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DACs oh my!

Hello everyone!

I wanted to pick the brains of some of the experienced audiophiles here and see if anyone could give me some guidance. I’ve worked in the industry in the past for about 15 years, but focused more on things like speaker placement, wiring, programming, and not so much on the analog club and hifi streaming. Now, I finally have the opportunity to get a little into it but I’ve emptied the wallet doing so and don’t have much to spend to fix the weak link.

I have a pair of Martin Logan ESL X on their way.. my dream speakers. I’ll be powering them with my Pre-existing Denon 4520Ci. I know it’s not the most ideal choice, but it’s not a bad receiver either. The weak link is that my source content (Tidal) will be getting streamed through a Sonos Connect via the analog output, and from my understanding, the analog output sucks on the Sonos Connect.

I would assume, being a good receiver, that the optical ports on it would have a good built in DAC and I could simply feed optical to the receiver and not worry about the analog ports on the Sonos (the only drawback being that I couldn’t feed a zone 2 with the receiver anything from the optical side). Would this suffice to give me good sound quality, or do I really need a good DAC to get the nice quality? From my understanding, Sonos only supports 16 bit from Tidal atm anyways, so I can’t get Master Quality, even if the receiver supports it.

maverick3n1

Showing 1 response by williewonka

williewonka
3,072 posts
 

@maverick3n1 - I have tried several different apporaches to digital streaming

  1. streaming from my computer via USB connection into a DAC using iTunes
  2. straming via an Apple TV into a DAC using iTunes
  3. Streaming content from the Web and my NAS drive using a Bluesound Node2i via Ethernet

#3 is superior to the other two for the followng reasons

  • Sound quality is superb when good cables (power and Interconnect) are used to connect to the Node 2
    • I got rid of my external DAC !
  • it can stream from
    • the iTunes library on my NAS drive
    • from a USB thum or USB hard drive
    • my phone (or other bluetooth device)
    • web radio stations
    • almost any streaming service on the web
  • has an interface for almost all current device platforms
  • Streams content up too 24/192
  • The interface is fairly intuitive and easy to use
  • software updates are requent and install EVERY time without a problem (something Apple could take note of)
  • Installation is a "DODDLE" (i.e. very easy)

Now I may not be considered super picky about sound quality, because I do NOT use an external DAC, mainly because my cables have elevated the Node 2i to levels of sound quality that far exceeds it’s modest price.

So I would have to buy quite an expensive DAC in order to improve on the sound quality of the Node2 - i.e. SIGNIFICANTLY.

Since getting the Node 2i I have not looked for a better sounding solution, because I am very Happy!!

Simple to setup, easy to use, moves with the ever changing streaming market place, GREAT SOUND - what else could you want ???

You could get a DAC to connect with the Sonos Connect...

  • you would still be limited to 24/96
  • you would need additional cables
  • buying the right DAC can be a hit/miss process

The Sonos is definitely the weak link here

Regards - Steve

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