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Streamers and software

It's been a battle.  I have had a Bluesound Node 2i for 5 yrs.  I upgraded the power supply.  There is nothing wrong with function or sound.  I switched to Qobuz a few months ago.  I transferred my songs from amazon to Qobuz.  Qobuz works great when using the Bluetooth function.  When I want to play Qobuz thru BluOS, I am missing several thousand songs, called Favorites.  Loading and searching times are not usable.

Finally after 2 months BLUOS says they have no solution.  QOBUZ is working on a direct connect app to the streamer, but no release date.  

So, reluctantly, I started looking at a streamer.  I find several other streamers but have buggy software.

So, from what I see the Innuous pulsar mini has good software I would like to spend as little as I  can but it looks like $1-$2k?  It would be nice to have a linear power supply. Thanks for any suggestions are welcome.

Here is some I looked at.

Holo Audio Red, Ever solo, Innuous, Volumio

 

128x128daledeee1
jond's avatar
jond
5,846 posts
 

I use Auralic and their LDS app is excellent and not especially buggy. One thing to keep in mind streamers are essentially computers occasionally you may find a bug.

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,550 posts
 

@daledeee1 

With any software, implementation and hardware are the key to a worry free operation. Out of all the apps being mentioned here, Sense (Innuous) and Conductor (Aurender) are the least likely to experience problems due to their proprietary operating systems. Initial investment is high but you get worry free operation, stellar sound quality and customer support. 

Any offerings from Aurender or Innuous would be a step up from BS Node in a decent system, IMHO. 

mazian's avatar
mazian
406 posts
 

I have tried so many streamers and ditched them, not so much for the sound quality but because of the software. Many people like Aurender (Conductor) but I didn't as it was useless for cataloguing classical music and I lost many albums when connecting. I tried Roon and while Ok it was not IMHP worth the money. I have finally bought an Antipodes streamer which provides excellent sound quality and the choice of using Squeeze or a form of Qobuz native software. Neither is perfect but for my purposes as good as Roon. A final plus for Antipodes is the incredible customer service. If you have any connection issues they will do it for you.

lanx0003
858 posts
 

Watch for someone here who does not own either Streamer W or Streamer I but keeps criticizing W while praising I. This type of biased comment should be banned here to avoid misleading audiogoners.

moonwatcher
466 posts
 

Just playing devil’s advocate here. Your post made it sound like you were happy with the Node’s sound just fine, especially after installing a LPS, and it was working perfectly with all your Favorites on Amazon, but for some reason you switched to Qobuz from Amazon. Why? Does Qobuz REALLY sound significantly (not marginally) better than Amazon? If it is Qobuz that is buggy, why not simply switch back to Amazon and save yourself $2000 to $4000, or are you just itching for a new toy? Nothing wrong with wanting something better, and yes, maybe the DACs in some of the ones you are considering will be better than your external TOPPING D90 AKM.

There seems to be a significant number of people on this forum who want a great streamer without any DAC built-in whatsoever, not even a marginal "convenience" DAC. They'd rather use an external DAC of their own choosing. 

I’m just wondering if you’d get more bang for your bucks by switching back to something that was working fine, and instead, spend the bucks to upgrade your DAC.

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