Personally I use an Innuos Pulsar even though I hate the Sense App. It simply sounds better than any other streamer I have tried and much better than Roon which is incredibly irritating since Roon is a vastly better interface. I use the Holo May KTE DAC. The Denefrips Iris did nothing positive with most of the streamers I tried but the LaiV uDDC is a nice upgrade with the Pulsar or an Eversolo A8 streaming Roon to the Holo May. I think the streamer is more important. And if you buy used and have a few bucks left over the EtherRegen as a front end to the streamer makes a noticeable difference. Why any of this stuff is actually true is a mystery but I think the differences are much more noticeable than the difference between most DACs.
DDC or Better Streamer?
I’m trying to decide which would provide greater reward, adding a DDC or moving up to a better Streamer. What am I looking for? Just better everything including bang for the buck.
DDC – I’m a LAIV fan, but the Denafrips Hermes has optical inlet and would allow me to use it with both my OPPO (toslink) and Bluesound (digital coax).
Streamer – Am I better off just cutting to the chase and looking for used $3k Streamer (which would be more than twice the price of the Hermes)?
Will the better $3k Streamer be the better value over the $1.2k DDC?
Thanks for your input.
Room - Essentially 18'x18'x18' (ugh)
Power - Furman Elite 15i
Transport - Oppo UDP-203 with Glass Toslink
Streamer - Bluesound Vault 2i with Ice Age Ulitmate C7 Power Cable, Nordost Silver Shadow Digital Coax
DAC - LAIV Harmony with Shunyata V10 NR Power Cable, Kimber Cable Silver Streak RCAs
Amp - Music Fidelity M6si with Shunyata Black Mamba HC CX C15
Speaker Cables - Cardas Quadlink 5-C
Speakers - Martin Logan Motion 60XT
Subwoofers - Dual SVS SB-2000 with Blue Jeans LC-1 Cables