You can put a Roon ROCK Intel NUC together for about $400.00. It will have equal or typically more processing power than other off the shelf servers. I followed Roon’s instructions to the letter and for a good year now the Roon ROCK NUC is rock solid. But you are committing to using Roon. https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/articles/roon-optimized-core-kit#ROCK_For_Small_to_Medium-Siz... |
I use an ASUS ROG laptop as my streamer hooked up to my PS Audio PerfectWave Mk II DAC. Using Qobuz I have compared several 16/44.1 titles to their corresponding CDs played through my PSA transport. They sound identical. I figure that's about as good as I can expect. My point here is that even streaming from a dirty, disgusting, EMI laden, noisy PC the performance equals playing a CD through the same DAC. Your PSA DS DAC buffers and reclocks all incoming data (as does my PW Mk II). That feature should make the choice of streamer less critical. You didn't say if you plan to use Roon but I can't imagine buying a new streamer that wasn't Roon Ready. The rest of the equation is more a matter of dollars vs. pride of ownership. |
I'll join the Bluesound Node2i dogpile. I demoed a few streamers, dacs, and combos up to $3k (yes, not much in audiophile land but I'm not rich either) and I personally feel the Bluesound is the best deal going without spending more. It's simply amazing sound quality, and software updates are still coming today. For under $500 US it's a staggering value. |
As @tk21 mentioned, adding the Bridge II to your DS Dac might be the best option. This is made specifically for your DAC and is probably the best value option. If you are looking for something that will work with other DACs, the BlueSound Node 2i is a great value although it may not be quite up to the standard set by your DAC. Along with the other excellent suggestions here, I would check out the Sonore products. The OpticalRendu, in particular, offers outstanding performance assuming you are connecting to a USB DAC. |
There are fundamental differences between using a streamers USB output to DAC versus SP/DIFF or AES output to DAC. Depending on the strength of your DAC one or the other can sound much better. The DAC must retime the USB bitstream, the others it does not. I have found large and profound differences between sub- $3K streamers, $5K, $10K, and $20K+ streamers. It is somewhat like a turntable, in general, high quality streamers provide a much higher quality signal. This is then turned into an analog signal and amplified. It may be counterintuitive, but it makes a huge difference. On the other hand like all components it needs to be matched with appropriate quality equipment for high quality sound that is cost effective. Matching a $10K streamer with $500 DAC, preamp, and amp is unlikely to allow you to fully appreciate it’s full potential. |
