Wanting to upgrade my streaming sound quality.

I thought I would weigh in on your question as I have embarked on the streamer journey since our house burned down last year in a forest fire. I replaced all my old equipment with similar gear mostly from Audiogon. I love analog, and I found an old VPI TNT VI with a VdH Crimson cartridge to replace my lost analog rig. After looking around for a streamer/DAC, I settled on a Cary Audio DMS 700 (new) and it was amazing to stream music from Qobuz that made the previously wonderfully sounding old Wadia 860 sound restrained. I now run a digital coax from the Wadia and use it as a transport for the few CD's that were donated to me. The Cary approached, and in some cases almost equaled my analog rig. I then needed another streamer in a different part of the house so I tried the DMS 650 ($4796 at the Cary Direct Store), which was almost the equal of the 700, as it is a new product for Cary. At the same time, I trialed the DMS 800 (a new product for them) which knocked my socks off for detail, holographic imaging and not a hint of digital harshness. Though the DMS 650 is above your stated budget, consider that it has state of the art AKM DAC's that will resolve all the high resolution formats you utilize. It also has balanced outputs, with multiple digital input options, and I suspect you would notice that it will make the streaming of digital music close enough to your analog rig that you will use it more often as you explore more and more music from cyberspace. Cary Audio will let you trial it for 30 days to see if you like it. Alternatively, you could try to find a used DMS 600 for close to your budget, which I have not heard, but others have reported on favorably. Good Luck.

So I think I’m going to have to up my budget to get what I want. I’ve been searching different streamer/dacs tonight and finding 3 at around 5k that all look interesting. The HiFi Rose 150 b, the Lumin T2, and the CaryDMS 650. Everyone of these checks all my Boxes and in fact are one box solutions that according to reviews  could easily surpass my analog gear for sq. The Cary is brand new but there are reviews of previous models. The T2 is well reviewed and the HiFi rose is very well thought of. Any thoughts on these three. The ease of use is important to me as I’m not very good with complicated machines.

@gphill if you have settled on that shortlist, my advice is to go and look at the app used to control them. With streaming, the app is your hands-on experience with the unit; imagine if your turntable was horribly fiddly to use and didn’t react to what you wanted it to do while being unintuitive. These challenges with the control software will make your user experience unenjoyable and could stop you using the unit. Sound quality is of course the primary target but the software is an incredibly close second. As you’re getting into this, I would avoid roon as it adds another complication, which means the software is even more important. I can’t speak on the Cary, but I’ve seen and read up on the Lumin and Rose software, the Rose is known to have an exceptional control app while the Lumin would come in second from that list. As I say, go and look into the app and buy the unit that you will enjoy using more, that is what will make you fall in love with streaming.

For what it’s worth I’d suggest the Rose would be your best fit, the software, extra functionality and the screen showing album art could all be a game changer for you.

Largely just repeating what I put in another post yesterday

If you are looking for a digital streamed sound that sounds analogue the borderpatrol DAC is outstanding sound and value. This works very well with an innuos mini mk3 in my system. All in new that would be pretty close to your budget.The linear PSU for the Innuos makes a very real difference.

Martin

A couple of things. Don't listen to people that have biases against MQA, their judgment is flawed to start with. Same as asking a pure analog guy how digital sounds, they will never tell you that digital sounds good. Good MQA IMO is better than vinyl and good MQA is better than cd SQ. Most people who hate MQA never actually listened to it or refused to buy the appropriate equipment to do it right. You also have look at the libraries of both and see who carries the music you listen to. Qobuz didn't have all the music I like whereas Tidal does.

I had the same preamp as you do, the C47 and the DAC is low fi. I never used it because I had an external dac that was far superior, which is typical when you combine a DAC or phono preamp in a preamp or integrated. The only reason I had the C47 was because I had a vinyl setup that cost 3x more than your setup and when I got my digital setup correctly, I sold all my analog gear and the C47 because now I go directly from my dac to the amp, no need for a preamp.

Never use USB into the dac. its flawed and even when buying all the gimmick pieces of equipment to try to make it better, its still bad.

You need software that can read/stream data at its best. That doesn't include amazon/iTunes, they are both low fi sounding. I also had a dedicated streaming box a few years ago that sounded better than my audirvana/pure music/Mac mini setup. But when Roon came out and the better Audirvana software, I got rid of the streaming box. I also got a much better external dac that has ethernet and I2S inputs so now my server is located in a different room than my dedicated audio room. What is an external streamer server? A computer with a proprietary Linux OS, and a locked system. Ask the vendor how you are going to backup the internal drive that stores your music.

Get a new M1 Mac mini with an internal SSD for the OS and the music app with 2 external disks for your ripped music and backup, then use Roon or Audirvana and you have your server, 1 that is much faster than any of the other dedicated streamers out there.

If you go cheap on the dac, then your digital sq is compromised. For $2500, use your existing pc/Mac at home with at least 16G of ram and SSD for the OS, get Roon or Audirvana, then spend $2500 for a used ps audio ds jr dac that has ethernet built in and you will have better sound than your analog setup. With this setup, then you can determine for yourself which is better for you: Qobuz or Tidal and MQA support is built into the DS jr. If you want better sound quality, then jump up to the DS sr.