Your most effective upgrade by far would be a good separate streamer, but it’s hard to think a DDC wouldn’t provide at least some improvement over that mess of a signal coming out of your computer. I put an Iris between my streamer and DAC and the improvement was significant in the same ways as described by @jastralfu above — background noise I didn’t know was there was stripped away and everything just popped more within an expanded 3D soundstage is the best way I can describe it. I bought the Iris used so in case it didn’t work out I could just sell it, but it’s not going anywhere unless I spring for a Hermes in the future. Hope this helps, and best of luck.
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I agree with @soix @fuzztone that the best solution would be to get a good streamer. I've not done that due to being addicted to the interface for both Tidal and Qobuz via MacBook. I had a WIIM Pro streamer for a day but my laptop into the DDC/DAC sounds better than the WIIM into it. The WIIM software was pretty good but the Mac interface is so much better. I will likely get around to trying a high end streamer to see what that does but at the moment I'm happy with my setup. |
You don’t need a good streamer. My 1st, a $200 Bluesound sounds better than any computer that I’ve ever heard. This after playing computer sound here for at least 10 years. There are many software alternatives. Like Tidal connect. I play mostly local files so it's a non issue. I'd rather listen to live performances instead of of crowd reactions, intros and personnel reporting.
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Bluesound is coming out with all new streamers, some soon, some in November. New current year models will likely be available on sale both before and after the newest models are released. Regardless of comparisons, the bluesound streamers sound good, I have found the bluesound operating system great, but you definitely need a good external DAC which you already appear to have. |
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