Advice for Streaming Newbies - Best Bang for Our Bucks


Hi All,

I'm currently building up my 'streaming only' system having read more reviews and forums in the last three weeks than in the preceding three months!

I'm a firm believer that I don't need to spend thousands upon thousands to get the best out of Tidal but conversely, there are good investments to be made to get the best sound.

I'd like to call on your collective wisdom for either general recommendations or specific product recommendations that give good "bang for the buck".

To start the ball rolling, my specific system looks like this:

Tidal Premium

5G Mobile Router with stock PSU (on separate extension lead)

Audioquest Pearl CAT6 Ethernet Cable to English Electric 8 Switch with stock PSU (on shared core extension lead with 2 x ifi AC iPurifiers)

Chord C Ethernet Cable to ifi Zen Stream with stock PSU (12v iPower 2) (on shared core extension)

Wireworld Chroma USB3.0 to ifi Zen DAC v2 with ifi iPower X  (on shared core extension)

ifi 4.4mm Connector to ifi Zen Can with stock PSU (on shared core extension)

Topping PA5 with stock PSU (on separate extension lead)

Audioquest Rocket 11 Speaker Cable to Wharfedale Diamond 12.3 Speakers

I have an ifi iPower Elite on Order and two more iPower X's

Possible upgrades I am considering:

Improved PSU for the Router

Improved Power Cable to the iPower Elite

More use of iPower Elite's

eno Ethernet Filter

Gigafoil v4

Improved Ethernet Cables

Improved USB Cable

Additional AC iPurifiers for other extensions

Starting from a basic system what areas of investment have yielded the best results? An improved PSU on the DAC or the Swtich? An ethernet filter? A better ethernet cable? etc.?

jabbaman

Occam followed his own principle and switched to disposables some time ago.

However, it is all about what is necessary. If the listener hears an improvement and is happy with the cost-to-improvement ratio it is not an unnecessary multiplication.

If we followed Occam’s Razor in hi-fi the pre-amp, phono stage and mono block would not exist as integrated solutions are "good enough".

Another thought, you could use a Digital to Digital Converter like the Denafrips Iris DDC.....$535 at today's exchange rate

 

@vthokie83 - my mind is blown! Just how many USB re-clocker, de-jitter, and noise reduction widgets are there?

This wouldn't work with my current setup but it's great to know that there is something for everyone out there.

I've achieved something similar with Zen Stream to Zen DAC v2; the Stream has a reasonable femto-precision GMT clock and has "Active Noise Cancellation" on its USB out. The DAC has a low-jitter crystal clock and I've plugged an ifi iPurifier 3 into the DAC itself, effectively cleaning and clocking the signal on either end of a decent-quality USB cable from Wireworld (though I am tempted to upgrade the cable - someone please take my credit card away!). The result is pretty darned good and precludes me from needing any more USB magic in the chain right now.

Don't a lot of DAC's and/or streamers solve these problems without needing to purchase all this extra stuff? It's packets of data, correct? 0's and 1's.

It seems all this money spent on magic routers and cables and other doo-dads could just be spent on a better streamer and/or DAC?