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Considering A New Streaming DAC (Pick 1 of 4)

Hi Folks, The four under consideration are Weiss 501/502, Mola Mola Tambaqui, Aurender A20, and Bricasti M1. Anyone of these will feed a signal into a Backert Labs Rhumba Extreme preamp before going to a Pass XA 30.8 and out to a pair of Audio Note AN/K's ("mildly effecient" at 90 db). The K's are in a fairly large room (26x12). I currently have a Lampizator Amber 4 (bal w/vc) and do like how it sounds in this system, but wish to at least explore a one box option. Although I do stream (N100H) most of my "front end" time is spent either with a Macinstosh MR88 digital tuner or an Audio Note level 2 CD transport. I'm interested about folks preferences or experiences with any of these four DAC's taking into account my front end usage and existing system. I've also looked at the possibility of keeping my streamer and upgrading the tube DAC in the form of Totaldac or BAT Rex. Any thoughts on this are welcome.

scottya118
rockrider
181 posts
 

Regarding “ergonomics and ease of interfacing with the units”, they are both equally great. Settings like filters, volume offset, source selection, etc can all be changed with their respective Apps on a phone or tablet. All from your listening position. 

Since I’m feeding the Tambaqui with an N20 there is the extra box and cabling (and about twice the cost!).

soix
8,768 posts
 

At the level of your system, keep the DAC and streamer separate.  Does that extra box really bother you that much?

scottya118 OP
136 posts
 

Hi Soix, Not at all and I just might do that. But you learn a lot by asking questions. At this point I'm leaning towards keeping the N100H and looking at an M1.

nevada_matt
155 posts
 

Anyone know of a streamer that will download and check the md5 sig before starting play?

Living in a rural area with starlink, streaming is interrupted at times, chopping up the audio.

Other than outright purchasing audio files and playing from local storage, I can only try to find a “caching” streamer.

I would be much happier with a bit of “gap” between songs rather than gaps during one.

rockrider
181 posts
 

I hope you haven’t eliminated the Tambaqui and A20 because of my comments.  The adjectives used were only for the specific comparison between the two, not the whole of DACs in existence. They are both fantastic components. I’ve had a bunch of DACs come and go, some VERY well regarded, but these are still here.  For good reason.

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