Streamer to pair with vintage SAE 2500 MK 25 Stereo Power Amplifier


Hey

I'm a bit new to the hi-fi world so I thought I'd see if someone could point me in the right direction.  I have a vintage SAE 2500 MK 25 Stereo power amplifier that has just had some TLC so is in top shape.  Connected to that I've got some big ass infinity qls 1 speakers that have also had some TLC but a couple of years ago.  

Now I've got an SAE preamp which is in need of some updating and that's where my question comes from.  As the pre-amp is also vintage it doesn't offer much of modern input options (although I've got it hooked up to Apple Express for Air Play) so I'm thinking I should just replace that with a streamer, most of the music I play comes from a streaming service anyway.   My question is, with this kind of power amp, what streamer should I be looking at (mid range budget wise) and do I need to look at a streamer as well as a pre-amp?

Hope it's ok to post this kind of question here.

Cheers

Joe
urbanmania
Streamers stream music from the cloud and offer digital connections (USB) to pair with a DAC. Unless you buy a digital player that has both which many do. So to be clear I think what you need is a Streamer/DAC with a volume control to replace the old SAE preamp. If it has analog outputs then it has a built in DAC. I really like the products that Aurender and Auralic make but they are pricey. If you want to just check out this whole streaming DAC business you could buy a Bluesound Node 2i (streamer/dac $600) and run it through one of your inputs on the SAE preamp. MIDFI?? is a tough price point for digital it seems like you go Bluesound or you have to spend $3000 to $5000 for a top end Aurender/ Auralic combo. Its possible that Schitt might make a product in that $1500-$2000 range. Happy hunting.

Matt M
thanks, I'll have a look at those you mentioned.  I had been looking at the Cambridge Audio CXN v2 (https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/row/en/products/hi-fi/cx-series-2/cxn) , would that not work in this setup? Would I still need the pre-amp? (I know I'm a noob)
Schiit makes 0 streamers. There are gobs of them around under $2500. Take a look at mini DSP SHD. A mini streaming preamp with 7 inputs, signal processing on all, remote etc.  for half of that. Simple to get going.
https://deercreekaudio.com/products/minidsp-shd?gclid=CjwKCAiA8ov_BRAoEiwAOZogwWJ0vEdCCWkzI4ElVdlWgt...