Personally I would get a Salk Streamer, use that as your Roon Core, hard drive, and renderer. Then spend the extra money on a DAC you love and spend some money on a good USB cable. I’m typically a bit of a skeptic on cables beyond a certain point. That said, I clearly heard differences between a basic cable, and an audioquest Cinnamon and Carbon cable.
But the DAC is where it’s at. I tended to fall in the “All DAC’s are pretty good”. But there are clearly differences. I played around between an Oppo Sonica (which uses a 9038 chip and a nice toroidal) and the internal DAC in a Levinson 585 (which is well reviewed and uses the 9018). The Sonica easily won (which was nice to be able to a/b on the same unit with nothing else changed.)
I’m also becoming more and more convinced that the power supply matters as much as anything in electronics. Given my druthers I want an amp, pre-amp, and now DAC that has a nice toroidal in it.
Jim Salk is a good man, and the Streamer is an absolute bargain like just about everything he sells.
But the DAC is where it’s at. I tended to fall in the “All DAC’s are pretty good”. But there are clearly differences. I played around between an Oppo Sonica (which uses a 9038 chip and a nice toroidal) and the internal DAC in a Levinson 585 (which is well reviewed and uses the 9018). The Sonica easily won (which was nice to be able to a/b on the same unit with nothing else changed.)
I’m also becoming more and more convinced that the power supply matters as much as anything in electronics. Given my druthers I want an amp, pre-amp, and now DAC that has a nice toroidal in it.
Jim Salk is a good man, and the Streamer is an absolute bargain like just about everything he sells.