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Help With Streamer - Aurender, Auralic, HIFI Rose, Eversolo A10, etc.

Happy New Year All,

Longtime reader and follower of Audiogon, but less than a handful of posts.

I’m done with Apple’s Music app.  It’s turned into a disaster.  Some people have no issues at all with it, but for countless others, it has become almost unusable.  I’m one of those.   With that, I’m looking to finally get a streamer.  Under $4,000.00 and much less than that preferably.   I don’t have a LAN to plug into one, so all of my music will be primarily stored on the internal SSD.  I  don’t necessarily need a DAC in a streamer, so a transport is fine, but I’m fine if it does have a DAC.  I definitely want a streamer with a screen on it.

My questions are, how do I rip my CD collection into a streamer?  Can I connect an external CD drive up to one and rip directly into a streamer’s SSD?  Who has the most user friendly streamer and app?  Can I connect my iPhone and iPad up to it and transfer the music over to those devices for “one the go”? Do any streamers have an I2S HDMI output, and does it matter, or should I just use a dedicated SACD player for that?


I’d probably use a streamer as a preamp as well, if it’s decent enough.  Or should it be a separate music source in the system with a dedicated preamp?  It’s really not that big of a deal to me, as I no longer have the hearing that I used to.

I’m in my 60’s now, so I’m just not interested in the “esoteric” stuff anymore, but I still want decent quality gear.

Much appreciation to any and all recommendations.

 

boltapuresource

Showing 1 response by fastfreight

fastfreight
866 posts
 

You will find people recommend the streamer brand they have or have used a lot.  There are quality streamers in your price range form Innuos, Auralic, Aurender to name a few well known brands.  You really need to decide if you want a DAC in it.  You will get advice if you let us know what DAC you have or plan to use.  An Auralic Altair G1.1 for example, has streamer, DAC, analog input and volume control (pre amp).  Not saying it is as great as separate Streamer / DAC and Preamp, but much more simple.  Aurender makes quality streamers, some with DACs but I feel is known for its streamers.  All of these brands have their own software to organize and select your music.  You can get a streamer with or without an internal hard drive, or easily add one.  Easier still is to put your music on an external hard drive that most of these streamers have a USB input for connection.  This makes your music very portable and easier to move from your computer to the hard drive.  Innuos is loved by many here and already recommended.  From your comments I doubt you would hear the difference between comparably priced units from any of these brands; but you will notice the difference in software.

I recommend looking at Auralic Lightning, Aurender Conductor and Innuos Sense software examples and see what draws you in from a user interface perspective.

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