HRT Streamer+

I just bought the HRT Music Streamer II (since the II+ is not out yet) for the fun of it. Honestly, I wanted to see what all the hype is about using a Mac Mini as a music server with iTunes (w/Apple Lossless). Well, for the price, it's a pretty amazing little DAC for $150.

What I mean by that is while it's definitely not going to "destroy" any $1k+ CD players on the market today, the combination is very enjoyable. I'm utterly amazed to tell you the truth on what $150 can get you for sound quality.

I will say one additional thing about the setup. Using just my MacBook with the MS II plugged into definitely beat out my high-end $2k music server system. Enough so, that I'm going to be selling it and then I'm going out and buying a Mac Mini. Not only does it have better sound, but Apple's iTunes Remote App for the iPod Touch is just a better interface for locating music faster (I have 1200 CDs and the music server is just pathetically slow for searching through them.)

Will I be keeping the MS II? Nope, it's going back. Now that I realize what a $150 gets me, I'm going to be setting my sights a bit higher.

In the end, I'm very pleased I bought it and tried it out. It's very good product, and I wanted something cheap that sounds really good - this would be at the top of my list.

Also, the MS II can now do 24/96.

Art:

To quickly summarize my opinion on it without trying to be overly negative (and honestly, I thought it was a really great product for $150 - there's no question if I was shopping in that price range I'd be impressed), I found it to be a little too "dry" for my taste.

I felt it just really failed to capture a lot of the music's essence that makes music so enjoyable to listen to. When I listen to music, I really like the feeling of being able to forget about what's good or bad with it and just focus on how good the music sounds.

In other words, it sounded too much like a digital recording without all the life of the original recording coming through. Maybe it's because I'm a tube guy, but it failed to impress me in that respect. While it was an improvement on my existing setup, it wasn't good enough to keep it. In the end I'm glad I auditioned it since it made me realize how much I really didn't like my existing office system and motivated me to sell everything and start over again (literally).

In case you're wondering what I settled on.. I finally ended up with an Audio-GD DAC-19DF (which is only a bit more price-wise, but it's in a completely different league in terms of performance.) Not to mention that the combination pairs really well with my Cary Audio SLI-80 and Sennheiser HD650 Headphones.

Anyway, good luck with whatever you choose. I'm sure you'll enjoy the Music Streamer series if you decided to buy one.