New streamer

The most important thing I’ve learned about being in love with audio is you’re gonna have to kiss a bunch of toads to find what works for you. Yes there are some brands that excel at what they do and consideration should start there but once you whittle it down to the top 3 or 4 in our current environment of limited to no access to dealers with showrooms we must buy online and seek advice in places such as this. All that being said what I’ve done is,if a short list item is availible new with a fair return policy I start there. If I like it score! If not I send it back no worries, next...and so on. I’ll buy the most expensive used item on the list last in line because if I don’t like it,I must sell it used and go though the sell headache. I don’t espeacially enjoy the ride as many here do cycling though a lot of gear to each his own.I’ve taken a haircut or two with used equipment and thats the other thing I’ve learned the occasional haircut is the price of admission in this endeavor. All that having been said I am expecting the DMP A8 today upgrading from the Eversolo A6 ME I’m going going all in. I am that impressed with the offering. I heard several of the high end streamers being suggested here and many are very good however I could not tell you if it was the streamer in and of itself that was great because in all the scenarios everything attached to the streamer was high end also. Many here would never even consider a product like the Eversolo(s) because they dont carry enough brand cache don’t make that mistake with your money the other thing I’ve learned is legacy brands are in trouble the value delta is expanding in our favor fast.

Congratulations on finding gear you believe will suit your needs. These streamer threads are really heating up and my guess is will continue to do as more and more folk who love vinyl (As I do) are finding we are not missing anything via quality streaming if we go that route solely. Streamers will continue to improve and come down in price as dacs have. Many here will disparage Topping, SMSL etc but we cannot deny a $500 dac from them now would have cost thousands a few years ago.We are now seeing a similiar dynamic occur with high quality streamers. There will be those who would not consider an Eversolo and I’ve stated possibilities why in a previous post and I respect that, its your money. There is a forum member that created a thread listing all the dacs he has owned the list was impressive something like 30 dacs (I don’t remember, most high end) but what I do remember is him stating the Gustard A26 was amoung the best dacs he had ever experienced especailly for ithe price. I am not one to confuse price and value, a lower cost item is often a case of you get what you pay for, but every now and then there are market disruptors the Eversolo(s) are certainly that. I’ve had the A8 in my system for several days now and I am thoroughly impressed with it I’m not a Steve Huff fan but the "Goosebumps" thing is accurate,it is an incredible performer with and without the dac in use. Are there better streamers out there of course but for 2k the A8 is an extremely good value. As more get in the hands of members I hope will we get more first hand head to head comparisions as was posted here between it and the Hi Fi Rose 130,honestly I was not surprised by the outcomes, I climbed the same ladder.Yes the member finally found what he was looking for by way of a 6k unit but the fact that a 2k unit was second place...pretty impressive.

I mention all this for anyone trying to gleen information, not to put down or encourage anyones decisions if this helps great just sharing for the next person on a simliar journey, which is what this forum is supposed to be all about.

All the best!

@gumbedamit love the tag I see Eddie with a cigar every time :) I've been living with an A8 for about 10 days now and I am blown away it really is fantastic and is getting noticably better with run in. I'm a little disappointed for the OP, I was hoping the first impressions of the Aurender N150 would be more of a dramatic improvement over his Node. At the same time I am not completely surprised, my understaning is the upper end offerings from Aurender,Lumin,Innuos etc is were the real "magic" occurs the less expensive options are very good but not really massive leaps above the newer Bluesound units. That being said the A8 most certainly is a massive jump over the Node X in every respect, the A8 is an incredible bargain based on its performance level. Ignore the noise take the plunge you will not be disappointed.

@signaforce Actually I purchased the A8 for the streamer function primarily,I have great dacs on hand. The dac I am currently using with it is a Aune S9c dac with a Aune SC1 external clock.Same dac/clock I used with the Node. I also have a Denafrips Ares II that I used with the Node and tested with A8 for synergy/curiousity the Aune twins sound better with both actually so the Denafrips Ares is now in my second system paired with a Sonos Port.  In my system with the Eversolo I have the amp setup with both the USB to dac and RCA to amp directly both signal paths sound outstanding but the USB/Aune out is superior to the dac in the A8 by a noticable margin however the A8 (dac) still has less than 80 hours on it and steadily improving the external dacs I own are both very broken in. We'll see...Glad your happy with the Aurender perhaps I read too much into your observations.