Stream X Signature

[adamrobertshaw]

For anyone who has a Stream X or X2, I can heartily recommend the Stream X Signature (which can be had for about £300 in a factory return upgrade). But I'd also recommend it as a first purchase for someone moving into streaming.

Got one new on Saturday and swapped things around between my two systems with a Stream X2 I already had.

Compared to the standard model, the step up in SQ is significant. It is pulling as much if not more detail as the CD T ... but also with a fullness and warmth to the sound. I have no real idea what causes the improvement but there is an obvious 2.5 kg of extra weight in the Signature model. So more than likely all the key components are beefed up / or just simply added to improve the data retrieval and decoding.

It's still burning in and just getting better with each passing hour.

I'm well pleased with it.*yahoo*

 

[ifor]

A while ago I was considering getting a Stream X2 or a Moon 180 Mind. Both were close to £1K. After thinking about it for a while and finding no explanations as to what makes these bits of kit worth the money, I bought a Raspberry Pi and a HiFiBerry Digi for around £50. This coupled with Volumio or a Rune Audio software is a match for my Cyrus CD 8 SE.

 

[CnoEvil]

A while ago I was considering getting a Stream X2 or a Moon 180 Mind. Both were close to £1K. After thinking about it for a while and finding no explanations as to what makes these bits of kit worth the money, I bought a Raspberry Pi and a HiFiBerry Digi for around £50. This coupled with Volumio or a Rune Audio software is a match for my Cyrus CD 8 SE.

I suppose, like all bits of hifi, ultimately it's not about the explanations....but what value you put on the way it sounds.

 

[Overdose]

A while ago I was considering getting a Stream X2 or a Moon 180 Mind. Both were close to £1K. After thinking about it for a while and finding no explanations as to what makes these bits of kit worth the money, I bought a Raspberry Pi and a HiFiBerry Digi for around £50. This coupled with Volumio or a Rune Audio software is a match for my Cyrus CD 8 SE.

I suppose, like all bits of hifi, ultimately it's not about the explanations....but what value you put on the way it sounds.

Well, if a £50 bit of kit is a match for one costing hundreds, I know where my money would be going.

 

[CnoEvil]

A while ago I was considering getting a Stream X2 or a Moon 180 Mind. Both were close to £1K. After thinking about it for a while and finding no explanations as to what makes these bits of kit worth the money, I bought a Raspberry Pi and a HiFiBerry Digi for around £50. This coupled with Volumio or a Rune Audio software is a match for my Cyrus CD 8 SE.

I suppose, like all bits of hifi, ultimately it's not about the explanations....but what value you put on the way it sounds.

Well, if a £50 bit of kit is a match for one costing hundreds, I know where my money would be going.

As yet, we don't know if Ifor has actually compared the two directly...."looking for explanations" isn't so necessary if the comparison is done and a personal opinion is formed (one way or the other).

 

[adamrobertshaw]

When I was a kid .... very many moons ago, I would drink a can of coke, then put a hole in the bottom of the can opposite the ring pull hole, then put a larger hole in the middle of the can.

I'd put my Walkman on full blast and place the headphones either end of the holes in the top / bottom of the can. The sound came out of the middle of the can, amplified and quite clear.

20p outlay as I recall. Hi-fi bargain. I reckon it would give a few modern mini speakers a run for the money.

 

[ifor]

No, I haven't compared them directly. All I've done is compare the CD player as a transport only with the RPi/HFBdigi/Volumio through two different DACs. With both DACs it at least matched the CD player. That's all I'm saying.

 

[Overdose]

No, I haven't compared them directly. All I've done is compare the CD player as a transport only with the RPi/HFBdigi/Volumio through two different DACs. With both DACs it at least matched the CD player. That's all I'm saying.

That's right.

A £50 open source mini Pc matched a £1300 CD player as a transport.

The mini Pc can stream all manner of media and also playback DVD or CD via an externally mounted DVD ROM.

What's not to like? Certainly not the £1200 or so saving.

 

[Overdose]

A while ago I was considering getting a Stream X2 or a Moon 180 Mind. Both were close to £1K. After thinking about it for a while and finding no explanations as to what makes these bits of kit worth the money, I bought a Raspberry Pi and a HiFiBerry Digi for around £50. This coupled with Volumio or a Rune Audio software is a match for my Cyrus CD 8 SE.

I suppose, like all bits of hifi, ultimately it's not about the explanations....but what value you put on the way it sounds.

Well, if a £50 bit of kit is a match for one costing hundreds, I know where my money would be going.

As yet, we don't know if Ifor has actually compared the two directly...."looking for explanations" isn't so necessary if the comparison is done and a personal opinion is formed (one way or the other).

See the post above. Ifor compared the two as transports and found the two comparable. No explanations sought or needed, the results explain themselves.

Take from it what you will, it would seem that the CD8SE is perhaps a little overpriced for its capabilities, in this case at least.

 

[ifor]

But it might upset you to know that the two DACs didn't sound the same.

 

[Overdose]

But it might upset you to know that the two DACs didn't sound the same.

Not at all, I didn't buy them.

It just means that at least one was not particularly well designed.

 

[ifor]

It's at this point that we have to agree to disagree.

 

[ID.]

But it might upset you to know that the two DACs didn't sound the same.

Not at all, I didn't buy them.

It just means that at least one was not particularly well designed.

Or they had differing output volumes

 

[Overdose]

But it might upset you to know that the two DACs didn't sound the same.

Not at all, I didn't buy them.

It just means that at least one was not particularly well designed.

Or they had differing output volumes

Indeed.

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

Hi and thanks for your post.

Im thinking of upgrading to the stream x signature from my stream x2. You say you get almost as much detail from the signature version to your CD t transport but I find I get just the same detail with my x2 to my CD t. If anything more detail with streamer especially for 24 bit music. My system is similar to yours as below. Where I find I get a difference over the cd t transport with my x2 is in sound staging. It seems more refined and warmer as well. I test this by playing the same track between the streamer and cd t. I've made a massive improvement in sound by buying a £200 or so netgear wi if extender and instead of plugging my nas into my router in the computer room, and using powerline to the streamer, I've plugged the nas into my extender and am using chord c stream Ethernet cable. This basically creates a kind of local network around the extender for the nas and I benefit with really good Ethernet cable.

can you explain a bit more about sound difference between the x2 and x signature for me? Happy to share my experiences of cable choices in our similar set ups.

pmc twenty 23, Cyrus pre qx dac, PSx-r for pre qx dac, cd t, stream x2, 2 x powers for mono config, chord epic speaker cable, chord cadenza reference rca between pre and power, chord anthem digital tuned array for x2, atlas ascent digital on cdt, sonos connect, wd my book live nas.

 

[adamrobertshaw]

I'd have to play them one after another in the same system to remember what the difference was.

From memory it was the detail that struck me the most. I was instantly aware.

To be frank, the X2 converted by the Qute HD sounds no better or worse than the X Signature converted by the DAC XP Signature.

To that end I now wouldn't upgrade my X2 to the Signature model ... which somewhat contradicts my original post *fool*

One thing to be aware of is that you'd lose your Tune-In account association with the upgrade as the Signature model no longer has that functionality.

I have a NAS and a fast ethernet switch in each system. The main system is connected to the LAN by 500 mbps powerline. Ethernet cables haven't been an upgrade I've considered yet.

 

[adamrobertshaw]

Just played a CD on the CD t and the same tunes as FLAC on the X2

The CD t is quite clinical and a bit subdued in musicality ... but doesn't offend me in the slightest.

The X2 is definitely a louder and more open soundstage, a tad more musical ... but there's something a bit over excited in the presentation that loses a touch of cohesion when I listen closely enough.

I prefer the X2. But I tend to stream a lot more than spin CD, so I guess my ears are tuned to it.