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Curious to know your streaming and dac set up and the best recommended streamer under $15k

Curious to know your streaming and dac set up as well your best recommended streamer. I have recently upgraded my dac and have used 2 different set ups in an attempt to find the my best combination.  Former set up was Roon Nucleus+ connected to a Lumin T2. New set up is a new Nagra Tube Dac and a separate Power Supply and I had that directly connected to my Roon via Shunyata Sigma USB cable and using a Shunyata Ethernet connection to my network. Didn’t feel like that was my best possible sound so introduced the Lumin T2 back into the fold as my streamer and then connected the Nagra to the Lumin T2. This was a much improved sound. At this early testing point I’m curious to see if anyone uses and/or recommends a streamer that has significantly improved their sound under $15k. I would like to stay with the Roon platform. 
 

Current set up is Audio Research Ref160S amp, Audio Research Ref6SE pre-amp with Wilson Alexia speakers.  All cabling between these components is Transparent Reference. 
 

Unfortunately, I have not had time to photograph and upload my new Nagra dac. 
 

I really appreciate anyone who takes time to assist with some thoughtful ideas, experiences, or recommendations. 

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thyname's avatar
thyname
3,107 posts
 

demoed the MSB Reference with the Innuous for about 3 months while I was deciding which way to go.

Which Innuos MK3? There are several tiers, all have MK3 at the end. It’s the generation number. I.e. Third Generation

ghdprentice
6,465 posts
 

Aurender for sure. I have an Aurender W20SE -> Audio Research Reference CD9 DAC -> Audio Research Reference 6SE preamp —> Audio Research 160m mono blocks.

 

i can’t recommend this enough. Definitely N20 would be my choice if I did not have their flagship. The ARC DAC (go for the REF 9) is an unbelievable, detailed, musical and natural sounding. I had a $22K Berkeley Alpha Reference in my system for a couple weeks… I was prepared to cough up the extra $5K, but the ARC was ever so slightly more natural a musical. 
 

Anyway, my Aurender has basically the same sound as my great analog rig. Send me a PM if you want talk details. My systems are shown under my UserID.

dgibans
15 posts
 

You could try and find a used dcs bartok in the price range you reference and it would let you keep roon.. I had an Aurender a10 ...for me roon is a much better platform than the Aurender. software...

designsfx
787 posts
 

@woots 

In reading this I’m still not sure of what you feel you’re missing but definitely let me know when you make your decision. I’m not big in the streaming thing- have been trying it more recently though with a new Lumin U2 in front of an Aqua La Scala Dac (I like the fact that I’m not spending money on another Dac implementation).
Still taking notes on how I feel about it- was considering picking up a LinQ this week but don’t want to get ahead of myself. I’m using similar ARC gear- GS150 with REF6 and Dynaudio Sapphire floor standers.

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mayoradamwest
429 posts
 

Easy. Bartok. Nothing else will be close. 

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