Streamer dac preamp would be my recommendation. And one that can receive tidal connect. The best way to get the most bits. A streamer dac eliminates the need to convert outdated transmission protocol (spdif,usb,coax) to a bit perfect signal. My understanding is I2S is currently the best protocol for this transmission. I think most Streamer DACs have this built in.... I use PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC MKII with Bridge II, but Cambridge CX always seemed interesting when I was shopping on a more limited budget.
New streamer or dac?
So when I put my system together the idea was strictly vinyl,I eventually added a budget streamer thinking I’d use it for background music or puttering around the house when its not practical to listen to records. I became immediately consumed with it after subscribing to Tidal ,the idea of being able to listen to anything that pops into head is just fantastic,Im enjoying music like never before.Im ready to swap out the $600 unit for something a little more inline with the rest of the equipment in the system but am not sure if another option might be better. So my question is would it maybe be a better idea to buy a Dac and use the inexpensive steamer with it as a transport until I could afford to change it out also ? or would it make more sense to just buy a new streamer/ Dac unit ( I like the Aruender ) any thoughts on that would be appreciated,thanks in advance.
Showing 4 responses by pwayland
@bikeboy52 looks like your cooking up the goods analog source. Sweet man! I'm a pure digital source guy who digs deep into analog Class A amplification and exact phase and time coherent speakers. The goods are DAC streamer to you preamp, unless your streamer can send I2S protocol to your DAC. Any other interface to the DAC will struggle to provide bit perfect input.
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@bikeboy52, All I can offer with regards to a recommendation is sharing my process. I did recently buy my PS Audio Perfect Wave with Bridge II network card and in doing so I spent a lot of time educating myself on the technology and feel I made a good choice where I arrived. I am biased toward PS Audio partly because they are local for me. I purchased it from The Music Room for under $2k. I also really like iFi Zen stream and V2 DAC which I use in my studio. The Zen Stream is also compatible with Tidal connect which I believe to be key. Tidal has a list of compatible devices if you check the tidal connect button. I believe the bridge II card could be rebranded and possibly tweaked Conversdigital because it uses mconnect, but not sure. |
@lordmelton , Yes you would be correct if I had a PSA DS with bridge II. I actually have the Perfect Wave MkII with bridge II, which does not process DSD, so my card is using the I2S communication protocol. For $3k, I can upgrade my PW with a kit including new boards to fully convert it to a DS. I would postulate that feeding DSD directly from the streamer card has got to be the best solution. It is interesting to hear your experience with AES/EBU. I have read I2S is not great over any length of cable, so that could explain. I my mind, the card is just a more eloquent solution but as you say, it all depends on your setup... |