My experience is streamer is more important than DDC. Gaia DDC via I2S to both Laiv Harmony and Musetec 006 icing on the cake, this vs optimized usb. I've been through at least six streamers, streamers right up there with dac as most important streaming component.
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
Showing 2 responses by sns
I much prefer the Harmony with Denafrips Gaia via I2S, this vs. optimized usb feed. Issue is many streamers don't provide I2S which isn't any great loss assuming most streamer I2S interfaces probably not of great quality, which means implementing a DDC for highest quality I2S.
@audiostick May be over your budget, but this is way I'd go in your situation. Get Sonore Optical Rendu for your Roon Endpoint, keep the Bluesound, this will be Roon Core, you'll also need Sonore OpticalModule or generic optical conversion just in front of OpticalRendu. This serves three purposes, one is the OpticaRendu is superior streamer to Bluesound, two. you'll now have optical conversion which totally isolates noise from entering the streamer, three, Roon has superior sound quality with Core and Endpoint on two different devices. Now if you go a bit above budget, get the Denafrips Hermes or Gaia for the I2S to Harmony. I guarantee you this will be a significant upgrade to present setup, and for a very reasonable price. |