For those that have separate Streamers & DACS


What are some of your favorite streamers/servers strictly from a sound quality perspective?  Please assume a stand-alone DAC.  I've read such a variety of opinions on streamers and was interested in opinions from those that have tried different streamers on with their DACs.  

badgerdms

The Bricasti M5 would be a first rate option.  The M5 is at its best when connecting to a DAC via AES. 

+1 for the Bricasti M5 with AES.   I've tried my M5 with USB, SPDIF, and AES and prefer the AES.   I've decided M5 with AES to my Meitner MA3 bests the integrated Ethernet streamer in the DAC.   I also purchased an opticalRendu to compare its USB (used an EtherREGEN for fiber conversion) with the M5 and thought its USB matched it in sound quality.   The M5 can be had used now and then for $1600ish which makes it very competitive in my opinion for a high quality Roon endpoint with USB, SPDIF, and AES options...

@badgerdms I'm not familiar with Briscati dacs, but verdantaudio has good advice. Let us know if both Briscati and Innuos showing up on network at router. If you've never accessed router, go to 192.168.1.1, your router should show up and show devices connected to it, sorry if this seems dumb, I don't know how familiar you are with networks. I can't think of a reason it wouldn't show up assuming you only have Innuos and Briscati in streaming chain post router.

Lindemann Limetree Bridge... going into RME ADE2. Both German. Both no-nonsense and great build quality. 


Tried Lumin etc, sent back. No major improvement in quality to my ears (speakers are Dynaudio Focus XD... pretty decent quality powered speakers). Hated Bluesound. Not impressed with IFI or Bluesound for wifi capabilities. 

 

Did you get a connection finally. Other macs shouldn’t cause an issue.  Did you restart the Innuos?  There is something wonky preventing the two from talking.  Does your Innuos have a direct Ethernet connection between device and DAC?  I think it does?  Or are you connecting the M3 to the router?  

I run a Small Green Computer i5 music server connected to a Bricasti M3 with a network card.  The i5 has a number of SSD options for your music collection and comes with Roon core installed.i I chose this combination (separate sever, combined network card/DAC) so I could locate music server away from my audio system and near my cable modem and router.  Everything sounds great (to me) and has worked flawlessly for about a year.  The Bricasti network card is really great and very reliable.