Hey Guys, thought I would post an update on my system. I received the Ian Canada streamer earlier and have been listening to it and burning it in. I must say I’m impressed with it. First working with the Raspberry pi has been a breeze, getting it up and going, and installing the operating system was as simple as watching a YouTube tutorial, And everything worked the first time. It’s been one of the most reliable streamers I’ve had in, it takes like 30 seconds to boot up, always shows up in roon, and I have yet to have a dropout. Assembling the steamer was also a breeze, Ian has projects that you can purchase that have everything you need bundled up and the Gabster channel on YouTube has some nice tutorials on how to set it up. Honestly no Diy experience needed. This could be a first time project for somebody.
The sound is much better then I anticipated, it’s smooth, natural, and fluid sounding with very good layering in the sound stage. The highs are detailed yet sweet and refined, and the bass is very textured and big sounding. I would say it’s better than the Sonore opticalrendu, the opticalrendu has a blacker background and more presence in the mids. But the Ian Canada has more inner detail and is a bit more fluid and relaxed sounding. Overall they are comparable, but the Ian Canadas (raspberry pi) network reliability and software wins hands down. I’ve decided the Sonore will be the one to go and I’ll keep the Ian Canada and continue to build it out to see if I can improve it further. I’ve already ordered the first upgrade, I ordered his very good performing PSU to run the steamer as I have a generic switch mode powering it now because my ifi supply was too high of voltage
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Overall I’m very pleased to see a company producing a steamer that is more in line with what streamers SHOULD cost
. Most of these companies out there are slapping a computer in a case and charging $5k+ for them. Not saying all of them are bad many of them are actually quite good (hifi Rose RS130) just that we’re paying quite a ridiculous markup a lot of the time.
I also received my final crossover parts and have been living with them for a while now. I’ll post my thoughts and information on the new x-over thread made by catluck!
If anybody wants to post about their system go ahead, we would love to see it. I made this thread to connect with other Spatial customers setups and learn about what equipment they enjoy on their speakers. I’ll jump in from time to time and update it with new and interesting components and room upgrades we find. Spatial will be acquiring the LTA Aero DAC soon, I’m excited to hear that on our speakers and how it sounds.
I’ve heard it a few different times and thought it always sounded really good.
