Best Streamer for Audiophile Setup (Tidal, Lossless Itunes)

[whyrichard]

Hello fellow Audiophiles!!

I need advice, as I want to maximize my audiophile setup.

My current setup: B&W 804's Nautilus speakers, B&W sub, Musical Fidelity A5 Amp, Musical Paradise D1 DAC, Airport express with optical out to DAC. Sources are Tidal and Itunes Lossless via my Mac.

The weakest link from what I understand turns out to be the Airport express. I have driven the DAC directly from a mac and it was much improved (twice the frequency?). However I only had a large imac available for this role, and so it is not desirable.

I was wondering what you all thought I should do to provide the highest quality source for my DAC.

1: Roon or Blue Sound or? I have no experience with these type of dedicated "Streamers". And I am skeptical that their internal DAC would sound as good at my external DAC, which has been fully upgraded from Musical Paradise, similar to this:

MP-D1 24Bit USB Asynchronous Digital-to-Analog Converter DAC (Refurbished)

2: Mac Mini: Headless, controlled using Sidecar (or older cheaper mac mini with a Sidecar like app?) from my Ipad, hooked up via USB to my DAC.

3: Super long USB Cable from my desktop (30'?)

I really welcome your suggestions fellow Audiophiles!!!!

Thank you so much,
r.

 

[whyrichard]

I tried setting up my iPad to play to the DAC directly Burt I got a Not enough power error message....

 

[cbautis2]

You would need a software optimized for streaming.

There are two paths: cheap but moderately complicated to setup or expensive but easy, fancy and less headache to setup

The cheap method is Pi2AES with Volumio. There are detailed setup online on how to perform this setup. With this, you use an external SSD with music where the Raspberry Pi will read the music files and you control the playback wirelessly with your iPad. Oh the SQ from this setup is revered to equal expensive streamers so rest assured that you're not cheaping out on the SQ doing this method

The expensive method is to purchase a lifetime Roon subscription, purchase a Roon Endpoint (I recommend the SOTM sMS-200ultra) and that Endpoint goes before your DAC

 

[whyrichard]

You would need a software optimized for streaming.

There are two paths: cheap but moderately complicated to setup or expensive but easy, fancy and less headache to setup

The cheap method is Pi2AES with Volumio. There are detailed setup online on how to perform this setup. With this, you use an external SSD with music where the Raspberry Pi will read the music files and you control the playback wirelessly with your iPad. Oh the SQ from this setup is revered to equal expensive streamers so rest assured that you're not cheaping out on the SQ doing this method

This sounds terrific, but it won’t work with tidal streaming? Only local files???

The expensive method is to purchase a lifetime Roon subscription, purchase a Roon Endpoint (I recommend the SOTM sMS-200ultra) and that Endpoint goes before your DAC

How does this compare with blue sound? Seems room is many thousand dollars...?

 

[whyrichard]

You would need a software optimized for streaming.

There are two paths: cheap but moderately complicated to setup or expensive but easy, fancy and less headache to setup

The cheap method is Pi2AES with Volumio. There are detailed setup online on how to perform this setup. With this, you use an external SSD with music where the Raspberry Pi will read the music files and you control the playback wirelessly with your iPad. Oh the SQ from this setup is revered to equal expensive streamers so rest assured that you're not cheaping out on the SQ doing this method

The expensive method is to purchase a lifetime Roon subscription, purchase a Roon Endpoint (I recommend the SOTM sMS-200ultra) and that Endpoint goes before your DAC

the roon option you suggest is intriguing. May I ask a few questions?

how does it compare to a headless Mac mini and usb connection?

what exactly does the sotm box do? Is it just a network Dea ice? If so where does the quality go towards in the coat of the device?

Thank you!

 

[whyrichard]

the roon option you suggest is intriguing. May I ask a few questions?

how does it compare to a headless Mac mini and usb connection?

what exactly does the sotm box do? Is it just a network Dea ice? If so where does the quality go towards in the coat of the device?

Thank you!

Also, if roon supports: Roon streams formats up to 384kHz/24-bit PCM and DSD256

Will a 2018 Mac mini also support that high a format? Would an old 2009 iMac support it?

thank you so much!

richard

 

[cbautis2]

How does this compare with blue sound? Seems room is many thousand dollars...?

Blue sound Node 2i is "roon ready", but not certified since they have their own streaming platform. IMO, it's a good alternative for Roon, but you're only limited to their products and Airplay 2 unlike Roon. In any case, you can still purchase this and have Roon configured it as Endpoint

how does it compare to a headless Mac mini and usb connection?

You can still use your Mac Mini as the both the Roon Core and Endpoint (i.e. same functionality as Amarra or Audirvana) if you do not want a dedicated Endpoint. The reason you would want an endpoint is because of the better audio circuitry, e.g. better clocks/oscillators for SPDIF out to your DAC. Whether the sound difference between Mac Mini (USB out) or a dedicated endpoint (USB or SPDIF out) is large or nothing depends on how revealing your system can be.

Will a 2018 Mac mini also support that high a format? Would an old 2009 iMac support it?

Yes, DSD256 playback should not be a problem. Roon should install as long as you have the latest OS X that is supported by your iMac. Check Roon's requirements though maybe it still supports 10.13 High Sierra IIRC. Just for the record, my iPod Touch 7th gen with an archaic A10 Fusion chip can play DSD 512

 

[whyrichard]

Blue sound Node 2i is "roon ready", but not certified since they have their own streaming platform. IMO, it's a good alternative for Roon, but you're only limited to their products and Airplay 2 unlike Roon. In any case, you can still purchase this and have Roon configured it as Endpoint



You can still use your Mac Mini as the both the Roon Core and Endpoint (i.e. same functionality as Amarra or Audirvana) if you do not want a dedicated Endpoint. The reason you would want an endpoint is because of the better audio circuitry, e.g. better clocks/oscillators for SPDIF out to your DAC. Whether the sound difference between Mac Mini (USB out) or a dedicated endpoint (USB or SPDIF out) is large or nothing depends on how revealing your system can be.



Yes, DSD256 playback should not be a problem. Roon should install as long as you have the latest OS X that is supported by your iMac. Check Roon's requirements though maybe it still supports 10.13 High Sierra IIRC. Just for the record, my iPod Touch 7th gen with an archaic A10 Fusion chip can play DSD 512

curious how you play from your iPod touch... eith what cable? I get a low power when using a lightning to usb cable to my dac... how does the sound compare to a Mac through usb?

my system is pretty revealing. B&w nautilus 804 speakers.

 

[cbautis2]

curious how you play from your iPod touch... eith what cable? I get a low power when using a lightning to usb cable to my dac... how does the sound compare to a Mac through usb?

my system is pretty revealing. B&w nautilus 804 speakers.

My DAC's USB module is self powered rather than getting the 5V 1A requirement from the iPod Touch, but it doesn't charge the iPod (wish it did though). I use the Lightning USB 2.0 CCK (not the 3.0 version with extra lightning port). You should use the 3.0 version with a power bank to power both the DAC USB module and your iPod Touch. A 30 feet USB cable is not recommended as the USB cable certification allows that feet as max. 6 feet IMO is what would the max recommendation be for USB audio.

 

[whyrichard]

My DAC's USB module is self powered rather than getting the 5V 1A requirement from the iPod Touch, but it doesn't charge the iPod (wish it did though). I use the Lightning USB 2.0 CCK (not the 3.0 version with extra lightning port). You should use the 3.0 version with a power bank to power both the DAC USB module and your iPod Touch. A 30 feet USB cable is not recommended as the USB cable certification allows that feet as max. 6 feet IMO is what would the max recommendation be for USB audio.

nice. I’ll be using A newish iPad with the lightning to usb3adapter. Is the sound quality on par with using a Mac and usb?

 

[cbautis2]

nice. I’ll be using A newish iPad with the lightning to usb3adapter. Is the sound quality on par with using a Mac and usb?

I believe it should be just as good if not better than a Mac since unlike Android, iOS does NOT resample the files

 

[Cedd]

I recently installed Roon onto a 2009 imac, which is below their published recommended minimum requirements but seems to work well. This imac acts as the 'core' and connects to a NAS containing a couple of thousand FLAC ripped albums and also streams Qobuz.

This streams wirelessly to all the 'endpoints' and it tells me that the signal is enhanced. I just bought a one year subscription but it seems very worthwhile so far. My favourite player / endpoint is a Cambridge Audio 851N which is amplified via a Linn Acktiv amps and speakers.

I think that Roon is really good. Not only does it work with lots of hardware but it also provides a brilliant user interface in terms of album searching, artwork, info. It looks complex when you start but, actually it is quite simple.