[RandyH]

About 8 months ago I started streaming my music.  I still have a turntable, CD and SACD player but have found myself devoting more of my listening time to streaming either via TIDAL or my CD collection ripped to a Synology NAS. 
My player is a Bluesound Node 2.  I am very impressed with this player and at $500 it has to be the best bang-for-buck addition I have ever added to my system.  We are just completing an add-on casita to our house and I will move the Bluesound player to this room as part of a second system.  As a result I am now considering what to replace the Bluesound with in my main system.  As good as the Bluesound is I have to believe that it can be improved upon...at of course a higher price.  My preference is to stay with a one box player but that is not carved in stone.  Also I would like to have MQA...although that is not a deal breaker either.  Products I am considering are the Aurender A10, Lumin T1, D2...or dealer demo A1.  I am also considering the Auralic Altair.  I like the idea of having a built in hard drive (included in the A10 and an option in the Altair)...but again this is not a deal breaker either.  I know none of the Lumin products this although they do provide for the attachment of an external USB drive.

Just wondering what some of the opinions are of folks that are familiar with these products and particularly from those of you who may have had the opportunity to compare them.

My system consists of:
VPI Aries Turntable
Dynavector XX2v2 cartridge
Audio Research LS-15 Linestage
Bryston 4bSST2
Bryston BCD-3 CD player
Sony ES5400 SACD player
PS Audio Premier Powerplant
Vandersteen Quatro CT speakers

[Wind Chaser]

FWIW, I was going to buy the Bluesound Node 2, but there were a few people here who owned it and the Auralic Aries Mini at the same time that said the Mini sounded better by a wide margin. So I opted for the Mini instead and put some money into a decent USB cable and I couldn’t be happier. It sounds a lot better than my transport does going into the same DAC - a Nuprime DAC-10.

[jpm]

I get the appeal of single box solutions, however it's worth considering how quickly both DACs and streamers are evolving. By separating their functionality, you give yourself more flexibility to upgrade either as technology leaps arrive. A dedicated DAC might also provide the nice bonus of improving your existing digital sources.

I didn't really get serious about streaming until a few years ago, but it was ROON that swung the needle hard away from physical media for me. Both the Bluesound and Aries Mini support Roon, but it doesn't appear that the Bluesound offers USB output. I'll also add that the Aries Mini with a dedicated LPS is silly good for the money, both via Analog and digital outputs.  I hadn't tried the analog outputs until recently, but it warrants repeating that my interim system of Aries Mini to JBL LSR 308s sounds ridiculously good.

[zoom25]

IMO a used Bryston BDP-1 is the best value out there. I've seen some quite cheap. It's Roon Ready and you get the option for attached media as well. No need to worry about external power supply either.

[ricmon]

IMHO i would suggest getting a nice DAC you can live with for years to come and build or find a very very small form factor Windows PC....download tidal (best interface and sound for TIDAL) the put a VNC app on your tablet for remote controll.  For my Winblow PC i built a very nice device based on the LattePanda SOC board   https://www.dfrobot.com/category-175.html .

Ric

[geowak]

Here are three ideas. Find the best DAC you can find, maybe one with MQA capability. Run that external of your Node 2. That way, even if you have not improved the sound as much as you like, you still have a killer DAC to build with. If that does not sound as if it will work, go with the NAD Master series, which is the Bluesound without compromise, then add another DAC like the Ayre Codex. My third suggestion is the PS Audio Directstream.

[zappan]

As many have noticed, you lack a dedicated DAC in your system. I own the Node2, and when I was setting up the system, I had the opportunity to compare it on the system I was considering using its internal DAC, and that sounded not very convincing, compared to digital music from Oppo 105; then my dealer pulled out an external DAC (the NuPrime's DAC-9), hooked it up to Node, and the result was few light years better.

I ended up spending the money on the DAC too, although that wasn't planned for initially.

---

Now, I haven't had a chance to compare Node as a streamer only with some other streamers, and reviews I'm reading are not mentioning using external DACs, so I'm assuming they're comparing internal DAC of Node vs. others. So can't really figure out how much of a difference there can be between different devices only in the streaming component part, using an external DAC, which does make a huge difference on Node2. Something to think about...

[RandyH]

Thanks for your suggestions.  Regarding using the Bluesound with an external DAC;  This is something I have considered.  However, when I move the Bluesound to our casita it will be a standalone for that system.  For my main system I could get another Node 2 and a DAC but I thought this would be a good opportunity to go with something different.  But, as you suggest I might be as well off with another Node 2 and adding an external DAC.

[barrows]

Sonore ultraRendu to DAC.  Very soon the ultraRendu will do the first MQA "unfold" (the second is DAC only, but is not really an unfold at all, just an oversampling step with a proprietary digital filter).
uRendu will outperform almost anything else with a good power supply, and way more affordable than Aurender, etc...

[jpm]

Sonore ultraRendu to DAC.  ...  uRendu will outperform almost anything else with a good power supply, and way more affordable than Aurender, etc...

This is how a lot of us roll, myself included (when my system isn't packed away for a move).  The key decisions are:

- Choosing whether to go the DAC route or all in one?
- What kind of flexibility you want from the network audio adapter?

Some additional considerations are whether you have a preference for buying equipment new or are OK buying used. The Bluesound, Aries Mini and microRendu (not ultraRendu, yet) come up used regularly, as does the SoTM SMS-200 (microRendu competitor).

Do not forget the importance of the control software you want to use though, as only the Bluesound and Aries Mini offer control software to go with their hardware.

[RandyH]

Do not forget the importance of the control software you want to use though, as only the Bluesound and Aries Mini offer control software to go with their hardware.

Yes.  This is is very important for me.  Having used the Bluesound for a while and having briefly used the Lumin and Auralic software, the quality and ease of use of this software interface is a significant factor.  For those of you using the microrendu and SoTM products, how do you interface with your stored files and TIDAL?  I will not be using my computer to do this.  I want an app that runs on my iPad and works in a similar fashion to the app I have now. (Blue sound).