After being out of two channel for a while and just HT I got back into it. I started with Chinese dac that was all in one streamer and tried roon for 30 days. Wow I was hooked. I ripped everything I owned including SACDs (DSD). I upgraded Dac and streamer and whole 2 ch system. Discovering new music with roon is a wonderful experience. If you like what unlike and just want to listen to it maybe a DAC that can read from usb is all you need. But for me streaming is great and yes it’s a rabbit hole of expenses. No budget restrictions go big and get an all in for 20k and keep it simple.
Using streaming as a main source ---DSD, FLAC, MQA Streamers and DACS
As I read these forums, and watch copious amounts of Youtube, I'm struck by what a bad idea some of the streaming / digital formats are doing. I'm trying to build a system where I have a streamer, dad, and amplifier (with pre-amp) as separate components but what I keep finding is that the streaming/digital world is totally confused.
--MQA--
MQA seems to be both advancing with new MQair support and dying (few audiophiles seem to like it).
-- DSD --
Seems to be favored by High-end audiophiles but not streaming services.
-- FLAC --
FLAC seems to be pushed by Qobuz which seems to be the preferred service for high quality audio (but not for music recommendations).
Choosing a Streamer / DAC is a nightmare -- given the industry going back and forth on quality, formats, special licensing. Does one choose the formats they want to use and then find appropriate DAC etc or does one choose a DAC that sounds great and then accept its limitations.
I don't understand why streamers don't commit to upscaling to 24/192 or DSD256 for any format so the DAC peeps can focus on a single format.
So how does one decide where to start?