2. digital
  3. 194226-102439

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

audiostick

Showing 3 responses by rick_n

rick_n's avatar
rick_n
306 posts
 

Not for nothing but...I don't know of any high end DACs that rely on or optimized for I2S.  The top brands have some new connection technologies in development and none of them are I2S.  

rick_n's avatar
rick_n
306 posts
 

@mbolek

You said that I don't know what I'm talking about but I do.  The point I made was that the high end DAC companies optimize their units for digital connection other than I2S.  So please tell me, since I don't know what I'm talking about, which of the high end DACs are optimized for I2S.  Is it MSB, Lampizator, DCS or Esoteric?    

rick_n's avatar
rick_n
306 posts
 

r.e. Innuos

They make some excellent streamers and I just demoed their Pulsar model.  My DAC has pretty much all of the available inputs and since I wanted to have the best possible results from the demo I queried Innuos directly about which is their preferred digital out.  The reply from Innuos:  "​I would recommend using USB as the connection type - this is our specialty and I believe it is very implemented."

The Pulsar has the Phenix Lite relocker built in and it's basically a watered down version of the Denafrips Hermes using a USB pathway.  

My takeaway from this is that while offering different output/input options, manufactures seem to focus their technology on a specific protocol.  I think it's worthwhile to know where their focus is to maximize performance.  

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