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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

dhite71

Showing 2 responses by emergingsoul

emergingsoul
1,242 posts
 

I bought a blue sound Device and for the price it was very good but on the cheap side. I bought a chord tt2 dac which was pretty good and had a lot of pretty lights on top.  I then bought a lumin x1 which is a combined streamer/dac.  I thought it was amazing. It made 70s recorded Music actually sound pretty good. And it gets a lot of great feedback from others.

I hate all the connectivity that's involved with a hi-fi system while also really liking separates.  In the case of a streamer I liked the idea about the dac being integrated because the wiring and connections are probably done very well internally and I think they are in this case, the chips used were quite good and were wired very well which is really important.

Now I don't have to torment myself with dac interconnects and need to consider a new separate dac all the time.  And there are so many to pick from.

And x1 has a separate power box which is a good thing.  And it's really aerodynamic which is really cool too.

I still have my blue sound sitting in a box and the chord dac is also sitting in a box. Fortunately they're not very big to store away.  

emergingsoul
1,242 posts
 

I bought a blue sound Device and for the price it was very good but on the cheap side. I bought a chord tt2 dac which was pretty good and had a lot of pretty lights on top.  I then bought a lumin x1 which is a combined streamer/dac.  I thought it was amazing. It made 70s recorded Music actually sound pretty good. And it gets a lot of great feedback from others.

I hate all the connectivity that's involved with a hi-fi system while also really liking separates.  In the case of a streamer I'd liked the idea about the dac being integrated because the wiring and connections are probably done very well internally and I think they are in this case, the chips used were quite good and were wired very well which is really important.

Now I don't have to torment myself with dac interconnects and need to consider a new separate dac all the time.  And there are so many to pick from.

And it has a separate power box which is a good thing.  And it's really aerodynamic which is really cool too.

I still have my blue sound sitting in a box and the chord dac is also sitting in a box. Fortunately they're not very big to store away.  

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