Sound quality differences in streamers

@kckrs 

Cool!  Let us know how it goes.  What’s the ETA?

fleschler

Sure you can get really good streamer for well under $1,000, that you can use with your Poseidon. Buy a used BlueSound Node 130 (not 2 or 2i) for about $250, and add a used Denafrips Iris DDC for about $350 to $400.

The Node 130 only outputs via USB (which you could also send direct to the Poseidon) into the Iris. The Iris does it's magical DDC stuff, and then will allow AES/EBU, optical, RCA, and I2S to the Poseidon (I know the Poseidon does not accept I2S)

As long as you want very good, and not state of the art, this combo will work really well; and the Node has a terrific interface.

I have the Volumio Rivo+ for a couple of months now.   It is an outstanding souding unit.  Big improvement from my old IPAD air.  I use it with a McIntosh system, the DAC is a McIntosh D150.   I am using a 5 volt 3.5 amp dual linear power supply - one supplying the Rivo+, the other powering a 4K 13.5 inch monitor.  I also have an audio quest power cable and both my DC cables are high end.  I am using a mouse for control of the monitor, not touch.  I could not get the touch working on my 4K 13.5 inch monitor.  For my music, I am using ripped dsf and wav files that I put on a 1 tb microsd card and Qobuz for streaming.  For internet, I still am stuck with DSL, so, I setup a eero 6+ mesh system and I have a eero node next to the Rivo+.  Wifi worked fine, but, I decided to hardwire an ethernet cable to the eero 6+ node and run the node with an 5 volt linear power supply and use a audioquest cinnimon ethernet cable.  i am also using a Stack Audio Smooth Lan from the ethernet cable to the Rivo+.  For internet, after the DSL routerh, I am using ethernet to fiber to ethernet adapters before the eero6+ base node.  Honestly, sound is really outstanding, and the Volumio user interface is really nice.  I use my IPHONE and IPAD to manage the playback.  It is easy to switch from streaming to the microsd card and the stored dsf (ripped SACD) sound great.   Volumio is now also supporting Qobuz connect and I just tried it and it is also very nice. Of course,  If you want to switch between your hard drive and streaming, you need to use the Volumio UI. 

BTW, I had no wifi Rivo+ issues with the eero 6+ mesh, but, I also had the eero node close to the Rivo+.  Personally, I believe in low voltage, low amp streamers with minimum processing, so, in the end, I wanted to turn off the Rivo+ wifi, so, I ran an ethernet cable from the eero6+ node to the Rivo+.  Both wired and wifi work well.  I have to say, I am super impressed with the sound of the Rivo+, both with streaming Qobuz and playing dsf (ripped SACD files) and wav files - which I put on a 1TB microsd card.  Bass is outstanding, sound stage is great, vocals are enticing, and highs are smooth - not glaring.  Rivo+ is really a super nice piece of hardware and software.  With the Rivo+, You automatically get a free premium subscription to the Volumio software and there is an army of people using it and supporting it.  Auto updates of the software are also cool.  For example, Qobuz connect support was just released and it was seemlessly installed and works on my Rivo+.  I like the business model regarding the Volumio software and the Rivo+ hardware, I believe it to be more "future proof" than other "non-open" streamer software that is operating streamers, but, of course, time will tell.