Ayon Audio Streamer or Dac

[skids929]

I am trying to decide between either their streamer (s-10 ii w/AKM 4490 DAC chip) or their stand alone Stealth DAC (Sabre 9018 Chip). My questions are two fold: 

 

1) is there a considerable sonic difference going into the DAC section of either of these machines via high quality USB cable vs going in Via ethernet stream? 

 

2) Not able to listen to the units locally, but curious if you'd go the pure DAC route or the all in one box route

 

 

For some back ground this is for a system on a desktop using power studio monitors from Dynaudio. Streaming isn't a must, but both the manufacturer and the dealer are really driving home the point that the ethernet stream signal will be better than wired into USB direct. My goal is to get the most out of the sound a DAC I can always add a streamer later, but obviously thats an additional cost where the all in one box solves all of it in one shot. 

 

I appreciate the feedback on this and this brand in general. I really think they have the house sound I want, it's just a matter or which deal to take. 

[sot13]

Hi - I can only give you feedback on part of your question... I have for few months now the S-10 II signature version. At the beginning, I was not impressed by the sound... My CD (an old... very old Sony SACD-01) and certainly my turntable were much better... Since then, I made several quality changes to my streaming setup. It is ethernet (not USB) based. I have a dedicated PC running W10, JRiver and Fidelizer with my library siting on Synology NAS. Now, four months down the road I can say that streaming my local files is on par or better my CD and almost as good as vinyl. I don't know though, whether this improvement in sound was due to improvement in the "front end" of the streaming setup, or burning in of the Ayon... Most probably both, given that the manufacturer requires at least 30-50 hours burn in.

Overall very pleased with the sound!