Hi Zavato,
I used to use a stripped down Mac Mini as my server into my DAC. It worked well and I thought it sounded pretty good. I optimized it in all ways suggested for improved audio performance. Nevertheless, I ended up purchasing an Aurender N100H to improve convenience (pretty seamless operationally between stored files and streaming services) and found it sounded markedly better. I now also have an Auralic Aries G2 in another system and it sounds notably better than then Aurender N100H, as I’m sure does Aurender’s N10 as well. I’m now enjoying a level of digital performance that’s vastly better than I had before - using the same DAC.
As an owner of their products, I can certainly recommend the units noted above. (btw: Auralic’s Lightning DS app sounds significantly better than does Roon - a separate discussion). You should certainly check out Lumin and Innous, too as there are many very enthusiastic fans here. And, you might consider Bricasti with a network card. Are you able to audition some/any of these units in your system?
In my opinion and in my experience, the server and/or streamer is as important as the DAC - and perhaps more so - for quality sound. Said differently, I found a greater leap in performance by moving upstream on the server than I did by going upstream on the DAC. Of course, YMMV.
Best,
I used to use a stripped down Mac Mini as my server into my DAC. It worked well and I thought it sounded pretty good. I optimized it in all ways suggested for improved audio performance. Nevertheless, I ended up purchasing an Aurender N100H to improve convenience (pretty seamless operationally between stored files and streaming services) and found it sounded markedly better. I now also have an Auralic Aries G2 in another system and it sounds notably better than then Aurender N100H, as I’m sure does Aurender’s N10 as well. I’m now enjoying a level of digital performance that’s vastly better than I had before - using the same DAC.
As an owner of their products, I can certainly recommend the units noted above. (btw: Auralic’s Lightning DS app sounds significantly better than does Roon - a separate discussion). You should certainly check out Lumin and Innous, too as there are many very enthusiastic fans here. And, you might consider Bricasti with a network card. Are you able to audition some/any of these units in your system?
In my opinion and in my experience, the server and/or streamer is as important as the DAC - and perhaps more so - for quality sound. Said differently, I found a greater leap in performance by moving upstream on the server than I did by going upstream on the DAC. Of course, YMMV.
Best,