Streamers ranked by sound quality

[jaaptina]

I have had several steamers in my system. I've experienced major improvements along the way.

 

Ranked by sound quality:

Yamaha wxc-50

Pioneer N-30 

Logitec Squeezebox

- big gap

Auralic Aries Mini with sbooster 

- big gap

Sonore microRendu with LPS-1

Sotm sms-200 with sbooster 

Auralic Aries femto with sbooster 

Sonore ultraRendu with LPS-1 

 

I'm interested how you rate other streamers from experience. Others like Cambridge CXN and 851N or steamers up to 2500 euro/dollar like Teac, Sotm, Lumin, Innuos Zen etc. 

 

Personaly I'm not interested in other functionality like dac and pre amp. I like to focus this list on the streamer sound quality (with the internal dac bypassed if existant).  

 

[Doak]

“Auralic Aries femto with sbooster 

 Sonore ultraRendu with LPS-1”

 

Will the latter fully replace the former?

[skatbelt]

My personal experience (ranked):

 

1. dCS Network Bridge

2. Sonore ultraRendu / LPS1.2 fed by Uptone JS-2

3. Sonore microRendu / LPS1 fed by Uptone JS-2

- big gap

4. Mac Mini (Uptone DC-modded) fed by Uptone JS-2

 

Note: connection between the streamer and DAC: AES/EBU (1) and USB (2, 3 and 4).

[jaaptina]

1 hour ago, Doak said:

“Auralic Aries femto with sbooster 

 Sonore ultraRendu with LPS-1”

 

Will the latter fully replace the former?

Aries femto adds coax and AES/EBU. I have not tried AES/EBU. Could make a difference. 

[vortecjr]

1 hour ago, jaaptina said:

I have had several steamers in my system. I've experienced major improvements along the way.

 

Ranked by sound quality:

Yamaha wxc-50

Pioneer N-30 

Logitec Squeezebox

- big gap

Auralic Aries Mini with sbooster 

- big gap

Sonore microRendu with LPS-1

Sotm sms-200 with sbooster 

Auralic Aries femto with sbooster 

Sonore ultraRendu with LPS-1 

 

I'm interested how you rate other streamers from experience. Others like Cambridge CXN and 851N or steamers up to 2500 euro/dollar like Teac, Sotm, Lumin, Innuos Zen etc. 

 

Personaly I'm not interested in other functionality like dac and pre amp. I like to focus this list on the streamer sound quality (with the internal dac bypassed if existant).  

 

I wouldn’t rule out a Rendu / SBooster combination. I recommend it over the original LPS-1 power supply. 

[Axiom05]

53 minutes ago, vortecjr said:

I wouldn’t rule out a Rendu / SBooster combination. I recommend it over the original LPS-1 power supply. 

The ultraRendu with a SBooster works extremely well, however the 9v unit makes the uR too hot (IMHO), haven't tried the 6v SBooster. I have had positive results using Channel Islands VDC-7 mk2 7v supply which I replaced the 9v SBooster with, sounds great and the uR runs cooler.

[OldBigEars]

41 minutes ago, Axiom05 said:

The ultraRendu with a SBooster works extremely well, however the 9v unit makes the uR too hot (IMHO), haven't tried the 6v SBooster. I have had positive results using Channel Islands VDC-7 mk2 7v supply which I replaced the 9v SBooster with, sounds great and the uR runs cooler.

 

+1 for the CI Audio 7v PS with my mR 1.4.

[haxter1]

What about the Bricasti M5?

[Doak]

11 hours ago, jaaptina said:

Aries femto adds coax and AES/EBU. I have not tried AES/EBU. Could make a difference. 

Would I not also need some sort of computer to use the Rendu?

 

[jaaptina]

8 hours ago, Doak said:

Would I not also need some sort of computer to use the Rendu?

 

Like with Aries only a network is needed. In my case a NAS with Minimserver and Bubbleupnp on Android as control point. The same set up I used with Aries. Aries does work with Bubbleupnp on Android but not as well as the Redu's. 

[Doak]

8 hours ago, jaaptina said:

Like with Aries only a network is needed. In my case a NAS with Minimserver and Bubbleupnp on Android as control point. The same set up I used with Aries. Aries does work with Bubbleupnp on Android but not as well as the Redu's. 

I have found the Auralic Aries to sound best with directly connected storage, in my case an externally powered USB HD. Auralic's continued improvement of their Lightning Server has made it my choice for SQ and otherwise for the Aries. 

 

What I am seeing is that comparing music servers must include the SW used and storage method/media, if not there is not an apples/apples situation - not a simple task.

[DavidL]

On 3/17/2019 at 11:33 AM, skatbelt said:

My personal experience (ranked):

 

1. dCS Network Bridge

2. Sonore ultraRendu / LPS1.2 fed by Uptone JS-2

3. Sonore microRendu / LPS1 fed by Uptone JS-2

- big gap

4. Mac Mini (Uptone DC-modded) fed by Uptone JS-2

 

Note: connection between the streamer and DAC: AES/EBU (1) and USB (2, 3 and 4).

 

All previous posts list streamers worst -> best. Am I correct in thinking you have reversed the order to best -> worse? If I'm not correct you certainly have an amazing Mac Mini!!

[skatbelt]

1 hour ago, DavidL said:

 

All previous posts list streamers worst -> best. Am I correct in thinking you have reversed the order to best -> worse? If I'm not correct you certainly have an amazing Mac Mini!!

 

I thought it would be obvious but you are correct, my Mac Mini is not that amazing.. 😉

[nbpf]

On 3/17/2019 at 12:01 PM, jaaptina said:

I have had several steamers in my system. I've experienced major improvements along the way.

 

Ranked by sound quality:

Yamaha wxc-50

Pioneer N-30 

Logitec Squeezebox

- big gap

Auralic Aries Mini with sbooster 

- big gap

Sonore microRendu with LPS-1

Sotm sms-200 with sbooster 

Auralic Aries femto with sbooster 

Sonore ultraRendu with LPS-1 

 

I'm interested how you rate other streamers from experience. Others like Cambridge CXN and 851N or steamers up to 2500 euro/dollar like Teac, Sotm, Lumin, Innuos Zen etc. 

 

Personaly I'm not interested in other functionality like dac and pre amp. I like to focus this list on the streamer sound quality (with the internal dac bypassed if existant).  

 

I understand that you are interested in transports with USB outputs, right? There are not so many transports with S/PDIF outputs and ranking these should not be too difficult, in principle. Still, I have yet to see detailed comparison between ND555, NDX2, ND5XS2, dCS Network Bridge, Aries G2, DigiOne Signature and ... what am I missing? I have a DigiOne Signature but I never had the opportunity to compare it to more expensive transports with S/PDIF outputs.

[Albrecht]

2 hours ago, skatbelt said:

 

I thought it would be obvious but you are correct, my Mac Mini is not that amazing.. 😉

Hi.....

Not to change the subject, - but I bet that DCS NB with the Dave sounds incredible!! I would love to hear that....

 

Actually, - I really want to hear a DAVE..... & while I'm dreaming, - compare it to my APL...

 

[One and a half]

On 3/18/2019 at 12:50 AM, haxter1 said:

What about the Bricasti M5?

The Lumin U1 outranks the Bricasti M5. The differences are mainly in the noise floor, using AES3. 

[DavidL]

13 hours ago, skatbelt said:

 

I thought it would be obvious but you are correct, my Mac Mini is not that amazing.. 😉

 

Yes I thought it was 'obvious' but there are so many Mac Mini upgrades out there one never knows ..................

[Rexp]

Does anyone here think their Tidal replay is close to stored files? Thanks! 

[nbpf]

1 hour ago, Rexp said:

Does anyone here think their Tidal replay is close to stored files? Thanks! 

I have cancelled my Tidal subscription long ago but I had a Qobuz Sublime subscription until November 2018. And yes, Qobuz replay was as good as replay from local and LAN 16bits/44.1kHz files. Now I am using Idagio and the replay quality is much lower as I have to cast Idagio contents via Airplay or Chromecast.

 

I have found by the way all these streaming services unacceptably dumb: none of them offers a means of organizing favorite albums by tags or folders. As a consequence, a  collection of more than a few dozens favorites becomes unmanageable.

 

I am going to cancel my Idagio subscription by the end of the month and will come back to Idagio or Qobuz once they will finally provide effective ways of managing and browsing a collection of selected favorites. The services as they are now are for me unusable.

[wklie]

1 hour ago, nbpf said:

I have found by the way all these streaming services unacceptably dumb: none of them offers a means of organizing favorite albums by tags or folders.

 

Check out Roon (support Tidal and Qobuz) and see if it fills this need.

[One and a half]

6 hours ago, Rexp said:

Does anyone here think their Tidal replay is close to stored files? Thanks! 

Based on their web interface, no. 

[Veovis]

I have used different Squeezeboxes, the latest being an EDO-modded Touch through USB, plus various computers through USB with and without various s/pdif interfaces. So far nothing have been able to reach the sq of the Moon MiND 180 through AES/EBU and with the original 12v SBooster. Curious about the ultraRendu though, but can't really find any fault with the MiND. Good control app too.

[firedog]

On 3/19/2019 at 1:46 AM, One and a half said:

The Lumin U1 outranks the Bricasti M5. The differences are mainly in the noise floor, using AES3. 

I would hope so at almost 2.5 times the price.

[jaaptina]

I would like to hear comparisons with Lumin U1 mini and also Teac NT-505. 

 

Thanks! 

[nbpf]

10 hours ago, wklie said:

 

Check out Roon (support Tidal and Qobuz) and see if it fills this need.

Unfortunately it doesn't. Roon can seamlessly  merge Tidal and Qobuz favorites into LAN collections but that's not what I want. I want a means of organizing my favorites in the Qobuz (Tidal, Idagio, etc.) app, ideally with user definable tags. Otherwise I would always be presented with different views of my collection depending on whether I am on the Qobuz (Tidal, Idagio, etc.) app or webpage or in a Roon control point. It is really not difficult to support user-specific tags, every halfway decent system for organizing photographs, mails, bookmarks, etc. provides such support. It's just internet streaming services of music and videos that only offer crap interfaces for relatively high prices.