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 1 response by kraftwerkturbo-tt225

Boy oh boy, am I glad I have not gotten infected with the DIGITAL bug. Audiophiles have ALWAYS been pretty crazy dumping truckloads of money down a (perceived) 'making it better' path (they DID sell speaker cable for $100/ft even back then). 

But DIGITAL brings the craze to a whole new level. Reading the 'atom splitting' (hair splitting was a thing of the analog times) discussions, aren't we 'missing the boat', 'barking up the wrong tree', 'not seeing the big picture'?

Granted, my 'listening ear' (i.e. critical skill level to judge performance) is not even close to what it was 40 years when we going down the deep end of audio performance improvements, but even with my current limited skill level, I am convinced that you get 10x the improvement for every Dollar spent on the ANALOG side of the sound chain (for example speaker, room, etc). 

So if 'bang for buck' is in the discussion: think analog improvements first.