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I thought I would never ask a "what should I buy" question on SNA - but here I am, being lazy. So, the requirements: 

 

- The device shall be a network streamer or server/streamer. 

- The outputs shall be: USB, AES/EBU, SPDIF

- It shall accept an external HDD (>2TB)  with NTFS file system 

- It will have an ability to have an internal HDD/SSD or M2 drive

- It shall cost under $3K 

-  It should perform in a "bit perfect" fashion

- It should have a BlueOS or other similar user friendly OS 

- Hi-res capability/Roon ready would be a nice plus 

 

I do not need to have a DAC or integrated amp inside. A DIY/open source option will be considered, if there is an obvious gain in performance/usability. Anything to do with Apple is out of the consideration. 

 

Any suggestions? 

Edited by Decky
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7 minutes ago, Decky said:

I thought I would never ask a "what should I buy" question on SNA - but here I am, being lazy. So, the requirements: 

 

- The device shall be a network streamer or server/streamer. 

- The outputs shall be: USB, AES/EBU, SPDIF

- It shall accept an external HDD (>2TB)  with NTFS file system 

- It will have an ability to have an internal HDD/SSD or M2 drive

- It shall cost under $3K 

-  It should perform in a "bit perfect" fashion

- It should have a BlueOS or other similar user friendly OS 

 

I do not need to have a DAC or integrated amp inside. A DIY/open source option will be considered, if there is an obvious gain in performance/usability. Anything to do with Apple is out of the consideration. 

 

Any suggestions? 

 

How DIY do you want to go? Do you feel like soldering?

 

If bitperfect output is required (no linear or convolutional or otherwise domain transformations) then any decent low-power SOC PC build is going to be broadly fine and simplify power/integration requirements. You can go full 'audio board' and desolder the headers you don't need if you like.

 

Guaranteeing bitperfect output is OS and sound driver/server dependent. You'll do fine in windows and Unix flavours. Same goes for NFTS. 

 

I would stick a decent USB card on the PC to give you your 'reference' USB output. Stick the whole thing in a custom case and pull a second USB from an internal header. Pump that into an Amanero, from there to an iancanada FIFO rig and you'll end up with a nice, isolated and reclocked SPDIF out. You can pull AES from the same reclocked I2S stream, audiophonics and others have kits for that. 

 

You can go nuts with custom PSUs etc. 

 

M2 isn't a winner owing to power considerations unless you run that much independent which is a PITA. 

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I am always for deep DIY - I have enough solder in my blood for two lifetimes. 

 

Will look into that as an option - I actually started looking already into that but I was wondering what is available commercially out there. I do not see a lot of attractive options under $10K

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Been a while Decky, hope you have settled down in Canberra and keeping well.   Here are some commercial options.

  • The NAD M50.2 ticks many of the boxes, with BluOS (which I rate as one of the best apps around) but at $6+K!.  The rest of the BlueOS range (NAD, BlueNode) have a DAC, some with amps.
  • The Lumin U1 Mini is just over budget but ticks many boxes. The U1 has a much better power supply (which I believe is essential for better SQ) but at $9+K!
  • The Auralic Altair G1, G2 are both highly rated, over your budget ($4K, $7K) but has only a native iOS app.  You can use an Android app such as BubbleUPnP but it may not sound as good as a native app.
  • dCS Network Bridge is another good option, but recent price rise has bumped it up to $10K
  • Aurender N10 is highly rated, ticks many boxes but at $12K!
  • SOtM, Sonore, Innuos, Antipodes have USB output only 
  • Most of the other brands eg. Cyrus, Naim, Marantz, Yamaha, Denon, Cambridge Audio have streamer/DACs

 

To go commercial, you will need to change some of your requirements, especially budget, to get the SQ you are after. 

 

I suspect the DIY approach is the most cost effective.  You can use the SGM Extreme as the benchmark for build quality (& extreme pricing)!  ? ? 

 

Hope this helps...

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3 hours ago, Snoopy8 said:

I suspect the DIY approach is the most cost effective.  You can use the SGM Extreme as the benchmark for build quality (& extreme pricing)!  ? ? 

 

If you wnted to go nuts you could copy it. If their motherboard isn't a stock Asus workstation board it'll be very close. Preproduction Xeon's are cheap. You'll need a beefy PSU but doable...

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Well, SGM looks intersting as an overpriced CAD/FEA workstation.  Not sure if that level of insanity is required for streaming a handful of Flacs. 

 

Snoopy8, thanks for the suggestions.  That was more or less what I found so far. I will recheck usb out only options. Not after linear PSU since that bit I plan to do myself anyway.  

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If not processing at high levels (ie DSD upsampling) as others have said a low power cpu with good mobo . nice lps feeding it and arguably king of the diy heap is jcat xe usb card  separate power to the jcat usb if you want to go above and beyond in a  nice fanless case,. tweak your os and  software and you will be getting close to  the 10k plus commercial level theoretically.  To get it all the way there would need some network noise management via maybe jcat net or fibre of some kind (lots of options there). All of that at new wont be within your budget but if you have stuff lying about or can do your own lps's than could be around that cost or you can slum it with the older jcat femto which is also not too shabby. All that plus @rmpfyf's suggestions would probably compete very well with most things out there.  If that wasnt good enough or you need more processing power you get another box to do the grunt work.

 

Below might help as a concept to work from which is a two box solution but there are lots of people running a grunty server/endpoint in one unit having gone from a 2 box setup.

 

This might be all you need if serving from elsewhere https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/caps-twenty-part-one-r920/

 

and the grunty server bit 

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/caps-twenty-part-two-r925/

 

 

 

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@Decky I'd be happy to share that journey with you if you're headed down this road. 

 

If you don't want any filtering etc then a SoC motherboard will do, will not need any crazy thermal management and your efforts are primarily to put a good PSU and case on it - see  the post below on an 'audiophile' box using a bog-standard Biostar motherboard with a few headers deleted. 

 

Ideally for audio use you want to issue a few commands that put the GPU portion of things well and truly to sleep though this differs in implementation. Practically it's a small difference. I would add a USB card of choice. OS, well, you have a lot of choice. 

 

If you want to really ghetto it I'd...

 

  • PC as per above 
  • 2 sticks SS RAM
  • Nice USB card (wonder if Clones is still making the SHAAR)
  • media on separate power
  • Nice PSU

 

Then either a Mutec MC-3+ inside or outside of it, and if inside, make you own word clock reference in the same box. You can go IanCanada on this though unless you need something specific and want to DIY then... do it this way and you're within $3k and you'll have something that runs with Tasso's Accuphase thingy.

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