I am guessing whom ever told the OP this is referring to the Chi-Fi area. The all in one Streamers from SME (or whatever its call) Topping, and a few others. All are very similar. Not sure they are the "same" but nothing really stands out with them. They get the job done, they do it well, and can certainly be beat. But many like the all in ones as they just set the AVR to passthrough and add streaming and better DAC. by better DAC I am referring to the one in AVR. Its easy, they are very cost effective and hi value. Are they audiophile, not really. ASR loves them as chi-fi caters to his low noise = best.
Rebadging of Streaming Platforms
So I was reading some Q&A from an audio reviewer last night in which he mentioned that most audio streamers are just rebadged platforms from one or two vendors (I'm talking just the streaming portion of any unit, not the DAC). I have had more than one dealer tell me the same thing. So my question for anyone who knows is who actually makes these one or two platforms? Or conversely, who actually makes their own streamers? I going out on a limb and am guessing that Sonore may be one who "makes their own" but was hoping some one else had the actual answers.
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As the traditional HiFi manufactures had to include streaming capability a few years back without having the know how, they used technology from companies that already developed streaming technology. One of the leading companies is StreamUnlimited based in Austria. Their origins are in the Vienna-based Philips Audio Video Innovation Center. They don't publish who their customers are. Interestingly Google took a 41% share in the company in 2017. A few (undisclosed) high end hifi companies use their platforms.Do check out their website and you have an idea of what their capabilities are. |
In addition to Stream Unlimited, another swiss outfit My Signature Rendu (spdif) streaming module identified itself as a MR-MOD formerly produced by ABC-PCB now Engineered Electronics and still supported with newer firmware. I can say the Sonore unit is an exceptionally good sounding unit using this module. I've been through various streamers up to a DCS Network bridge and the Sonore is right up there with it but the DCS and Blue sound Node 2 is just so much more convenient as one box w/native android app solutions, no server needed to stream Tidal/Qobuz and radio. With the Sonore I did have to add an SOTM Neo 200 to use Bubbleupnp server & app and was worried about leaving the SOTM on 24/7 (w/SD card hosted software). I may actually put them back into service at some point for variety. I have not compared any Raspberry PI or similar mini computer board based solutions or Lumin/Aurender/Auralic who probably develop their own. |
@fittebd No, not at all. |
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