New Streamer, DAC or Let it Be


Hello.  I am at a crossroads and interested in soliciting suggestions on a streamer and/or DAC upgrade using your collective experience.  My focus is actually home theatre, with perhaps 20% of the time devoted to music.  The space is my wife's office by day, my home theatre/ listening room by night, and furniture placement, windows, doors, etc. cannot be moved; it is what it is. 

Equipment is a Marantz AV8805A processor, Parasound A51 amp and new Focal Kanta 2 speakers.  My streamer is a Bluesound Node with upgraded internal power supply and external LPS, and Gustard U18 DDC feeding a Gustard X26 PRO DAC with SR purple fuse.  The Node upgrades made a very positive difference, and addition of the Gustard U18 was a noticeable and very welcome upgrade as well.  My frame of reference/ comparison are CDs from a modest collection played on an Oppo BD103, fed to the Marantz via HDMI (I tried Toslink and Coax but HDMI to the Marantz sounded best).  I stream a variety of music using Qobuz and the Bluesound app on my phone.  The app is OK but despite a trumpeted recent upgrade, Bluesound has not yet resolved something as simple as the ability to organize Favorites by Artist or Album; they appear in the reverse order added, which is nuts.  The various digital upgrades have made streaming sound just about as good as the CD.  Here’s the dilemma.

I live vicariously through your experience with the enormous breadth of quality digital equipment out there.  I am not necessarily looking to throw money at something I do infrequently, yet am driven by the unknown: will an upgrade provide added pleasure and justify enhancements equal to the expense for the limited time I listen to music?  Obviously, a therapist could help, but I trust many of you have been down this road and can offer insight.  My questions are, would a streamer upgrade alone take me to the next level?  Is a DAC upgrade instead the better path?  Or, am I chasing unicorns, and is my humble setup good enough, to simply let it be?  I learned never to say never, but the likelihood of an investment now and then further upgrades down the road is unlikely, as the wife has zero patience and appreciation for all this.  As to existing equipment, the Marantz and Parasound aren’t going anywhere, and I am very happy with the Kantas.  Any purchase will likely be via the used market, to mitigate costs.  My budget is in the $3K range (preferably less, usually more), which is what I was looking at for a used/ open box Aurender N150.  I am by no means limiting myself to just that brand or model streamer, and have not scratched the surface on a DAC, should that happen.

Thanks for your time and any experience/ suggestions you might share.

traubr

The Eversolo A8 is a server, streamer ,and true R2R preamp 

I for under $2k delivered with hand picked Quality parts and top AKM 4499EX dac

latest Xmos ,Dual Femto clocks Independent Linear power supply .

perrotta consultants give good pricing as well as customer service upgrade the digital and power cords, instant upgrades look at the parts quality ,it does count

250 hours on break8n.just check out the reviews for all you get for your $$ 

and nice app I have no problem following and SS drive installs in 2 minutes.

6 inch touch screen and6 filters,and DSP if you are daring ,it’s at least worth investigating. My wife loves it ,after I set it up.

 

As music is lesser in my world, I'm not sure whether replacing the Marantz or running another stereo preamp side by side in my system makes sense.

Yeah, I totally get that and was just throwing it out there.  Here’s what I’d try if I was you because if it doesn’t make a big improvement you can just sell it for little/no loss.  Also, you can load any CDs you have into it and never spin a silver disc ever again.

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisb88ej-innuos-zen-mk3-music-servers-docks

we are dealers with 40 years experience

 

there is a much better way

trade in sell the parasound and get a high end integrated amplifier with or without dac

 

reason is simple the marantz pre/pro will have a subpar dacs and any analog signal must be digitized to run room correction.

 

other factors excessive noise from having video circuitry, marantz is just rebadged Denon a mass market brand built by a large corporation so yourcore parts quality will be good but not great.

 

With a high end integrated you will have a pure analog path and you c an run your Marantz processors front analog outputs as an input on the integrated

we have had the marantz processors n our theater good but not great the anthems were Better and the audio control was the best.

long story short the combination of an integrated amplifier combined with an avr or processor is the best way to create real high performance Music and still doing theater

Dave and Troy

audio Intellect NJ

custom installers and two channel dealers

 

 

@traubr 

Well I guess I didn’t read your original post throughly. 😁

I mean you have new Focal Kanta 2 speakers. Could it be they need to still break in?  Those seem like very nice speakers!
 

I just bought some Polk R200AE Anniversary Edition of the Reserve 200. So far I am impressed. But you have quite a bit more invested in your system. You should be able to enjoy it but this hobby is a never ending quest for sure.

Best of luck too you. 

 

Your Gustard Dac is pretty good. Yes you could get a "wow" factor increase, but you would need to spend a lot - a Tambaqui, a Playback deisgn or a Meitner. Is it wort it if you are primarily listening to Home Theatre? Not in my opinion.