Streamer ideas

[newlash09]

The WXC50 the op already has is a fine piece kit, spending more is complete and utter lunacy IMO.

Agreed.  You’ve got a streamer already.  I would buy a NAS drive with a couple of HDDs, rip your CDs and sort artwork (if the ripping software chooses the wrong artwork) using your PC and set the NAS as the destination for the rips.  If the Yamaha app is crap you can use music streaming software on the NAS.  I use a Synology NAS and the included music app is free and absolutely fine, I send it to an Airport Express which connects via optical to the DAC in my speakers and control it on my phone/iPad using the free Synology music app.  Well, actually I use Apple Music most the time and just airplay it to the Airport Express, but the NAS is just as easy to use - in your case the NAS would send the files to your WXC50.

the trouble is I had it in mind to buy the chord 2qut Dac and update my CD player Dac at the same time and I was going to keep the Yamaha wxc50 but use the chord Dac to improve the sound more and I could still add NAS 

You can still use your Yamaha with the Qutest - it just wont play DSD files over the SPDIF connections thats not the end of the world mate is it really to get you going.

You can take your time and see what transpires 

Please take your time to decide what you really need.

Since you most certainly want the dac. You can get it first.

Then try roon on trail from your laptop into the USB in of your dac, and try different roon filters and dsp and see if it's worth the cash for you.

If you are convinced you want roon, then you can spend on a innuos zen. If you don't like it, there are a lot of other streaming options too. And in fact may be you can stick with the wxc50 for now. But whatever you decide, I would always suggest going for a separate dac, instead of a streamer with a built-in dac.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

The WXC50 the op already has is a fine piece kit, spending more is complete and utter lunacy IMO.

Agreed. You’ve got a streamer already. I would buy a NAS drive with a couple of HDDs, rip your CDs and sort artwork (if the ripping software chooses the wrong artwork) using your PC and set the NAS as the destination for the rips. If the Yamaha app is crap you can use music streaming software on the NAS. I use a Synology NAS and the included music app is free and absolutely fine, I send it to an Airport Express which connects via optical to the DAC in my speakers and control it on my phone/iPad using the free Synology music app. Well, actually I use Apple Music most the time and just airplay it to the Airport Express, but the NAS is just as easy to use - in your case the NAS would send the files to your WXC50.

the trouble is I had it in mind to buy the chord 2qut Dac and update my CD player Dac at the same time and I was going to keep the Yamaha wxc50 but use the chord Dac to improve the sound more and I could still add NAS

It would not surprise me one little bit if the difference between your CDP and a DAC are very, very small. I’ve owned a few different DACs and the differences have always been tiny. In fact, if you’re quite happy playing CDs, I wouldn’t change anything, my opinion is that comments saying a streamer is going to sound better than a CDP are ********, the only reason to change if it’s just to play ripped CDs is convenience - and ripping all your CDs is hardly convenient if getting up to put a different CD in your player doesn’t bother you.

that’s the thing it doesn’t bother me to be honest changing CDs not one bit as I said to my wife tonight everything going bloody streaming And not meany people are buying physical media anymore everyone got lazy .

 

[insider9]

Via Airplay. Never had good sound from Airplay and many issues but in theory it could work.

Newlash, Devialet has Roon Ready certification on some products. Is yours also able to stream from network? If so NUC would be a better solution.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Via Airplay. Never had good sound from Airplay and many issues but in theory it could work.

Newlash, Devialet has Roon Ready certification on some products. Is yours also able to stream from network? If so NUC would be a better solution.

I’ve never had any issues with airplay though the Yamaha wxc50 only when I had it setup on WiFi I got the odd drop outs but hardwired its faultless .

 

[newlash09]

I'm sure you will find this interesting. And Sabbath you may want to know this too.

I'm running Roon server on Linux. Out of 16GB RAM I never used more than 4GB and usually 2-3GB.

Running i5-4690k which I clocked down to 800Hz per core (from 3.5GHz). Running long convolution filter on DSD64 downsampling to 96kHz Roon is running at 4x actual speed so no lag. As long as you stick to any i3 or above modern gear it should not be a problem. I believe I could run more than one zone with room correction like this at CPU less than 20% speed.

Roon is the only thing I will not upgrade. Can see upgrading just about any other component over the years.

Enlightening indeed

I didn't want to have a separate roon server and a end point also. So my search for a roon streaming server took me to the innuos. Most of the other usual streamers are only end points. And my knowledge with computers is very poor. So didn't want to do any installation myself either.

Within the innuos catalogue I was considering the zen mini mk2 as a start myself. And even the innuos director of development on the 'computer audiophile' forum had admitted that the zen mini was good enough for full roon processing in their trails. However was not sure if I should settle for the zen mini or spring for a zenith mk2.

So your findings will sure save me a wad of cash. Thanks

If I'm honest. Consider what you're going to use it for. It may well be enough however as you start adding zones it may need more power. In which case NUC is a decent solution. Or maybe you will want to upsample to DSD and that takes a lot of processing.

Bear in mind Roon is an accomplished multi-room solution. I only have one zone but thinking about adding more.

I will be running only single zone forever. Don't know how long my wife will let me keep my setup in the dining. So even considering a second setup, will need a good divorce lawyer first.

I plan to use dsd up sampling as well as room correction on a single zone. Since I have another 6 months to recuperate from the latest damages , I could consider the zenith then. At the risk of being killed here, I have to admit that I expect it to improve the sound over the zen mini

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I'm sure you will find this interesting. And Sabbath you may want to know this too.

I'm running Roon server on Linux. Out of 16GB RAM I never used more than 4GB and usually 2-3GB.

Running i5-4690k which I clocked down to 800Hz per core (from 3.5GHz). Running long convolution filter on DSD64 downsampling to 96kHz Roon is running at 4x actual speed so no lag. As long as you stick to any i3 or above modern gear it should not be a problem. I believe I could run more than one zone with room correction like this at CPU less than 20% speed.

Roon is the only thing I will not upgrade. Can see upgrading just about any other component over the years.

Enlightening indeed

I didn't want to have a separate roon server and a end point also. So my search for a roon streaming server took me to the innuos. Most of the other usual streamers are only end points. And my knowledge with computers is very poor. So didn't want to do any installation myself either.

Within the innuos catalogue I was considering the zen mini mk2 as a start myself. And even the innuos director of development on the 'computer audiophile' forum had admitted that the zen mini was good enough for full roon processing in their trails. However was not sure if I should settle for the zen mini or spring for a zenith mk2.

So your findings will sure save me a wad of cash. Thanks

If I'm honest. Consider what you're going to use it for. It may well be enough however as you start adding zones it may need more power. In which case NUC is a decent solution. Or maybe you will want to upsample to DSD and that takes a lot of processing.

Bear in mind Roon is an accomplished multi-room solution. I only have one zone but thinking about adding more.

I will be running only single zone forever. Don't know how long my wife will let me keep my setup in the dining. So even considering a second setup, will need a good divorce lawyer first.

I plan to use dsd up sampling as well as room correction on a single zone. Since I have another 6 months to recuperate from the latest damages , I could consider the zenith then. At the risk of being killed here, I have to admit that I expect it to improve the sound over the zen mini

what’s your chord Dac like Newlash is it any good ?

 

[Craig M.]

that’s the thing it doesn’t bother me to be honest changing CDs not one bit as I said to my wife tonight everything going bloody streaming And not meany people are buying physical media anymore everyone got lazy .

Stick with what you’ve got. There’s a lot of OCD type behaviour in hifi forums, if you’ve got a decent CDP that you like (and you do) you’re not really gonna improve it by adding unnecessary stuff to it. The differences between DACs are tiny and you don’t have things like jitter working away in the back of your mind making you wonder if it could somehow be better, because the transport in your CDP will be bit-perfect and jitter is a non issue when using your players analogue out.

 

[Gray]

I'll get my coat.

 

[newlash09]

Via Airplay. Never had good sound from Airplay and many issues but in theory it could work.

Newlash, Devialet has Roon Ready certification on some products. Is yours also able to stream from network? If so NUC would be a better solution.

But will have to wait till my piece arrives in June. May be the latest devialet's have better integration. But mine is the original d-premier. So will have to wait to see what the latest firm ware does there. But honestly iam not expecting much on the streaming front there. Would rather feed the innous directly into the devialet's dac. I have never tried anything Linux before. So I don't know if I can even carry out a nuc build myself, and then install roon on top of it. A headless nuc is well beyond my computer skills

 

[tino]

Yamaha NP-S2000 to match your CD player and amplifier. A bit overpriced IMO but probably very good quality and well built.

that’s been discontinued the only way I could buy one of them is secondhand and I would have to buy blind but yes the quality of the build is definitely there .

If you buy one second hand and don't like it for some reason you can sell it on and recoup your money with minimal or no loss.

 

Got a BNIB NP-S2000 if interested. Never quite completed my goal of finding a matching A-S2000 amp. Silver though, not black.

 

[Andrewjvt]

 that’s the thing it doesn’t bother me to be honest changing CDs not one bit as I said to my wife tonight everything going bloody streaming And not meany people are buying physical media anymore everyone got lazy .

Stick with what you’ve got.  There’s a lot of OCD type behaviour in hifi forums, if you’ve got a decent CDP that you like (and you do) you’re not really gonna improve it by adding unnecessary stuff to it.  The differences between DACs are tiny and you don’t have things like jitter working away in the back of your mind making you wonder if it could somehow be better, because the transport in your CDP will be bit-perfect and jitter is a non issue when using your players analogue out.

Osd is correct
Once bs has spent loads of cash on a new dac for hardly any change in sq
He'll be told he will have to spend more on isolation and power supplies also.
Poor guy being misled and he has a family to take care of.

 

[insider9]

Via Airplay. Never had good sound from Airplay and many issues but in theory it could work.

Newlash, Devialet has Roon Ready certification on some products. Is yours also able to stream from network? If so NUC would be a better solution.

But will have to wait till my piece arrives in June. May be the latest devialet's have better integration. But mine is the original d-premier. So will have to wait to see what the latest firm ware does there. But honestly iam not expecting much on the streaming front there. Would rather feed the innous directly into the devialet's dac. I have never tried anything Linux before. So I don't know if I can even carry out a nuc build myself, and then install roon on top of it. A headless nuc is well beyond my computer skills

I'm sure you'd manage it's very easy and Rock doesn't require you to know Linux at all. But that's only if you rather have a NUC.

 

[newlash09]

I'm sure you will find this interesting. And Sabbath you may want to know this too.

I'm running Roon server on Linux. Out of 16GB RAM I never used more than 4GB and usually 2-3GB.

Running i5-4690k which I clocked down to 800Hz per core (from 3.5GHz). Running long convolution filter on DSD64 downsampling to 96kHz Roon is running at 4x actual speed so no lag. As long as you stick to any i3 or above modern gear it should not be a problem. I believe I could run more than one zone with room correction like this at CPU less than 20% speed.

Roon is the only thing I will not upgrade. Can see upgrading just about any other component over the years.

Enlightening indeed

I didn't want to have a separate roon server and a end point also. So my search for a roon streaming server took me to the innuos. Most of the other usual streamers are only end points. And my knowledge with computers is very poor. So didn't want to do any installation myself either.

Within the innuos catalogue I was considering the zen mini mk2 as a start myself. And even the innuos director of development on the 'computer audiophile' forum had admitted that the zen mini was good enough for full roon processing in their trails. However was not sure if I should settle for the zen mini or spring for a zenith mk2.

So your findings will sure save me a wad of cash. Thanks

If I'm honest. Consider what you're going to use it for. It may well be enough however as you start adding zones it may need more power. In which case NUC is a decent solution. Or maybe you will want to upsample to DSD and that takes a lot of processing.

Bear in mind Roon is an accomplished multi-room solution. I only have one zone but thinking about adding more.

I will be running only single zone forever. Don't know how long my wife will let me keep my setup in the dining. So even considering a second setup, will need a good divorce lawyer first.

I plan to use dsd up sampling as well as room correction on a single zone. Since I have another 6 months to recuperate from the latest damages , I could consider the zenith then. At the risk of being killed here, I have to admit that I expect it to improve the sound over the zen mini

what’s your chord Dac like Newlash is it any good ?

As a verdict on anything. I don't seem to have the hearing acumen of most folks, leave alone professional reviewers

To my ears I could only find a better sense of timing between the inbuilt dac of wxc50 and the chord 2 qute. And I feel there is more texture in the bass with the chord.

As for difference in clarity, I couldn't make out any. But again, I listen to fast edm at high volumes, and the bass at these volumes usually masks the finer details. So I cannot judge things like sound staging , depth and imaging etc

Sorry I couldn't be of help here..

May be best to audition one and judge for yourself if it's worth the steep outlay.

 

[Deleted member 108165]

You seem like a troubled soul BS, never satisfied and always chasing audio nirvana... it doesn't exist mate. Give the forum a rest for a few months, all these ideas will empty your bank balance quicker than a thief can. Save yourself some cash, take the wife and kids on a good holiday, and be satisfied with the brilliant system you currently have... Stop chasing rainbows and start listening to music instead of listening to your hi-fi.

 

[insider9]

Newlash, is there a local time zone on your ship? How do you cope with going through many time zones?

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Yamaha NP-S2000 to match your CD player and amplifier. A bit overpriced IMO but probably very good quality and well built.

that’s been discontinued the only way I could buy one of them is secondhand and I would have to buy blind but yes the quality of the build is definitely there .

If you buy one second hand and don't like it for some reason you can sell it on and recoup your money with minimal or no loss.

Got a BNIB NP-S2000 if interested. Never quite completed my goal of finding a matching A-S2000 amp. Silver though, not black.

real shame it’s not black but thanks

 

[newlash09]

Newlash, is there a local time zone on your ship? How do you cope with going through many time zones?

We are used to it. And the body clock adapts very fast here. However the time change still hits me when I fly. Probably the jetlag is also in play there.

 

[insider9]

Newlash, is there a local time zone on your ship? How do you cope with going through many time zones?

We are used to it. And the body clock adapts very fast here. However the time change still hits me when I fly. Probably the jetlag is also in play there.

Thanks, been wondering for a while

 

[insider9]

Newlash, is there a local time zone on your ship? How do you cope with going through many time zones?

We are used to it. And the body clock adapts very fast here. However the time change still hits me when I fly. Probably the jetlag is also in play there.

Thanks, been wondering for a while

 

[Blacksabbath25]

You seem like a troubled soul BS, never satisfied and always chasing audio nirvana... it doesn't exist mate. Give the forum a rest for a few months, all these ideas will empty your bank balance quicker than a thief can. Save yourself some cash, take the wife and kids on a good holiday, and be satisfied with the brilliant system you currently have... Stop chasing rainbows and start listening to music instead of listening to your hi-fi.

Doug i am not troubled mate I am just asking for advice that’s all

I had it in mind to buy the chord Dac but the advice I got given was to buy a better streamer as this was holding back my setup and as I do not understand the technology so well asked for that advice which some of it was helpful and some of it was confusing .

 

[Deleted member 108165]

Doug i am not troubled mate I am just asking for advice that’s all

I had it in mind to buy the chord Dac but the advice I got given was to buy a better streamer as this was holding back my setup and as I do not understand the technology so well asked for that advice which some of it was helpful and some of it was confusing .

Well I've given mine *biggrin* The only thing holding your system back is you... listen to its beauty not its deficiencies as I doubt in the real world it has any real deficiencies.

When it all starts to get confusing it's time to stop! *smile*

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Doug i am not troubled mate I am just asking for advice that’s all

I had it in mind to buy the chord Dac but the advice I got given was to buy a better streamer as this was holding back my setup and as I do not understand the technology so well asked for that advice which some of it was helpful and some of it was confusing .

Well I've given mine *biggrin* The only thing holding your system back is you... listen to its beauty not its deficiencies as I doubt in the real world it has any real deficiencies.

When it all starts to get confusing it's time to stop! *smile*

I do listen to my hifi everyday and get a lot of enjoyment out of it *smile*

 

[Tonestar1]

Doug i am not troubled mate I am just asking for advice that’s all

I had it in mind to buy the chord Dac but the advice I got given was to buy a better streamer as this was holding back my setup and as I do not understand the technology so well asked for that advice which some of it was helpful and some of it was confusing .

Well I've given mine *biggrin* The only thing holding your system back is you... listen to its beauty not its deficiencies as I doubt in the real world it has any real deficiencies.

When it all starts to get confusing it's time to stop! *smile*

I do listen to my hifi everyday and get a lot of enjoyment out of it *smile*

I completely agree with Doug, Dave H and the guy who mentioned Raspberry Pi (apologies, can't remember the name of the poster). You have a top notch system, amongst the best on this forum. Spending crazy amounts on digital sources and/or DACs will not bring you the gains you are hoping to achieve. None of them will make a huge difference. If you really feel you need to up the game keep saving for the new speakers or invest in some room correction, either physical or digital. Don't waste money on changing the digital front end or DAC. What you have is as good as it's going to get. Some stupidly expensive options may sound different but there will not be an appreciable uplift in sound quality.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Are like vultures
They will make you think you need something you don't.

Like adding a high data package to an elderly gentleman that only uses phone to call his family.

I'd wait for a few months then see how you feel as if you want to keep using the Yamaha cd player I can't see any improvement for you.

Also over the next few months you can understand all the different solutions better an know what you really need.

 

[Dave_]

You seem like a troubled soul BS, never satisfied and always chasing audio nirvana... it doesn't exist mate. Give the forum a rest for a few months, all these ideas will empty your bank balance quicker than a thief can. Save yourself some cash, take the wife and kids on a good holiday, and be satisfied with the brilliant system you currently have... Stop chasing rainbows and start listening to music instead of listening to your hi-fi.

Doug i am not troubled mate I am just asking for advice that’s all

I had it in mind to buy the chord Dac but the advice I got given was to buy a better streamer as this was holding back my setup and as I do not understand the technology so well asked for that advice which some of it was helpful and some of it was confusing .

The trouble is you keep getting fed bad advice from the clueless...