Streamer suggestions with both wireless and wired connections

I have owned and streamed using PC, MAC, IPad, $2K, $3.5K, $5K, $10K, $13K, and $22K streamers. In each case absolutely worth the increased sound quality supplied by that level of investment / performance assuming you have a system.. DAC, Preamp, Amp and speakers to support that level of performance. Also, you choose the best in class at that level of investment.

I have found that with a good quality streamer it does not matter if feed by wifi (wall wart wifi extender) or Ethernet direct from router… but for some reason I have not had good luck with onboard wifi receivers.

Great quality streamers like Aurender clean up the incoming signal, cashe the stream to make up for network deficiencies and do not require any fiddling with your network. My Aurrender work flawlessly from a wall wart extender even when I cannot get the pages to refresh on my iPad.

@michaelalan

If you do your research and buy best of class then Streamer ~= DAC ~= Preamp ~= amp. Over time for me again and again my end system after an upgrade ends there. Typically my speakers will be the more expensive than my components. I’ll put 35% investment for component / speakers into speakers. I don’t include interconnects… I blow my whole budget… then as I learn about the sound of my new system and as my finances recover I start purchasing cables. My objective is to reach the maximum sound quality for my system so I can happily stay there for 7 to 10 years.

So for my headphone system my streamer $3.5K, DAC $4K, amp $5K. Main system: Streamer $22K, DAC $17K, Preamp $17K, amp $22K. I tried a $13K streamer… definitely lost a lot… I tried a $22K DAC and it was a tiny bit better, but a tiny less musical. So, it is only a rough guide.

But it also makes sense to me because another of my rules of thumb are that it takes 2x careful investment to make a “wow” that is a lot better. I find the high end audio industry is pretty competitive and if your component doesn’t outperform lessor ones, then your not in the running.

No Aurender does not produce wireless streamers. 
 

I would say my components are very well balanced. I tried a $22K DAC for several weeks… there were two small differences one positive and one negative. If I upgraded my other equipment it would basically be $20K/ component to $40K / component ( my TT and Phonostage are also of this value). I can’t really afford that… well at least now. Typically once I reach a well balanced system, I will stay for seven to ten years.

How did I get to a $22K streamer. After years of trying to get digital even remotely near vinyl and failing (, MAC laptop, PC, etc.) I finally broke down and bought a Auralic Aries G2 ($5K). That changed everything. I realized there was the possibility of high quality digital. Then I bought a Aurrender N100 for my headphone system. this changed everything, I realized there were better streamers than the G2. I auditioned a N10 ($10K) streamer… the noise floor dropped precipitously, imaging improved, the sound quality really jumped… not to vinyl level, but the music started to be engaging. After auditioning a Aurender W20SE, I bought one, the difference between my vinyl rig and digital simply vanished. Both are completely engaging with the same level of detail, tonal balance and musicality. So, for me that signaled; done. I recently took home a $13K Grimm streamer… no question my Aurender is significantly better. I have also auditioned Linn streamers (several >$20K), SQ better from Aurender to me. 

I am friends with a dealer, he uses wall wart wifi extenders on his and has installed many $200K systems that run on them. Good streamers make up for deficiencies in networking. 

My CD / DAC and Streamer / DAC sound the same when playing the same red book files… from CD (I am using the same DAC I either scenario), stored files or streamed. This is true for me by design… getting the highest quality sound at my level of investment. However, streaming sounds better when streaming high resolution files like the half a million albums on Qobuz.

I am not completely sure at how you are looking at the CD comparison. what a CD sounds like is dependent on the transport and DAC. I am going to use cost as a shorthand for performance. So for instance if you were to compare my streamer to say a $5K CD transport (with the same DAC being used) or $10K+ CD player, my streamer would sound much better, as well as having far greater functionality.

A streamer can easily sound much better than a CD player or transport. It depends on the comparison. The sound of a CD is fundamentally controlled by the equipment used to play it… as is streaming. The better the player / transport or streamer the better the sound.

Sorry if that is either over explaining or a bit jumbled. I’m just not feeling very concise at the moment.

@niodari

I understand. You cannot randomly choose equipment at a price point and expect to realize this relationship. It must be carefully chosen to be the best at the price level and to be purpose built to your sound quality values… like highly detailed, or musical… warm… etc.

I do not come to this opinion by comparing two or three auditions and purchases but from hundreds over fifty years of dedicated pursuit. In general, if you do good solid research… you get performance at the level of your investment. Each 2x in investment gives you a “wow… I can’t believe how much better that sounds!”