Sound quality differences in streamers

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. 

This has been and continues to be a very informative thread. I’m glad I brought the topic to the forum. I may have mentioned but can now confirm I’ve purchased, to be delivered tomorrow, the Rivo+ w/Lineo power supply. With our whole house being T-Mobile WiFi I’ve decided to connect the Rivo to a T-Mobile mesh extender via Ethernet port located just a foot or two away. I’m waiting until the extender arrives on Tuesday for the installation. Hopefully this isn’t money wasted and a reasonably big step up from laptop to DAC. 🤞Thanks

kckrs, good move.   I have been playing with my Rivo+ with linear power supply for a couple of months, and I think your proposed connection method will work great.  This is exactly how I setup mine.  I started with just the AT&T modem/router without the eero6+ mesh and the wifi connection was weak at 2.5 ghz.   Now, with the Mesh system, I get 5 ghz at the Rivo+, but, I also went to the direct ethernet cable to the eero6+ node.  I also run a linear power supply to the eero+ node and a Stack audio smoothlan to the Rivo+, but, of course, all that is overkill.  I believe you will love the sound of the Rivo+, please let us know...  BTW, I think the Volumio software with Qobuz connected on the back end sounds better than the new direct  "Qobuz connect".   Also, putting your files on microsd card (1TB in my case) is better than a USB stick.   I asked Volumio support which storage media would have the best sound on the Rivo+ and they ranked it 1 to 3 in this order - Microsd, SSD, USB stick.  Also, I tried multiple monitors with the Rivo+.   The only ones that work are 4K monitors.  I am running a linear power supply to a 13.5 inch 4K OLED monitor with a remote mouse which has the usb dongle plugged into the USB 2.0 slot on the Rivo+.  I could not get "touch" to work.  In addition, to your remote devices, ie. iphone, ipad, etc..., this works perfectly to control your Rivo+. 
Note:  Since my DSL is all copper, I bought a pair 10GTEC 1.25G Media Converter and a short fiber optic cable and put it right before the anchor eero6+ anchor mesh node.  Probably just more overkill... 

I am using the same DAC for the Rivo+ and my CD/SACD player and I can tell you that the sound quality is extremely close.   I will have to do some serious A/B testing to grade the differences, ie. ripped dsf file from SACD on Rivo+ microsd vs SACD player, and Qobuz hi-res streaming vs hi-res microsd file on Rivo+.

Here are a couple of pics:

Note:  Besides the Stack Audio Smooth Lan, the AudioQuest Cinnamon Ethernet cable, & the linear power supply to the eero6+ node by the stereo,  I did this ethernet to fiber optic to ethernet to eero6+ anchor node to help clean up my AT&T DSL - which is all copper.   I cannot tell you if it made a difference in sound because I made all my ethernet changes all at once.  One thing I did notice is that my TV picture got better, ie Blacks, color, and resolution.  My TV is using wifi from the eero6+ anchor node.  Overall, I am very happy with the sound quality of the Rivo+, but, I cannot really tell you which changes made a sound quality difference, or if they made a difference from just the Rivo+ with a Linear Power supply.  Adding the eero6+ mesh system made a huge improvement in Rivo+ performance overall, so, that was a game changer in itself.