New Streamer, DAC or Let it Be


Hello.  I am at a crossroads and interested in soliciting suggestions on a streamer and/or DAC upgrade using your collective experience.  My focus is actually home theatre, with perhaps 20% of the time devoted to music.  The space is my wife's office by day, my home theatre/ listening room by night, and furniture placement, windows, doors, etc. cannot be moved; it is what it is. 

Equipment is a Marantz AV8805A processor, Parasound A51 amp and new Focal Kanta 2 speakers.  My streamer is a Bluesound Node with upgraded internal power supply and external LPS, and Gustard U18 DDC feeding a Gustard X26 PRO DAC with SR purple fuse.  The Node upgrades made a very positive difference, and addition of the Gustard U18 was a noticeable and very welcome upgrade as well.  My frame of reference/ comparison are CDs from a modest collection played on an Oppo BD103, fed to the Marantz via HDMI (I tried Toslink and Coax but HDMI to the Marantz sounded best).  I stream a variety of music using Qobuz and the Bluesound app on my phone.  The app is OK but despite a trumpeted recent upgrade, Bluesound has not yet resolved something as simple as the ability to organize Favorites by Artist or Album; they appear in the reverse order added, which is nuts.  The various digital upgrades have made streaming sound just about as good as the CD.  Here’s the dilemma.

I live vicariously through your experience with the enormous breadth of quality digital equipment out there.  I am not necessarily looking to throw money at something I do infrequently, yet am driven by the unknown: will an upgrade provide added pleasure and justify enhancements equal to the expense for the limited time I listen to music?  Obviously, a therapist could help, but I trust many of you have been down this road and can offer insight.  My questions are, would a streamer upgrade alone take me to the next level?  Is a DAC upgrade instead the better path?  Or, am I chasing unicorns, and is my humble setup good enough, to simply let it be?  I learned never to say never, but the likelihood of an investment now and then further upgrades down the road is unlikely, as the wife has zero patience and appreciation for all this.  As to existing equipment, the Marantz and Parasound aren’t going anywhere, and I am very happy with the Kantas.  Any purchase will likely be via the used market, to mitigate costs.  My budget is in the $3K range (preferably less, usually more), which is what I was looking at for a used/ open box Aurender N150.  I am by no means limiting myself to just that brand or model streamer, and have not scratched the surface on a DAC, should that happen.

Thanks for your time and any experience/ suggestions you might share.

traubr

GHDP, thanks for responding, I have appreciated your input in the various threads out here.  I like your one box notion, particularly as I pray for UPS or FedEx deliveries in the dark of night or when the wife is working, to sneak the next purchase into the house.  The one box solution prevents piecemeal upgrades of the components, but one box to rule them all is not a bad thing.

A corollary is my home theatre.  After a great deal of research, time and $$$, it sounds good but it is not WOW.  I have come to accept the reality of my home theatre in my space, with all its limitations, my equipment choices and budget.  Perhaps it is great, given all that, but I started with higher hopes.  I yearn for WOW with music, trying to glean what might help from the experience of others like yourself.

That is quit a dilema. I would guess that you would not be posting unless you were trying to figure out how to achieve some more fidelity from your system.

i am sure you know the first place to upgrade would be the AVR… but you cannot. So, accepting that. I would say that you could achieve better sound with either the Streamer or DAC. Both would be better as they (without knowing what the DAC sounds like… but it is in a very low price range). An Aurrender N150 would be an excellent choice. Also a Schiit Yggdrasil DAC likely a good choice.

 

Let me suggest something sneakier. Linn makes an excellent DRM. A one box solution that can be a streamer… DAC, preamp, and amp if you want. There are three levels of DAC available. The mid-stream one is excellent. You might get one with the streamer and DAC… while way more than you might want to spend… maybe take some time save up. If you did this, someday, without your wife knowing you could add or upgrade components with no visible changes to the room. Over time you could turn it into a really high end system. I’d have a carefull look at what Linn has.

 

By the way, you need not know what improvements you want. The one nearly absolute is that better sound is infinitely possible. In the first few decades I quickly learned that better sound was always an upgrade away. It was only after years of listening to other systems I could articulate what I wanted in a better system.

 

 

Your question cuts to the chase.  One of the sad facts of life these days is the lack of places (shops) to hear different equipment for a hands (or ears) on experience.  Overall, music sounds pretty darned good on my system, but I suspect (here is the unknown part) the sound can always be bigger and more resolving.  In my home theatre, I took it on faith that an amp upgrade from an Emotiva to the Parasound would turn heads.  Did it?  Mmm, still not sure, which could speak to my listening ability, or the fact the Emo wasn't too shabby to begin with.  I am open to, even crave, a WOW.  Will an upgrade produce WOW, and how much needs to be changed to get to WOW?  I don't know what I don't know.

Well let's start with what you think you're currently lacking in terms of sound.  What don't you like about the current setup?