Best Streamer without a music server (no Roon etc)

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, m5sime said:

Hi all,

 

I have tinkered and played over the years and admit to have not even switched on my system for 6 months. I have an old Sonos system for the office and have a full Roon Core setup to MicroRendu streamer (into Mutec re clock and Mytek DAC).. All good.. But honestly, I have no local NAS music, have no interest to store any locally. I subscribe to Tidal and Spotify and Amazon Music.. I like to be able to switch on and surf for something to listen to (or have playlist suggestions). 

 

The Roon based setup always seems to take 20 mins of arsing around with passwords and updates when it has not been on for a while.. I would like a recommendation of a streamer that has it's own App and eco-system.. Sonos is one.. (not Hifi enough).. I did consider going Auralic before lock-down..  I have only Apple devices.. I would love to hear your advice..

 

Best

Simon

Hi Simon, you were on the right track with Auralic. Also look at Lumin and Aurender. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just now, Daren F said:

A Bluesound Node 2i connected to your Mytek DAC via coax or toslink would be worth looking at. The onboard DAC isn't great so using it as a transport to the Mytek will give you excellent results. It supports Amazon Music HD, Tidal, Qobuz and Spotify (as well as others) with the BluOS app. It also supports Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect and Qobuz Connect which means that you can use the native mobile app on your ipad and play to the Node.

Great suggestion. I have a Node 2i sitting next to me right now. Extremely versatile. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Did you look at Aurender?

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 hours ago, m5sime said:

Not yet in detail. Quick scan and the hardware seems pricey (More than an Auralic Aries).  Is this the case?

Not sure how much all the models cost, but Aurender supports what you want supported. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Spotify has very strict rules about attempting to cast to anything from within an app that isn’t Spotify. For the most part, the company won’t allow it unless you can deliver an awesome experience and millions of new customers. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

21 minutes ago, m5sime said:

Hi - I’m really keen on learning your experience as my ease of use benchmark is Sonos.. I used Roon to a rendu but gave up as I’m an infrequent music listener and everytime I wanted to play it - it was all sleeping and logged out etc. Sonos just always works. I only stream from the cloud services and while I have a nas and some ripped CDs I never use it. Hence looking for that ultra easy to use always ready solution but ideally also is a bit better than Sonos ZP90 spdif into my mutec and then mytek DAC 

I'm a big fan of Sonos, but be careful with the new Sonos Port. I have one and it can't output bit perfect audio via the digital outputs. There is some digital signal processing going on within the unit. I was working on an article about this, but got sidetracked :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

Yes. Here's a screenshot from a minute ago when trying to add Spotify as a music server on BluOS.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, BrownMagic said:

Qobuz told me that they do not have anything called Qobuz Connect.

The Qobuz Connect logo certainly makes it appear like there's something called Qobuz Connect. 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

4 minutes ago, Mark Dirac said:

No shorter? Why is that please?

This has been recommended to me by some of the best engineers in HiFi as well.