New streamer? N150 vs U2

@wsrrsw ​​​​@lalitk Roon capability isn’t a key decision point but it could be if the new OS really sucked and I wanted a change. Thanks for the heads up. 

Decision made. I pulled the wallet-trigger on an Aurender N150. I’ll investigate DACs and decide whether to upgrade that after I evaluate the N150 on the Chord Qutest DAC. 
 

@marco1 did you find that a specific USB output on the N150 sounds best?  Any other advice is also appreciated!

@doni, PS upgrade?  Wouldn’t a PS upgrade for the Lumin make it even better? The N150 comes stock with linear PS.

@everyone, my digital system is Cary SLI-80 with mostly Gold Lion tubes, Chord Qutest DAC, PD Creative modified BS Node 2i, Meadowlark Osprey gen 2 speakers, Cardas, Nordost and Shunyata cables, Hydra power conditioning , Sbooster LPS on both DAC and Node 2i. And there’s an analog side also.

I’ve read many comments that the BS software is the best. It has been absolutely rock solid for me and very easy to use.

@leorousseau there’s many more components on the board you choose than the PD Creative board. Very interesting! Also, your board and LPS are a really good value. The PD creative board is reasonable but the Sbooster is about an additional $400USD.

@ericsch it seems we’re at a similar decision point. ‘Please update us if you buy a new streamer. Thanks!

@lalitk excellent advice and your input as an owner of similar equipment is much appreciated. I’d grab a home audition but I’ve found that extensive burn-in time is very real and so is confirmation bias. And I’d rather not abuse retailers, or make a big mistake so I learn from other audiophiles prior to my decision.

@balooo2 I have not heard full MQA unpacking. To my ears, using the modified Node 2i, I can definitely hear that the first Tidal MQA unfold increases mid freq and upper bass compared to the same song on Qobuz. I’m curious about full MQA.  Same for DSD. My DAC does DSD so I’m curious about what an upscale-capable streamer may add to my audio enjoyment.

@leorousseau DAC, power supplies and streamers. They’re all integral to the thread when discussing a Node vs something else. 
 

@doni thanks for the clarity. It helped.

@gdnrbob Bob, the DAC is the elephant in my audio room. I’m not sure how much I like the Chord Qutest. It’s very smooth and delicate. It use’s very little power, similar to the Sbooster and the BS Node 2i, so I keep them all powered up 24x7. Important with our high electric costs here. I still have a Cary DAC-100t in my system connected to a Mac Mini. The 2014-era Cary sounds better than the Qutest on many classic rock songs. It’s “meatier”. I’m not sure what the proper audio term is. The Qutest is definitely better on jazz and on female vocals. And the Cary DAC has better soundstage width and depth. I run Amarra audio software on the Mac and it makes a big difference in sound-quality. I frequently compare the same song on Amarra to the anode 2i.

@mournbladeiv thanks for reminding me of this if I decide to go the one-box route! I get the ads from that big mid-west retailer that we all love and have read a few ads about the HiFi Rose equipment.  Because I’m looking at upgrading my streamer and myDAC is questionable, a one-box solution may be it for me.

of course that starts consideration of other higher priced units and the Cary one-box DAC/Streamer (but not the absurdly priced “pro” one).  Sigh.

‘As someone mentioned I soon hit the point where other components in my system may be more appropriate as a higher value upgrade.   Although we deal with that decision on all larger upgrade options that’s really a different thread.

@marco1 almost exact experience I was looking for.  Thank you! 
 

@wsrrsw what were your Bluesound and Sbooster upgrades? Great comparisons, thanks!

@ghdprentice thanks! Someone who has researched and owned different streamers especially several Aurenders knows more than I do about streaming. 

 @baylinor @leorousseau yes the BlueOS is a key decision point. I’ve read about someone who “upgraded” to a different streamer and went back to BlueOS because the new OS was so unfriendly. 

Excellent input from everyone, thank you all very much! So much experience. I’ve learned a lot and I’m sure that other audiophiles will also in the future. I keep rereading this thread.

I’ve planned to get an EtherRegen for quite a while but am obviously waiting for them to get the next generation of it to market. I also need to make the one-box or not decision. Fortunately for me this technology just keeps improving. Unfortunately it seems that almost all high end equipment keeps increasing in price, sometimes significantly so.  
 

@wsrrsw thanks for pontificating!  And I too love the artwork.

Probably 75% or more of my listening is jazz, bass jazz, sax jazz, contemporary jazz, fusion jazz, hard bop. The rest is a mix of classic rock and more modern rock.

The streamer & DAC I decide on, or the one-box streamer/DAC will need to be great for jazz and rock.

I use Qobuz, Tidal, Radio Paradise, and ESPECIALLY JazzRadio premium streams.  The streamer must be able to accept and retain a custom URL from JazzRadio.  I should have mentioned this in my original post.

@rockrider thank you for that link!

@leorousseau best way for decent higher resolution jazz on BlueSound is to program in a custom URL on TuneIn custom stations using JazzRadio Premium. That way you can get 320k mp3 streams. I use these streams for music discovery and there’s a direct link in BluOS from TuneIn to the album or artist on Qobuz and Tidal.

@marco1 Me too!  All my analog (RCA) interconnects are Cardas Golden Reference. I moved up the Cardas family line over time but have never changed from Cardas. Phono amp to integrated amp, DAC to integrated amp, another DAC to integrated amp. I’ve only used upscale digital cables for a couple years.

@marco1 thanks!  I have an AQ Carbon currently on a Mac Mini that I can use. I may change to something else. I heard cable differences using different digital coax  cables on the Node 2i.  I had a AQ Carbon digital coax and much later bought a Nordost Silver Shadow. 25 hours for barely decent listening burn-in, 80 hours for bass to improve. It’s a silver clad cable.  It’s better than the AQ Carbon!

The N150 is in-house and on its second day with 10 hours of total listening time.  I’ve got one main thing to say— the problem wasn’t my DAC. The Chord Qutest is a fully competent DAC when input by a really good streamer.  Wow!  I don’t have the N150 fully optimized and the improvement is easily heard, ESPECIALLY the much improved center stage. Imaging! Much more ‘fleshed out’.  Center stage depth is also much better.  Stage width is excellent.  And only 10 hours burn-in at this time.
 

It took me less than 2 hours to get an excellent understanding of Conductor. Advice for future owners is that Conductor is context sensitive like a Mac or iOS OS and can be somewhat confusing as a result.  Actually it’s much worse than a Mac or iOS device.  For example, if you are in a particular top menu, the sub-menu will have very different results even if it looks EXACTLY the same as something you did before. Seems obvious but it’s not.

‘Thanks to all and especially @lalitk for letting me know that Conductor was good!

For HiRes Internet radio jazz listeners, check out SuperStereo 7 in a search. There’s also other genres.  It and other “custom” high resolution entered stations are excellent on the N150 as are Qobuz and Tidal.

@lalitk thanks for the cable recommendation!

For future readers: today I discovered that my confusion regarding the Conductor app menu headings was likely influenced adversely by the combination of my iPad display settings, the Conductor app display setting I chose, and room lighting conditions.  I opened the Conductor app from a bright sunlit room and had zero difficulty seeing which top menu and sub-menu I was in.

The menu arrangement is still somewhat context-sensitive but now I clearly can see exactly where I am in it.