oops, did a bit more research. any reason you wouldn’t just go with Laiv Harmony uDDC?
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
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- 35 posts total
@mdalton The LAIV uDDC does not have an optical input but the Hermes does. I have 3 systems with Bluesound Streamers and Oppos in them, and none of the Bluesounds have USB outputs. Therefore, I require SPDIF and Toslink inputs in a DDC to get the most bang for the buck. Another reason why I'm considering the DDC over new Streamer is that I can move it around to other systems when/if I decide to upgrade Streamer. When I saw that the LAIV did not have optical input, I stopped comparing other features like clock, power supply, etc. I bet that there are others here though that can tell us differences other than the $450 price. |
This is just a suggestion. Take a look at Pi 2 Design's Pi2AES or Mercury streamer/DDC's. See review below. https://goldensound.audio/2022/06/03/pi2design-mercury-streamer-server-measurements/ |
DDC or a new streamer; different road end with different experiences. My node as been upgraded with the lhy psu kit and a external lps. I also have a Lhy sw6 switch, and to be honest, if I knew at the beginning that I would get more and more into listening, I’d have probably bought a better digital transport first, but I didn’t know at the time I would buy all separate. I still think the (upgraded node) is good to begin with. Now, with my Pontus 15th, some will say just buy a ddc and use the i2s. Others, go with better digital transport where no noise is better than trying to hide it with a ddc. Guess both solutions are good, it depends on how much we really want to improve our game and where is our end goal. Guess, I’m not there and I’m looking at innuos, lumin and aurender. Let us know what you’ve finally end up buying ! |
- 35 posts total