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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 1 response by vthokie83

vthokie83
1,030 posts
 

audiostick

This seems to be the great conversation over the last month or two or six, I've posted (as have several others like SNS) at least a dozen times on this subject. I've gone into very detailed discussions, so I'll not redo that here again as I just don't have the time. But here are a couple of links, and both are worth the reads

Here is a good discussion https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/received-my-denafrips-venus-15th?sort_order=asc

Another great DAC discussion with notes on the DAC-DDC relationship https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/six-dac-comparison?page=3

The Hermes added to the Laiv would give you quite a few improvements with your current set up, will it be enough for you? Only you can tell that. But if you did buy the Hermes, it is a really easy resell.....they don't last long on the used market

Audioman58 here in Audiogon is an authorized Denafrips resesller

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