Streamers in the scheme of things.


I needed a streamer with AES3 out to connect to my Dutch and Dutch 8c’s so I began home trials. First I gave the Simaudio Moon Mind2 a go then a Bel Canto e Stream since I didn’t need a DAC . I am running Roon on a NUC and used these as roon ready devices. They both sounded very much alike or I guess I should say they didn’t do anything to mess up the stream. Before I used a raspberry pi4 as a bridge since I didn’t notice improved sound wondered how I could keep using it when I found a USB to AES3 converter the Matrix X SPDIF 2. At $400 I figured I had nothing to lose and $1600 to gain over the streamers. Today it was delivered connected my little raspberry pi4 to it and yes it sounds just as good. Streamers don’t have a hard job just get info to the DAC. Back go the Moon and Bel Canto.
djones51
Of the Simaudio,  Bel canto and Lumin I like the Lumin the best. The control app while not as good as roon is a close second , better than the others I've tried. I subscribe to roon on a yearly basis this might be good enough to drop it, I have a couple more months to decide. 
Decided to try another music streamer the Lumin U1 mini. Same results the SQ is no better than raspberry pi4 used as a bridge. I’ve also tried the MiniDSP Studio SHD same results with SQ, except the Dirac is nice.
I went from Bluesound to a Bryston BDP3, using the same Bryston BDP3 for both, and the sonic improvement was significant. ymmv
At least I recieved my refund on the  Simaudio and Bel Canto. I tried an Innous as well never heard any difference between these streamers going to the same DAC.  I think with streamers it has more to do with the software and if you like the UI. 
What good would an Amber do it doesn't have AES3 out. I looked at a Hermes but I figured it wasn't going to do anything better than the streamers I tried.
Yes, I already shipped them back. I looked at the Pi2AES it was a 4 week time frame on orders. It wasn’t that much cheaper figuring in power supply and case. Everything I stream through roon on Quboz is 192/24 or lower. My flac files are all redbook.
Always good to save money. Did you get the Moon and Bel Canto on a 30 day return basis?

There's also a hat board called Pi2AES that may have been worth comparing.

I wonder also if the max 192khz AES input of these speakers is a factor on levelling the performance of all the streamers here.