Hi,
Current setup:
a pair of audio physic Step: http://www.audioreview.com/product/speakers/floorstanding-speakers/audio-physic/step.html (a bit dated but still sound great, not using the stands tho)
a Cyrus 8 vs integrated amp (also older)
and a Schiit Modi 2Uber
I kind of want to upgrade but dont really know where I should be focussing on next. I am posting here because I was looking at DACs lately. I have my setup hooked up to my PC, but would love some sort of option to turn the PC off and stream to my setup.
So as far as I see it I would have 3 options:
- Upgrade the DAC, to something with built in connectivity.
- Get a streamer.
- Build a little Rpi server thats connected to the setup aka the DIY streamer.
- combination of 1 and 2 or 1 and 3
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any input is greatly appreciated.
How much do you want to spend
Under 1000, but within that price range I honestly dont know.
The bluenode 2i is the gold standard in lower priced streamers, Arcam used to do one as well that was highly regarded, but I think it’s discontinued.
You could also go Bifrost 2 and RPi via USB, I use that setup on my secondary headphone setup.
1 Like
That particular one for historic reasons has volumio on it, which means I can use it by logging into the Volumio web interface, as a roon endpoint or as an airplay endpoint.
Most of my others have ropieeeXL on them, and are used exclusively as roon endpoints.
So you have a server running roon and then use the roon app and choose an Rpi as an “endpoint” or output right? Any other alternitaves to roon?
And any other alternatives to the Bifrost 2? Its a bit hard to find in europe.
Volumio works fine on it’s own, you just need something to expose a share with the music on it.
You then just log into it’s web UI.
I run Roon because it does a better job of integrating streaming content (Qobuz in my case) with my ripped CD collection. But it’s pure convenience for me.
Pretty much any USB DAC will work, I’m not really up on what’s available in Europe, the other ones that get thrown out in the same conversation are the Denafrips Aries which you have to ship from Singapore no matter where you are and Soekris stuff, which is from Denmark I think.
I will look into the DACs thanks a lot.
Any newer integrated amps or combos I could check out if I decide to upgrade there instead? Budget would stay the same.
Unless your spending more on a new integrated, or you have reason to believe it will have better synergy, it’s unlikely to be a lot better.
The quality of amps doesn’t rocket forwards, amps today aren’t radically better than good amps were 10 or 20 years ago.
So Ill focus on changing my DAC then. Thanks for the answer.