Digital is as confusing as ever


A few years ago my Naim CD player crapped out after over 20 years years of great service. I decided to do two things...replace it and get back into vinyl. Vinyl took me to a Rega Planar 3 and I have been gradually building back vinyl collection. I replaced the Naim with a Muse CD player, bought used on Auidogon. It was about $9,000 new, I got it for $600 on here, seemed great. I also bought at that time a Lumin D2 streamer DAC. 

My issue is I hate the Lumin app and Roon, for whatever reason, has connectivity problems constantly.  No other devices or serservices the house do, just Roon. Im not asking for advice on that, been through it with Roon and Lumin, no help. So I am looking for a new streamer and Im so confuswd by all the digital options and talk. I looked at the Bluesound Node 2i thinking I can rip and store my CDs. But how could a #1300 multipurpose machine rip and play my CDs as well as. $9000 CD player? I would lose sound quality, right? So, do I buy jualst a streamer that has a good app, better than Lumin, and stream through it or maybe run it into the Lumin for that DAC? I stream Tidal BTW. I just did an A/B test with Quobuz and as much as I think all digital sounds so much alike I really preferred Tidal, this was an easy one. I'm looking at the Audiolab 7000n for streaming but this doesn't rip CDd like the Bluesound. But it seems to have a nice aoo, DYS Playy-Fi. Anyone familiar with that? I'm all over the place and tja5 is why I say ip top digital is more confusing than ever. A final point, the Regs Llanar 3, at half the cost of the Lumin D2 and 1/9 the coat of the Muse VD player, is much more enjoyable to listen to. I've done several A/B/C tests with vinyl, VD and streaming. 

fsgattuso

Melco N100.  Buy the Melco Ripper to go with it.  Use a 3rd Party App.  You can use the ripper to spin CDs if the mood strikes.  If you want to move on to something else you can use the N100 as the server with a different player, or for other players in other areas of the home

+1 @soix 

It doesn’t get simpler than Innuos Zen or Zenith. You can rip your CD’s, use it as a Roon core or use innuos’ excellent Sense software instead of Roon. 

The connectivity with Roon is a known problem, and lies with roon, so forget that. Wouldn't give up the Lumin just yet, try Minimserver on the host PC, and for remote, JPlay works well on an ipad.