I've been impressed by both the sound quality and user interface of the Pro-ject Stream Box Ultra S2. I was thinking of getting a Bluesound Node, but kept reading that other streamers produced better sound quality (probably due to less jitter introduced by the streamer or cleaned up by the streamer). The Stream Box has improved the sound of my current DACs in terms of bringing out more detail and allowing music to sound more coherent and easily understood. I think that not including a DAC or an LCD screen allowed Pro-ject to focus their budget on isolating components from electrical noise.
Looking for a basic streamer without a DAC, preamp, storage and all that
I’m looking for a simple streamer to connect to my Schiit Bifrost DAC via USB, coax, or toslink. Every streamer I look at has some combination of features I don’t need: screen, preamp, phono stage, amp, DAC, hard drive, Roon-readiness, etc.
All I want to do is use Tidal Connect on my iPhone or iPad to send the content to the streaming device which will connect to my DAC which is connected to my system. For the sake of convenience, I’d prefer not to connect my phone or iPad directly to the DAC.
So is there a really basic and pared down streamer that’ll just accept content from Tidal or the like or am I going to have to sort out which streamer has the least amount of features I don’t need and just live with it? Or am I just going to have to accept connecting my iPhone or iPad to the DAC?
All I want to do is use Tidal Connect on my iPhone or iPad to send the content to the streaming device which will connect to my DAC which is connected to my system. For the sake of convenience, I’d prefer not to connect my phone or iPad directly to the DAC.
So is there a really basic and pared down streamer that’ll just accept content from Tidal or the like or am I going to have to sort out which streamer has the least amount of features I don’t need and just live with it? Or am I just going to have to accept connecting my iPhone or iPad to the DAC?