Streamer Upgrade

@jazzman7. Yeah, that's a good call out. I guess I could still use the Node on a different source. 

My recommendation would be a used Aurender, or Aurlic Aries G… the Lumin sounds great… but many are unhappy with the interface. Both Aurender and Aurlic have great interfaces. 
 

I have owned an Auralic and now own two Aurenders, after listening to the N10. Aurender only makes streamers…their flagship is the most used in audio shows. They are the company to beat. Great customer service. 

I have an Auralic Aries G1 and am quite happy with it's performance. I stream exclusively through WiFi and have never had an issue with it dropping out or sounding compromised by a poor connection. Auralic states that they dedicated a lot of focus on performance over WiFi matching direct ethernet wiring. 

I sent a question into Auralic prior to purchasing the streamer and their head engineer replied directly back to me the same evening answering my question so it would seem that they are focused on good customer communication. At least in my one instance. 

I also have a Bluesound Node 2i that I use on another system and while I think it is a great streamer for the cost I do like the Lightning DS application from Auralic over the Bluesound streaming app. With Roon that most likely is not a priority for you. 

I have never compared Numin, Aurender or Innuous to the Auralic products so won't make any comments but I am sure they all make very good streamers in comparison. Price and features could be a deciding factor. 

Sonore makes a line of music streamers and the ultraRendu is a good one. It's only $999 and sounds much better then Bluesound.

I find that using a streamer lets your DAC sound it's best. The streamer dosn't change your DACs sound it just eliminates all the noise that keeps your DAC from it's true sound.

@willg1985 

With respect to supporting Spotify.  I understand.  That is why I maintain an old Bluesound N100 (the original cube) in my main rig, just so that when my son is in town he can access Spotify.  

@jazzman7  thanks for sending this. This unit looks awesome but the wife wouldn’t be happy without Spotify connect. I love TMR too. 

I used to use a Schiit Gumby multi bit dac as well, I still regret selling it. 

I recently moved from a pc based streamer ( optimized for streaming audio) first to a Roon Nucleus, that was a down grade IMO, it is one of the most over price streams on the market IMO. Unless you love roon and need it in a dedicated streamer I'd pass on the nucleus, specially after you open the box and see an empty chassis.  I sold the Roon as it wasn't even close to as good sounding as the Optimized PC with Tidal. 

After i sold the Nucleus I got an Arender A10 with an Internal DAC ($6k). this is build like a tank and the chassis is stuffed full. but in the end its about the same sound as the optimized PC i was using prior. I honestly think the DAC in it is lacking in many areas like extension and sounds rather boring. 

I wish i had the Schiit Gumby milti bit DAC still, i sold it to help fund a preamp. It's better IMO then the DAC 2 board in my McIntosh C2700 preamp and the Aureder A10's internal DAC. The Aurender is really a disappointment to me for what it costs. yes i have done a side by side comparison. 

If it was me any my $ I would upgrade your DAC maybe to one of Schiit's Yagys and call it a day. Or another quality DAC. I just don't hear the huge difference others seem to hear with these expensive streamers. I find the DAC has more of a change in sound then the streamer. i'd pick one you like the interface with and stick with it.

As of now I feel an Optimized Computer is better then the dedicated streamers ive tried thus far. 

Can highly recommend Bricasti M5 as a Roon endpoint.  It features a self contained LPS, and is built like a tank.  I picked up mine used about 6 months ago from TMR, and I see that the TMR folks currently have one listed for sale.  Prior experience was with Bluesound kit and Roon Nucleus with Sbooster LPS streaming to itself.  The Bricasti was a big step up.  They are currently asking $1799 for it.  Would think that you could probably pry it away from them for something more like $1500, and maybe less if you have something worthwhile to them to offer in trade.

You can access Spotify for Innuos via a third party app, which is also the case with Qobuz that you need to access through mconnect HD that I actually prefer because it is very similar in layout/function to the Qobuz site so very low learning curve.  Think it would be a similar experience with Spotify, and here’s how to get it to work…

https://innuos.com/kb/configure-the-spotify-streaming-service-innuos-2-0/

@willg1985 Innuos’ Sense platform is compatible with Spotify Connect. If you can swing for it, the Innuos will be a better performer overall as well than the two units you mention. 

Thanks @soix, I like the thought of that a lot but it doesn't seem that it has Spotify compatibility. I personally use Qobuz but no Spotify would be a deal breaker for the wife. Great option otherwise though. 

If you have CDs you still listen to you might also consider an Innuos Zen Mk3 as in addition to being an excellent streamer it’s also a server with its own disc drive so you can just load them directly into it and have access to all your music from your chair.  And their Sense software is reputed to produce excellent sound relative to many other apps out there, and by all accounts Innuos has very good customer support as well, which is nice with products like streamers where issues can pop up now and again.  Just another potential option FWIW, and best of luck. 

Thanks again @blisshifi. Maybe one day I could get to the N30SA level. I was planning on spending about $3k on a streamer. The Lumin U2 Mini and the Auralic Aries G1.1 were the 2 that seemed the most do-able right now. 

Wow very honest and refreshing post.  Thank you.

@willg1985 Yes I am. Using the N30SA, which is their reference streamer. I came a long way in the last 10 years or so. Upgrading to it made a bigger difference in sound quality than spending even more on a DAC upgrade. After buying the N30SA I slimmer my vinyl collection a bit and sold about 200 records in two months. Now I listen primarily to local files and streaming. I still have 600 vinyl records or so and listen to them less than 10% or the time.

What I would say is that the cost for entry to great streaming is very expensive. If your budget is less than that, definitely seek guidance and do research on the best solution for yourself. If you want to share what you’re considering and/or budget you want to invest, you might get some good guidance from the community. 

Awesome post. Thanks @blisshifi. I'm assuming that you are using a Aurender currently?

Depending on how much you want to invest, it could be a huge leap in improvement. I went from a whole Bluesound house to in the end having one with a power supply upgrade, moving to a NAD M50.2 streamer which is now discontinued, but was leaps ahead. I’ve tried a number of better streamers, from  Innuos, Laufer Teknik, Auralic, and Aurender (in full disclosure I am an authorized dealer for Aurender) as well as many home-baked PC servers. 

While the modded node is very good for its price, the power supply upgrade is just piece, and overall the Node is not protecting itself from any noise. Once you upgrade to a streamer that cares deeply about isolation, clocking, caching and all, you will realize how much more clarity and information you get with less fatigue.