Looking for new Preamp / DAC for active speakers

[hightower]

I use a Restek Sector as a preamplifier (German company). My sources are CDs (Restek Radiant III) and a Bluesound Node 2i, which I primarily supply with music from a NAS (FLAC/HiRes, Spotify on the side).
I recently bought a pair of Neumann KH 150 (was Dynaudio 1.3/Rotel RB 850)

Since my preamplifier is now a few decades old, I'm thinking of updating it as well. Here are the options that come to mind:

Option 1
Update the existing Sector
- Cost: 800 EUR
- Advantage: Matches the CD player, which is already updated.

Option 2
New preamplifier (used Rotel for example)

Thought about the RME ADI 2 DAC FS, but this one can handle only one digital input. The idea of using the PC as a source and then working with a USB audio interface is something I can't get my head around (yet).


Regards

Michael

 

[Purité Audio]

It has USB, optical and coaxial inputs.
Keith

 

[AudioStudies]

Well I happen to own both a Rotel preamp and the RME; although I don't use them in the same system. You could use the RME in conjunction with a Topping D10s (inexpensive). The Topping accepts a PC input and then give you digital outputs (both coax and optical) that you could feed to the RME. The modern higher-end Rotel preamps offer digital inputs but only one PC input, but you could also use a D10s with a Rotel.

 

[hightower]

It has USB, optical and coaxial inputs.

Thanks for your reply. From the manual: "Two SPDIF inputs are available, optical via TOSLINK and coaxial via RCA. However, only one can be used at a time."

Two digital or one digital/one analog would be great

 

[hightower]

You could use the RME in conjunction with a Topping D10s

Thanks for your reply. I don't understand the function of the Topping with the RME. The RME has an integrated DAC.

 

[AudioStudies]

Thanks for your reply. I don't understand the function of the Topping with the RME. The RME has an integrated DAC.

The D10s has both analog and digital outputs and a USB input. If you are concerned about the RME having only one USB input, you can use the D10s to convert USB to coax and then use the coax input of the RME. You would never need to use the analog outputs of the D10s in such an arrangement, so you would not be using it as a DAC, only as a way to convert USB to coax (or optical).

 

[Purité Audio]

Thanks for your reply. From the manual: "Two SPDIF inputs are available, optical via TOSLINK and coaxial via RCA. However, only one can be used at a time."

Two digital or one digital/one analog would be great

For analogue inputs you need the ADI -Pro
Keith

 

[AudioStudies]

Yes, the RME has two digital inputs (coaxial and optical) in addition to the USB input. It does not have analog inputs unless you get the Pro model. But if someone has two computers that only output USB the D10s can be used as a workaround to get the second one fed to the RME.

 

[radix]

Thanks for your reply. From the manual: "Two SPDIF inputs are available, optical via TOSLINK and coaxial via RCA. However, only one can be used at a time."

Two digital or one digital/one analog would be great

The RME can switch between the two digital inputs. It really has 3 inputs: optical, coax, and usb.

You might look at the Matrix Audio X2, which has digital and analog and streaming. It also has a Trigger out, if your amp supports that. I'm not sure if it supports direct NAS access or needs to use DLNA/UPnP. If your CD player has digital out, the Matrix Audio X2 has 2 digital ins, or you could use the M2 instead and lose the analog.

 

[hightower]

@AudioStudies Good to know. Than I can connect both my streamer and CD player digital
@radix I'm fine with the Bluesound and my CD player. The matrix Audio X2 is above 4k. I don't want to spent that much