amp of roughly the same investment level. 
 

I have owned streaming solutions at the $1K, $2K, $3K, $5K, $10K, $20K, and $50K. If you are serious about sound you start with the best possible components and then add infrastructure enhancements… like an EtherRegen… which I added to my main system.

My advice: buy the best DAC and streamer you can possibly afford and then start thinking about tricks to get a bit more out of them. 

ghdprentice
6,473 posts
 

I have heard a number of +$150K systems running on wifi extenders (wall wart wifi extenders) that sound simply spectacular. A great steamer with a wifi extender = incredible performance.

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