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New DAC or New Streamer?

This should be fun. After I pay to get my amp upgraded at VAC next month  I plan to either upgrade my DAC or Streamer next. I should have enough for that by late spring/early summer. I'm retired so I save some each month until I have what I need. My system is in my user profile. But to keep this simple my current DAC is the Dinafrips Venus II I got a year ago. (I also have the Hermes DDC)

My streamer is the Cambridge CXN V2 via coax to the Hermes-> I2s -> DAC which is also 1 year old. I was just getting into streaming then and knew little about it. I have learned a lot this past year, a whole lot.

I think the bottle neck is leaning more toward the streamer. It seems the DAC is pretty good, I know there are much better DAC's out there but it holds it own I think. Maybe not? I cannot afford the likes of DCS, Lampizator, etc.

The next planned upgrades are a Terminator II DAC and Aurender N200 Streamer. Both are $5000-$6000. (Unless I go for the Terminator + DAC that is $7500 but I am not sure it is $2500 better than the Terminator II)

So, since both will get upgraded a year apart, which should I go for first? Which would provide the biggest upgrade?

Thanks. Happy holidays to all.

128x128fthompson251

Showing 3 responses by kota1

kota1
2,706 posts
 

I just got the Sony Signature dac/pre/headphone amp for around $2K the, TA-Z1HES and highly recommend it. It has features that are proprietary to Sony and you can use a streamer of your choice as a transport. I have tried a Sony SACD/CD/blueray player as a transport, a bluesound node and an Onkyo DAP as a streamer. I would not spend much on a streamer which you will be essentially using as a transport, I would budget more for the dac and get that first. This review of the Sony will give you a good idea of the features and SQ:

 

kota1
2,706 posts
 

@fthompson251 

 

I'm surprised so many people like a bundled streaming solution too. You can get an iStream or a Bluesound Node to be used simply as a transport for less than $500. You can even use a mac or a PC as a transport. Then you can use the rest of your budget on the best dac with the features you really want. There are so many outstanding values on dacs and there are more choices at different price points. 

kota1
2,706 posts
 

@fthompson251 , thanks, I was simply illustrating a point that the backend is a better value IMO than the front end. Streaming is what it is, convenient, but on a high resolution system it generally won’t deliver what you can get from ripped files. I would rather spend the majority of my budget on the dac. In my system I use my Onkyo DP-X1 DAP via USB to stream. It can convert ripped files to DSD/DOP then pass it off to the Sony where it "remasters" it in DSD. When you get used to DSD quality from ripped files the streamed versions lose a step if you know what I mean.

This is from TAS:

Sony’s new “DSD Remastering Engine,” which according to Sony “combines a high-performance DSP (digital signal processing) and FPGA (field-programmable gate array) to convert any signal (my emphasis) into DSD128 signals. It was designed based on the know-how garnered from Sony’s 8-times oversampling and Extended SBM (Super Bit Mapping) technology for professional recorders.” Yes, you read that right: the remastering engine can convert any and all PCM music files into DSD128 format, regardless of their original sample-or bit-rate.

@toro3 , on a highly resolving system the "bottleneck" starts with the network. Any noise on the network is passed downstream to the streamer and the DAC.

 

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