Ten years ago I bought the original blue sound vault. At first it was good enough. Over time I went back to vinyl. About a year ago i started to convert my system to optimize streaming. I bought a holo spring 3 level 2 dac and used the vault as a streamer. The improvement was more than subtle but not huge. When the new blue sound nodes came out I bought the "older" n130 node and used it as a streamer. The improvement in sound quality surprised me. Timber, tone, depth and separation of instruments improved. I thought the node/holo spring 3 combination sounded very good but a tad warm. I bought an innuos pulse. The change in sound was subtle but important to me. There was more sparkle to cymbals and a little more sizzle to the high notes of a French horn. What surprised me was that I could now understand what more of what the singers were saying. Not a big difference, but enough to keep the innuos. By the way the innuos app is very usable for someone who does not like computers.
Discerning a difference between streamers is difficult...only me or common for all?
I have struggled to appreciate the upgrade to the streamer in my system. A couple years ago I had an Audio Research DAC 8 being fed by a Bluesound Node 2i. I picked up an Aurender N10 and did not appreciate anything so sold the N10. I tried a couple all-in-one units. First was the Aurender A20 and I was happy but curious about dCS. I got a Bartok 2.0 and felt the music was more natural sounding from the Bartok and sold the A20. I have always wanted the Audio Research DAC 9 to match all my other AR gear so got one that showed up on eBay a couple weeks ago. Since I couldn’t use the Bartok to stream I ordered a new Bluesound Node Nano so I could utilize the DAC 9 immediately. The pair sounded wonderful but I did not compare it to the Bartok. I ended up getting a quick buyer and it was already gone. The following week I purchase an Aurender W20. I was prepared to have my mind blown....but no. Some albums I could not tell any difference in the sound and others I think the W20 sounded slightly better but again...nothing huge. For the money and the space the W20 took on my shelf, I sold it. Over the years I always appreciate upgrades for all other components. This makes me feel like I am losing my mind. Have any others experienced this regarding streamers? I want to try more. Auralic and Lumin are on my list.
Thanks,
Dana