My experience with streamers and DACs is this; To get good to very good sound and even spectacular sound, the streamer is not nearly as important as the DAC. I have had Bluesound streamers and then bought a higher price streamer and the difference was not major. I also bought a Node X and bypassed the DAC to feed a PS Audio Directstream and the sound was spectacular. The DAC is the beef in the mix. Get a quality DAC and a streamer with an OS that is user friendly then get a service with the content you are looking for with high resolution. Some combinations can also up convert to high resolution. Lastly but very important is a company where you can get good customer service. Bluesound does this well.
Need to get off of bluetooth.... looking for a wifi streamer for my budget
My current system is a McIntosh C12000 preamp and a 861 Moon amp.
I have a Eversolo Z8. I want to get off of blue tooth (streaming from my phone) and get onto wifi. So I need a streamer.
I know this sounds crazy... but I stretched my budget and it will take about a year for me to recover. So, what would like to do is buy a streamer (used hopefully) to tie me over temp.
Can anyone recommend a wifi streamer brand/model for my setup that I might find used for *around* $500? I would consider a streamer/dac combo if the dac was better than the one in the Eversolo Z8 because that one is pretty good spec wise (it has the ESS Pro)
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No one supports Apple Music. You can AirPlay it into a compatible device or you can use Apple Music from an android device and use Google Chromecast. AirPlay sounds better than Bluetooth and Chromecast is better yet. Another option with Apple Music is to buy an Apple TV device and a monitor.. If you pick music from your mobile device and play it, then it will show up on AppleTV in the library and it will play at full resolution. If you merely navigate to the music on the Apple TV without first selecting it from the mobile OS, then you are limited to AAC, Apple’s version of MP3’s. My advice would be to get a Wiim Streamer. Use the MacDac as another poster suggested. Try AirPlay with Apple on the Wiim (if you have an Android device then try Chromecast). I would also try a free trial with Qobuz which plays natively on Wiim and virtually every other streamer. Do some comparisons and then decide. A Wiim streamer and a yearly Qobuz subscription should easily fit your budget. For that matter so would the AppleTV and monitor route. |
I did a little searching and it looks like there is a way to import your Apple playlists into Qobuz: a one month subscription to Soundiiz I would get a streaming device without a built in DAC and use the DAC in your McIntosh. Then down the road you start trying other DACs. I've used the devices from Small Green Computer (Sonore) but they are not cheap. https://www.sonore.us/ultraRendu.html ($899 without power supply) |
With $500, the "best" option is a Cambridge Audio MXN10, it should fit all your requirements. I took all my Apple Music, put it on an external disk, plugged that into my streamer. For sound quality, you need Tidal, or Qobuz, playing direct on the streamer. It's a game changer from BT, and other services. It's like going to HD TV, once you start watching it, you can't go back. |
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