Best Cheap DAC Streamer
I have come to possess a fairly high quality setup with Linn Amps and Speakers, but I have no where near the wealth to buy the type of gear discussed on here. (Furthermore, if I did, I hope I would send a good chunk of it to fix cleft plates in India before spending tens of thousands on a stereo.)I tend to do most of my listening from my phone by way of car stereo, ear buds or an $85 JBL Flip speaker.
I want to set up a home streaming/DAC device that will sound good enough for my ears. I would like the interface to be simple for getting music from a streaming service, with music info available on a display, and I would like it to have a voice activated interface which might encourage me to listen to more music on the stereo at home. I know some of you can't wait to scorn me for my weak listening abilities. Maybe you can skip it this time and let anyone speak up who has some some advice on a system for pretty close to $300 (or less!). I would consider buying used.
No shame in this journey. Just installed this in my sister‘s system https://wiimhome.com/wiimultra/overview it pretty much answers all your inquiries, and then some. And even more budget solution would be https://www.amazon.com/WiiM-Mini-Multiroom-Preamplifier-Assistants/dp/B09HC5GRKY hope this helps! |
My first thought is to praise you for your charity to others. Our family sponsors 4 children in Guatemala. We suffer an abundance of FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS, and forget that God is in charge. I’m not sure about the “ Voice interface “, but I have a Cambridge DAC Magic 200 M I bought used or a used Bluesound Node might fit your need. We all start at zero here , and most are way ahead of me. Cheers , Mike B. |
I would go for a Bluesound Streamer. They sound very good for the money, I bought a Bluesound Node for $350 on Amazon, they have some better sounding ones as well. I got it in order to break in an amp so not to use my high end tube gear... It sounds suprisingly good driving a $10K amp and $35K speakers. You definitely want to go the best sounding you can afford, Linn equipment is pretty revealing. Your ears are probably orders of magnitude better than you think. |
You might try the Bluesound Node Nano. I think it's probably very good for the low cost. |
Get the Ultra... it is the best one @charleyprice |
For under $100 you can get an Amazon Echo and a patch cable that connects to your Linn's Auxiliary input. If you're an Amazon Prime member, youre almost done. Use the Amazon Music App to connect Amazon Music as your source. For a $99 annual upgrade fee, you get Amazon Music Unlimited and access to 100 Million songs, plus podcasts, and one free book a month from Audible, all in CD or better than CD quality. All with the best voice control on the market. You can also connect to other streaming services, if you wish. The perfectionists on this forum will be *shocked* at this recommendation, but im also sure they haven't tried it. The integration is very effortless, and you may be able to add a switched outlet to give you power on/off for the amp. The Echo itself can support any streaming speed Amazon Music supports, up to 24-bit 192 Kbps, over 4X faster than CD quality requires. Feel free to spend on the WIIM and Bluesound equipment. both are very high quality solutions, but voice control is going to be a challenge. I own a Bluesound Node, and voice control is not, to my knowledge, supported. WIIM does support Alexa, but you still need an Echo for microphones and to act as a control hub. Personally, I would start simply, with just an Echo. Then, if you feel the need to upgrade, consider the WIIM Pro Plus. |
The Bluesound Node (130) is an excellent option. Look on fleabay. Can get a brand new one at a very reasonable price. |
Eversolo just came out with an all in one and 60 watts class d amp combined it retails for 600 $ .good luck in your search and bless you for your care for the kids.i trained at eastern Virginia med school with operation smile .have fixed many clef lip and palates in my life it is a blessing to these kids.both social and physical.keep up the good work.enjoy the music and life. |
I use a WiiM Pro Plus with an Amazon Echo dot to control it with voice commands. I went with the Pro Plus because my Micromega intergrated has a decent Dac built in. If your amp has a decent DAC you can go with the Pro Plus , if not go with the Ultra which has a better Dac than the Pro Plus. These work fine, Sound decent and are fairly easy to set up. |
Good because I am taking back my recommendation. A friend corrected me. https://theauris.com/pages/blumepro-vs-blumehd
|
I second the Wiim. I had just added the Pro, which doesn’t have a DAC or do above CD quality, to my basement HT system, which previously was reserved for video and SACD/Blu Rays, but I had a knee replacement 5 weeks ago and was using the bedroom down there for ergonomic reasons and I wanted to be able to stream from Apple and my NAS without having to deal with Physical Media. For $100 this was an unbelievable audio value and the app is fun. Btw I also admire your charitable impulses and I don’t devalue the way that you listen to music. You care more about sound reproduction than 99% of the rest of the world and and have achieved good results economically. However I am turned off by the self righteousness . We all have just a brief amount of time to enjoy our stay here before we turn back into a few grams of carbon. I always believed that the truly altruistic don’t have to spend their time obsessed with self congratulation and virtue posing |
Everyone has opinions and different tastes. I've found that my Bluesound node 130 does everything I've asked of it and does it well. I've used it for streaming a bit, but primarily I use it to play back digital format I have stored on my PC and a 500 gig thumb drive plugged in the back of the Bluesound. I've 'inherited a large cache of digital music from a friend, loaded it onto the hard drive of the PC. Then I spent a week ripping all my CD's onto the PC. It had 60 gig worth of music at last count and I thought let's copy it to the thumb drive as a backup. I plugged the thumb drive into the Bluesound and just use it to listen to without booting the PC. It suddenly occurred to me I have a solid state juke box. Life is good with good music. |
WiiM Ultra or Bluesound Node Nano, both well under $400. The WiiM Ultra has more features (some of which you likely will never use), but the Nano (according to some reviewers) has slightly better sound. |
