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Quality streaming for newbie

Old timer here. I’ve been semi stalking pages trying to gain insight. I’m looking for a streaming setup with CD quality playback. I understand compression 100% as I subscribe to Apple Music. I’m interested in the bare essentials,equipment wise,to achieve a better signal. From what I’ve gathered a quality DAC is where the bulk of my budget should be spent on. Any & all suggestions/advice are truly appreciated.
griff69

Showing 2 responses by nekoaudio

nekoaudio's avatar
nekoaudio
489 posts
 
I ended up with LUMIN based on the the quality of both hardware and software, and the sound character. But they're not on the inexpensive side of the spectrum.
nekoaudio's avatar
nekoaudio
489 posts
 
@griff69 well the LUMIN U1 Mini is a pure streamer at USD $2000. Or as audiotroy mentioned there is the D2 at USD $2300 which has a built-in DAC for analog outputs. So if the D2's DAC stage sounds good to you, you can get both a streamer and DAC within your price range.

And you could always use a different DAC later while still benefiting from the D2's streaming software and hardware by using its digital outputs.

If you want to use AirPlay (for Apple Music) then there are dozens of products to choose from as almost every mainstream consumer brand has released products with AirPlay support. It really comes down to the user experience and differences in sound quality.

If you can play around with the apps or watch online videos of the different user interfaces, that might help. Although if your only intent is to use AirPlay that may not be an issue.
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