Need recommendations for a streamer

I use a Lindemann Limetree Bridge.  It is excellent. Solid as a rock, very good sound quality. Outputs are Coax/ Toslink only. It drives a Denafrips Ares 2 then Tube Hybrid Vincent pre/ power amps. 

has anyone compared the Lumi mini to the Node or IFI Zen Stream?

You lost me here: have balanced outputs to go to my DAC.

What do you mean by ’upgrade to higher quality’? Quality of what? As long as the signal is in the digital domain there is no upgrade in the sound. You plan to use a separate DAC, so all you need from the streamer is to have a good wifi connection and a nice user interface. The Bluesound is very good at that. Any Apple or Android tablet, or a silent laptop or fanless PC will do fine too.

Full disclosure - I’m co-owner and developer of the Network Acoustics Ethernet Filters.

I wanted to add to this thread the result of my experience over many years of trying to achieve the best sound from streaming based systems.

I’ve listened to the following Ethernet delivery methods, which have been mentioned in this thread, all using the same Auralic Aries Femto streamer.

1. Direct wired physical connection via RJ45 from upstream network switch

2. Inbuilt Wireless connection.

3. Ethernet over the mains power-line extenders to the Auralic RJ45 port.

4. Ethernet from a WiFi extender to the Auralic RJ45 port.

5. Media converters, RJ45 to Optical and then Optical back to RJ45 and into the Aries RJ45 port.

To my ears, the order of sound quality was 1., 2., then 3. and 4. were pretty much the same, and the 5. Option 1. is still the way to go if at all possible.

The thing that changes everything though, when using all these options other than built in wireless, is to try to remove the ‘noise’ that Ethernet is infected with.

Option 1. has less noise, whereas the extra devices used in options 3., 4. and 5. Introduce additional noise.

you can reduce noise in all options (except 2.) by having an Ethernet switch (with decent PSU) between the ‘extending device RJ45 output’ and your streamer. The noise can be further reduced by using passive Ethernet filters too.

I’ve found with the correct noise reduction measures in place, options 3. and 4. Can sound very very close to 1. and better than 2.

I’m afraid that I’ve never managed to get option 5. to sound good, but still working on that.

I hope that helps.

@ Malibu457

I had a Node 2i and upgraded to a Lumin U1 Mini and thought it worthwhile. There was an improvement for sure, especially in imaging and sense of air. More subtle than a  DAC upgrade though. The OP already has an excellent DAC, A streamer upgrade will allow him to utilize it’s full potential.

One consideration is how the streamer will access ripped or purchased music files so worth looking into the particulars of that with respect to any given streamer.

The OP wants wireless. The Lumin must have wired ethernet. I did not have easy access to wired ethernet where I have my Lumin but used an TP Powerline extender. This solution works flawlessly and is what a prominent retailer recommends.