Xanderzdad said:
A Sonos Connect with sound quality to match that of the best CA streamer.
Good call that. As a Tidal user, I find it remarkable how so many stand alone hifi streamers from Cambridge Audio, Denon / Marantz, Yamaha and others fail to incorporate this streaming service, even though Denon & Marantz's AV receivers DO stream Tidal!! But their dedicated streamers don't! Go figure?
What I'd like is one box that does this;
Tidal native streaming by ethernet or wifi (and a smattering of the other streaming services should Tidal go belly-up one day)
MQA compatability (see the other thread about Tidal hi-res streaming)
Internet Radio
A genuinely hifi DAC
At least 2 optical digital inputs (one of these for the TV, 99% of which now only output sound by by optical or HDMI) along with USB
2 analogue RCA inputs (one that can be Home Theatre Bypass compatible)
A volume pot and pre-amp
High-quality headphone output
Then add that box to a nice Nord Nc500 up power amp and you've got a pretty hi-end system in two boxes (plus speakers).
It's amazing how many products already do a random 80% of those features, but there always seems to be at least one crucial feature missing that you need to buy another box for, which undoes the minimalist approach.
Cambridge's CXN and 851N for example does many of the above features but lack Tidal, Qobuz or Deezer. What's the point in having a hifi quality streamer that doesn't stream the top 5 or 6 most popular streaming services, especially the lossless services, but can only stream lossy Spotify?
The new Arcam rPlay DAC does natively support Tidal but doesn't have ANY digital inputs so you can't plug your TV into it. What a waste of a DAC! So you have to buy ANOTHER identical looking DAC to plug your TV through the hifi. Mind bogglingly short-sighted for a 2017 product.
The Oppo HA-1 has a great DAC, headphone amp and pre-amp but doesn't stream Tidal. Their Bluray players DO stream Tidal.
The rather-over-my-budget Mytek Brooklyn DAC covers most of the features I'm looking for but still doesn't stream Tidal natively. I have to add a PC or Mac to do that, which ups the overall system cost even further.
The Peachtree Nova 150/300 has most of the above features but doesn't natively stream Tidal. You have to physically plug in your iThing, which can no longer be used from your seating position.
So there are a few manufacturers out there that if you could cobble together two or more of their own components, they'd tick all my boxes, but nobody seems to make exactly the right thing. I must just be weird.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram