Best streamer for Audio Note UK dacs


I have an older audio note dac 4, and absolutely love it. thinking about upgrading my streamer, which is currently an inuous Zen 3 going into a sonicweld USB converter. I enjoy the sound a lot but I know it can get better. So I've been toying with either adding a Phoenix clock to the Zen 3, but more likely upgrading to an inuous statement or maybe a 432 Evo aeon. What I wanted to ask is whether some high-end streamer brands tend to be better on high-res sources and others may be particularly strong on 16/44? Are some known to be better on 16/44? I play mostly 16/44 because that's what the audio note dacs are built for. 

I'm also very open to hearing opinions about innuos versus 432.

Thanks

montaldo

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. My digital sounds very good to my ears so I need to keep the AN DAC. It brought my digital so much closer to the musical enjoyment of vinyl. That in the addition of a six pack of REL subwoofers. I actually had a friend bring a Phoenix clock over and I heard it in my system with my Zen 3. It made a material difference that I really liked. So my plan was to buy the clock. But then when I add the clock and the cable and another power cord, it's not that much different money to just sell the Zen 3 and buy an Evo aeon or for a couple thousand more get an innuos statement. Given the improvement I heard with the clock, I'm sure the other improvements would yield some benefit. And my digital is sounding so close in terms of musical enjoyment to the analog now, that I may be selling my analog rig for now and using the money to upgrade. 

So it sounds like you're saying that there are some benefits that would be better realized with a dac that can handle higher sampling rates. Given the above that I've said, does anyone think the Evo or the NUS are necessarily better for 16/44? Or is that not really going to be a factor in my decision? I'm going to be buying used so I probably won't get a chance to audition. 

 

Thanks

 

I use an Auralic Aries G1 into an older AN Dac-3 Signature using a Jorma digital spdif RCA cable. I have the Aries set to output Flac 16/44.1 only and it works great and sounds great.

Check out the Steve Hoffman Audio Note thread. Lots of recommendations for streamers to use with AN Dacs. I think Grimm has been used as well as Aurender.

Thanks dsockel. Yeah it's funny I was just reading about the Grimm mu1 last night. Did optimizes for SPDIF and aes, so that's a good fit for the audio note and put as well.

Like @jond, I have an auralic (an older Pagoda-style Femto), and it pairs very well with an Audio Note 2.1X Sig. DAC, via AES/EBU.  Couldn't be happier with the sound.