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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
teammccalla
6 posts
 

My N10 has coax, toslink and USB.  The USB sounds the best and is the only one with output of DSD files.  I can’t recommend DSD enough!

pinwa
304 posts
 

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.

signaforce's avatar
signaforce
317 posts
 

I moved from the Bluesound node to the N150. It was a nice sonic improvement, the conductor app is very nice & the footprint is excellent. The N150 only has USB out. 

bassbuyer
406 posts
 

Another vote for an Innuos streamer.  I have the Zen MK3.  Upgraded from a Bluesound Node M130 streamer and I noticed a difference in sound quality immediately.  They just discontinued the Zen MK3 so you may be able to find a used one.  They make other models at different price points.  

audiostick OP
73 posts
 

@baylinor Ok, I think you are telling me my system is not good enough to reveal benefits of the better Aurender or Innuos Streamer.

@mbolek When I was researching the LAIV Harmony DAC, the majority of reviewers preferred i2s with it.

@curiousjim & @oddiofyl Much respect for the N200 but probably more Streamer than my system will show benefit from.  Yes, I understand Aurender to be very good with USB.  Will there never be temptation to convert to i2s?

@soix I have two other systems with Bluesound Streamers in them, and am thinking of adding an LPS to one of them.  I was not aware of an LPS option for the Vault.  Were you thinking of Node, or are you aware of LPS for Vault?

The mediocrity of my system is a valid point here.  If even a $12k Streamer would not provide benefit, I have no problem with eating humble pie and going the DDC route.  Agree?  Thanks everyone.

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