Suggestions for a streamer only (I have a great DAC)


I have a dCS Paganini DAC and Paganini Clock. I’m looking for a streamer only to pair with the Paganini to stream via Tidal.  That’s it, I don’t need a streamer/DAC/etc.  I don’t want to extra for pay for redundancy.  Any good suggestions on a streamer only  that you have paired to a high end DAC with good results would be appreciated. 

 

PLEASE no “try some at home on your system” responses …. that’s the reason I came here, for some recommendations. Price range $1500-$5000.

 

Thanks!

naperaudio

Showing 1 response by mgrif104

There are some good thoughts here.  I’m generally in agreement with @ghdprentice in that a well optimized streaming setup will surprise you with how good it can be.  You might never want to spin a disc again if you put some effort into it up front.  The rest of your system seems to warrant this effort. Yes, there is a world of difference going upstream. Contrary to what some claim, going upstream in the quality of your streamer can yield substantial - and readily audible improvements.  

I will offer a few other things to consider:

1) There’s seems to be some consensus that Qobuz generally sounds better than Tidal.  To my ears, it sounds a lot better. The libraries are different, both are vast.  

2) Auralic’s lighting DS is more than fine.  I actually like it as an app better than Aurender’s conductor app (I had Aurender for several years and then moved to Auralic’s Aries G2 which I found Iiked better than Aurender’s N100 and N10. I haven’t heard the W20 SE which @ghdprentice has but understand it to be spectacular.

3) the Bluesound app is also fine but frustrating at times. I have a Node 2 in a kitchen system.  Candidly, Auralic Lightning DS and Aurender Conductor provide a much better experience and both are seamless with Qobuz and/or Tidal.

4) Roon provides the best user interface by far, but in my experience there is a sonic penalty to using it. Of course, it may be that they’ve somehow worked this out and others may disagree.  But it’s a fairly common observation if you do some reading. To me, Auralic via LDS sounds substantially better than the same stream via Roon.  Since digital music is data played back via software and hardware, this is not too surprising. In any case, for those looking to optimize streaming performance, the native apps might give you a better experience. 

5) Pay attention to your network hygiene.  It’s not that bits are lost or that jitter is introduced. Parasitic noise is, however, and you only really notice it when you hear it without.

Good luck and let us know what you decide.