Better DAC or better Streamer

As evidenced by the answers in this thread there is no way to know. There is probably a slim chance you can review both yourself in your own system to compare I would wager? 

Having said that I then went and looked up this Astell & Kern thingy. That little portable player is how much? 

Going to ramble on with some of my thoughts: 

You can stream with that little portable A&K thingy, or you can stream with something like my streamer, which has a mass of 42 lbs. Logically how could this little thingy serve up files with the same sonic clarity as a huge dedicated box with 2 computers and massive power supply capabilities? 

Using the same logic, the Nagra is also a dedicated box designed to just do the same thing: serve/stream music files, so I don't think the A&K thingy has a chance to sound as good. The Nagra streamer is just 4 lbs- but that doesn't include the outboard power supply- is that a wal wart? notably one can upgrade its power supply- no idea how much that is and it is probably so new there are no reviews of that. But if one just needs that: to stream using Tidal/Spotify connect that is a nice, small, discrete, and attractive looking streamer, (mine isn't as shelf friendly) it may be a great choice. Nagra has a stellar reputation for top notch sonics, and Swiss (like my DAC) made quality. One review I just glanced at puts it above Lumin U2 mini for sound quality, but is should as it is twice the money, and Huff is drooling over it, probably because with a good review he can keep their $30k DAC longer...

I don't know- there are plenty of great streamers for the same amount of money, and that is before upgrading the power supply $$$ but the possibility of upgrades is appealing. 

End of rambling. 

No doubt the DAVE will eclipse the HUGO TT2, but to answer your question: which will upgrade your sound quality more? my money is on the Nagra- without a doubt. 

@yyzsantabarbara

There was someone comparing my $3k PBD streamer to the $13k or $20k PBD streamer and they could not tell the difference.

And then there was someone who demoed/compared the Antipodes streamers with Aries Cerat DAC’s.

His results were that the Oladra with the Aries Cerat Helene was preferred to the Antipodes K50 with the Aries Cerat Kassandra.

So the pricier streamer with the (cheap ) $19,000 DAC was better to his ears than the cheaper streamer with the $60,000 DAC.

I have read this more than once: some people have heard significantly greater differences with high end music servers than they have with high end dacs. That is once one gets to a certain level the diminishing returns are more quick with Dacs than they are with music servers.

And no, a fiber connection does not make streamers sound the same.

@eddy1 Here is another couple of curve balls: 

First curve ball: whether you upgrade DAC or not: 

Not sure if you just stream direct or if you play files, but if it is the latter this may be worth a read. I admit I am not that computer "tweaky", it takes lots of time to convert and upsample local files, and my DAC is not conducive to higher bit rate files, but this software was developed for the Chord products as they love upsampled files. There is a list of other DAC's that work well with the software. 

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/62699-a-toast-to-pggb-a-heady-brew-of-math-and-magic/#comment-1126311

https://www.remastero.com/pggb.html#dacs

Second curve ball: upgrade to a different DAC? 

Another few comments to digest that I have read lately comparing Gustard DAC's to Dave DAC: The first is from that thread above from an owner of both, and the second is from a review of the latest Gustard, but he also owns the Dave: 

"Not much help but I had no issues with the Gustard driver on Windows (build 1903) or Linux, 768/705k worked great and sounded sweeter. Really excellent dac - and not just "for the money". As I've said elsewhere, if I didn't have the Dave, I'd be happy with the Gustard X26pro. "

"I’ll say it right from the start that the X30 is exactly as resolving as the Chord DAVE and exactly as fast and impactful sounding.....In layman’s terms, X30 can do proper justice to live music, big orchestras, and classical masterpieces. And I’m not exaggerating a single bit. The biggest surprise came when the naked Chord DAVE (without the M Scaler) was connected to the same Rockna Wavedream NET via USB and in no time the size of the room felt smaller. The sounds were no longer free and unhindered as they were on the X30. The DAVE didn’t quite live up to its name (Digital to Analog Veritas in Extremis) projecting a shier, flatter, and smaller image in front of me. The X30 on the other hand, sounded exactly how a properly engineered DAC should perform....While it doesn’t outplay the Wavedream Signature, it again outplays the Chord DAVE when it comes to the force behind the bass. When it needs to impress and add a higher sound pressure level, it would do that more impressively. I would never call the DAVE lacking energy in here, but that’s what I’m thinking about when I’m comparing these two... the X30 with its overkill quad mono design brought forward the lost layers of resolution. I can’t differentiate it from my $18.000 Wavedream Signature or $14.000 Chord DAVE in terms of how much nuance there is. Is it as resolving, clean, and transparent? Yes!"

For the price of the Dave you could buy the Gustard X30 and the Nagra and have $6000 left over.

The Gustard is available direct or through Amazon- try it for 30 days, compare to the Hugo and return it if isn't better (?) 

@nubiann 

So I get that a dedicated box is the way to go but beyond the use of a decent power supply, utilizing a well thought out circuit designed to reduce noise and populated by good components, there appears to be little opportunity for sonic improvement in employing super expensive esoteric components etc.

I suppose you could make the same argument for any solid state or a tube amplifier then, yes? So once someone gets to that 2-3K level, there are no further benefits to be had? 

@soix

So the OP is using a DAP as a streamer right now. I don’t know but I would ask if it is galvanically isolated, does it suppress jitter, and how good is the power supply? These things are material, and I’d be hard pressed to think it compares to a good dedicated streamer when all these important aspects are considered. I have found that streamers matter a lot, and it just seems like using a DAP as a streaming source for something like a DAVE or any other DAC on that level is a pretty big mismatch. Just my opinion.

I was of the same opinion, and since then @ghdprentice stated this above;

I’ve used all of these through my main system which has a good DAC. The A&K (A&K SP2000) is a joke in comparison to either of the Aurenders...

Our similar opinions seem to have been verified: Proof is in the pudding as they say, assuming the SP2000 is cut from the same streaming cloth as the SP3000.

@mikhailark 

There is no ’jitter’ on the net. 

https://www.alpha-audio.net/background/de-bron-is-allesbepalend-druk-jitter-de-kop-in/

I’d love to continue the discussion, but I’d much rather listen to wonderful sounding music through my jitter minimized and noise diminished streamer.

The cables we both liked best were the two most expensive in the test

Funny how that works, hey?

@eddy1 elaborating on my streamer recommendation, also upgrading your cables from your source to your M-Scaler and the two coax cables to your TT2 might be a better investment now, and one that will continue to pay dividends when you finally move to a DAVE.

100%. It is assumed someone with or contemplating components such as Hugo, Dave and Nagra has addressed this, but sometimes this has been overlooked.

Probably the reason some people say all streamers sound the same- they are using throwaway cables which mask 30% of the music from getting to their downstream components and speakers. 

Well at least he didn't come back and say they sounded the same.