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Do I Need a Dedicated Streamer?

Hello everyone,

As the title states, I am still unsure of if I need a dedicated streamer and if it would increase the fidelity of my music compared to how I am listening at the moment. Which is using AirPlay 2 from my iPhone to my Hegel H590 Integrated amp.

 

I know that the DAC in the Hegel H590 is considered quite good and it was one of the reasons that I bought the amplifier to begin with. However, would I get a better input using a dedicated streamer for around $1000 (such as the Cambridge CXNV2 for example) or would I be better off leaving things as is?

I am just not sure if airplaying music to the Hegel is degrading the signal in comparison to a streamer that would pull its own data and send it directly to the amplifier? Also, would improving my router placement and wifi signal make any difference to the sound since my Hegel is hardwired using a mesh wifi system?

 

I am open to switching streaming platforms if I can gain something out of it such as resolution but I’m not sure if apple music is the issue in any of this.

 

If the answer to the title is a no. I am curious what I would need to take the quality of my listening experience to the next level or where money would be better spent to achieve that. I do have acoustic panels in my room and have done my fair share of research on speaker placement already.

 

The only thing that I have been considering in the near-future would have to be the isoacoustics gaia 1 feet.

 

My equipment:

Hegel H590 Integrated

KEF Reference 5 Meta

Metra Velox Speaker Cables

 

Thanks for reading.

danb99

Showing 2 responses by emergingsoul

emergingsoul
958 posts
 

I have a streamer/dac, lumin x1, and A nucleus for roon. And this connects into my Gat cj pre-amplifier. The lumin is superb and using a separate Dac which I have I wanted to avoid due to all the additional interconnect crap and all the temptation to periodically replace the dac. I don’t find this necessary anymore and see no value in doing it. So the inclusion of a dac within the streamer in this case ideal and it took a while to find it and was well worth the search.

a Streamer does mystical things that most have no clue about. The nucleus houses an operating system necessary to operate roon. And then you got the endpoint within the streamer that again does mystical things to allow all the necessary machinations to transform Data flow coming in from the nucleus. I think it Hass to do with a bitstream and clocking and changing the compression rates and all kinds of crazy stuff and no one really understands except those few who actually do.

Do you need a streamer to do quality work on your music? probably yes.

emergingsoul
958 posts
 

Not sure if installing roon is going to be of value for the sound quality unless you use some of the dsp included as part of Roon, which I don’t find very appealing. I think the overlay of this on top of qobuz maybe on the neutral side.

 

Streaming direct from tidal or qobuz is just as good or maybe even better. Also the lumin Interface is quite good as far as sound is concerned, although the Interface itself is horrifying to use and requires a bit of a learning curve, and roon is so much better and easier to deal with.

The lumin ap I'm not sure you knew this but was designed by monkeys. I just wish they would've spent more time and considered human involvement when using it because I think it has promise due to sound quality being a little bit better than roon.

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