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Seeking advice on purchasing a new streamer

Once again I turn to you guys for advice.  Thanks for all the input you've given to help me along the way

I have 2 systems and only one streamer:  A blue sound Node 2i.  I paired it with a chord Qutest and I love the combo.  I want to get another streamer so I can have one in both systems.  I am considering getting a streamer transport (no DAC) and using it with the Qutest in my primary system and using the Node in my secondary system by itself since the DAC in the Node isn't half bad.

My other thought was to get a cambridge CXN which has a built in upsampler.  Currently I listen to almost all CD quality (and I listen to a lot of red book CDs) so the upsampling feature sounds interesting to me.  Also the dual DACs sound like they'd be a plus.  If this solution improves SQ with CD quality recordings, then I would use this in the primary system.  Are there any other streamers with DACs that you'd recommend?

in summary, looking for possibly a transport streamer OR a DAC streamer

I'd like to spend around $1200 on a solution.  

Any thoughts?

thanks
adam8179

Showing 1 response by big_greg

big_greg
6,565 posts
 
If you can stretch your budget, the Lumin U1 Mini would be at the top of my list.

The Marantz also has a DAC and headphone amp that you're paying for.  I can't imagine it would be much, if any better than the Bluesound.  I had a ND6006 and the software was a nightmare.  When the Bluesound devices came out, I felt like I was lucky to have found a buyer for the Marantz.  Marantz does a lot of things right, but streaming... not so much.
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