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Fairly new to streaming. Where to start?

$2k & under budget

Aralic Vega has streamer  and DAC. May be the easiest start?
Then there is Schiit...Yiggy or Gumby...which streamer?
Ladder NOS dac? Or Chip? I'm old. maybe I'll like the old school DAC?
Then there is  Benchmark DAC 3...I think it has streamer?
Then
Exasound E32
Audio Mirror?
Metrum
MHDT Orchid
Border Patrol?
Musical Paradise?
Whats a newbie to do? I am a classic rock fan with lots of FLAC & M4a files. I like detail & PRaT. Love a good bass line. I also play some 70's jazz. I have a Theta Miles CD player from the 1900's & play a lot of vinyl too. But I need to come into the 21st century.  Besides, I will probably become tired of the vinyl ritual and work at some point as I get older. I think I have done enough homework to be somewhat confused. Maybe the biggest question in light of how fast digital changes is the question of streamer with DAC or separate Streamer and DAC. One other question is the streamer & bridge the same thing? OK Thanks!! 
artemus_5

Showing 9 responses by djones51

djones51
4,947 posts
 
The Benchmark DAC3 doesn’t have a streamer in any of the variations.
Auralic Aries G1 and G2 have streamers but not Dacs, the Vega G1 and G2 are streaming Dacs.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
Yes you can use the Node2i as a streamer with a different dac, you can always just start with the Node2i using its dac to get your feet wet for low cost. 
djones51
4,947 posts
 
artemus_5,

 I'll stick with one streamer so you don't  get confused you can research others, the Node2i can be wired or wireless it has 2.4G or 5G, it has a good android app which should work on your phone unless it's more than 3 or 4 years old, it has all the major streaming services as well as radio services, you can connect a USB drive to it, you can also simply share a file with your music in it on a computer or have a NAS. You can use it's internal dac or attach external. If you can stream video seamlessly wireless then you should be able to stream audio but if your network is busy someone is streaming video at the same time you might have problems.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
You won't get a consensus on the importance of the streamer. IMO the DAC matters more but in your case you're also dealing with a server could be a computer, NAS, or a streamer/ server like the vault. Just have your music shared and the Node2i can access it, the thing with the Node2i is the DAC is the weakest part of it, the app  interface and streaming capability is pretty good. 
djones51
4,947 posts
 
IMO yes the Yamaha would work as well as the Node2i it might have a better dac as well. I am not familiar with the interface you would use so I can't comment on that but I imagine it's  easy enough to learn. 
djones51
4,947 posts
 
I think the Yamaha you were looking at will allow direct connection through USB so you could just use an external HDD or SSD in an enclosure attached to it. As far as how any of these sound I make no recommendation other than to say I had a Node2i and with an external dac it sounded good to me. I have a NAD C658 now and it sounds good to me as well it uses the same bluOS app. 
djones51
4,947 posts
 
The Vault is a steamer/ server it has software that connects to a  network and allows you pass the music on to your dac or preamp and also holds and manages the physical media on a hard drive. A streamer like the Node2i does the first part but doesn't hold the physical media but connects to a server that does. A server is basically something that holds data on physical media and allows devices to access it. Could be as simple as a NAS or your computer to a complete " farm " of hardware. Servers will typically run software to manage the data and the interfaces. These devices that have internal hard drives are really both a server and streamer and could also have the dac. If that isn't complicated enough some streamers will allow you to connect a thumb drive or hard drive by USB directly and play from that. 
djones51
4,947 posts
 
Whatsthatbuzz is your phone passing high resolution to the dac? At least CD quality? If so you might not notice a huge improvement by going with an inexpensive streamer. Seems like in streaming improvement is in baby steps unless you want to spend a lot of $$$. But even then I can’t say for sure I never had a 5 figure streamer.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
The main difference between the Node2i and 2 is the 2i has 5ghz wifi. I had dropouts using wifi so I ran a wire.
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