Recommendation for a state of the art streamer, help needed.

[Miguelón]

Hi everybody!

I have a friend who owns an ancient but very expensive (to my possibilities) gear and wants a recommendation to a streamer-DAC. I recommended him WiiM Ultra but apparently is not enough expensive to him, has a Hi-Fi guru that sold all of his stuff including super expensive cables…

The guru argument was “those type of things are not at the height of the rest of your equipment so it will degrade the soundstage”. Personally I only find unbalanced outputs the only flaw of the WiiM, since his preamp and amp are balanced.

So please, if anyone can give a recommendation to a good streamer with balanced outputs to avoid my friend expending more than 3.000€ on hi-fi marketing, I will be thankful!

I thought in Eversolo demp A6 gen 2, apparently had improved DAC and costs 900€ here in Spain.

His setup:

-Bowers Wilkins 804s speakers 8 Ohms
-Krell Kav 2250 amp (2x250 watts)
-Electrocompaniet 4.8 (first version) preamp

 

[ZolaIII]

They are at the bottom of the chain so recommend him cheap WiiM Mini over the Toslink. He can then pair it with something like Tooping D50 III and ther you have it a truly top performing one and still for about the same amount of money (and keeping PEQ abilities).

Edit: if you tell him he is right it's much more probable it will listen to you.

 

[JeremyFife]

Gurus!!

The Eversolo DMP A6 was reviewed here and is very good as a DAC and streamer. Looks nice.
It won't sound any better than the WiiM but sometimes you just can't convince those who will not listen.

The Bluesound products look interesting too, although I've not seen reviews of the DAC performance (but it'll be fine!)

 

[Purité Audio]

Sadly the mantra of ( nearly ) every hifi dealer, I would buy an Eversolo and sell it to your friend for $3000.
Keith

 

[Joffy1780]

If your friend wants to waste money on an unnecessarily expense piece of audio equipment, he's in luck, as there are no end of options!!

 

[Talisman]

They are at the bottom of the chain so recommend him cheap WiiM Mini over the Toslink. He can then pair it with something like Tooping D50 III and ther you have it a truly top performing one and still for about the same amount of money (and keeping PEQ abilities).

Edit: if you tell him he is right it's much more probable it will listen to you.

He just wrote that the wiim ultra seemed too cheap to him, I don't think the wiim mini would be accepted.

Hi everybody!

I have a friend who owns an ancient but very expensive (to my possibilities) gear and wants a recommendation to a streamer-DAC. I recommended him WiiM Ultra but apparently is not enough expensive to him, has a Hi-Fi guru that sold all of his stuff including super expensive cables…

The guru argument was “those type of things are not at the height of the rest of your equipment so it will degrade the soundstage”. Personally I only find unbalanced outputs the only flaw of the WiiM, since his preamp and amp are balanced.

So please, if anyone can give a recommendation to a good streamer with balanced outputs to avoid my friend expending more than 3.000€ on hi-fi marketing, I will be thankful!

I thought in Eversolo demp A6 gen 2, apparently had improved DAC and costs 900€ here in Spain.

His setup:

-Bowers Wilkins 804s speakers 8 Ohms
-Krell Kav 2250 amp (2x250 watts)
-Electrocompaniet 4.8 (first version) preamp

I think you should let your friend spend as much as he wants on a stupidly and needlessly expensive product, if the wiim ultra doesn't seem enough to him then there's no point in wasting your
time

 

[Blumlein 88]

Eversolo DMP A8 for $2k.

Eversolo DMP-A8 Balanced Streamer/DAC Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Eversolo DMP-A8 balanced DAC, Streamer, HDMI ARC, and Analog/digital Preamplifier with DSP support. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $1,980. The DMP-A8 is stylish and functional in every sense of the words. Running Android with a...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Maybe one of the Matrix Elements. $3k and $4k or so.

Review and Measurements of Matrix Audio Element X DAC/Streamer/Amp

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Matrix Audio Element multi-function audio streamer, DAC, and headphone amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member who purchased it and had it direct shipped to me. As it turns out, the company also contacted me to send me the same unit so...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Matrix Element X2 Streamer Review

This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of the Matrix Audio X2 streamer, DAC, preamplifier and headphone amp. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $4,399. Compared to our typical desktop audio products, the X2 is a clear step above both in construction, material and...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[ZolaIII]

He just wrote that the wiim ultra seemed too cheap to him, I don't think the wiim mini would be accepted.



I think you should let your friend spend as much as he wants on a stupidly and needlessly expensive product, if the wiim ultra doesn't seem enough to him then there's no point in wasting his time

That's the catch, you tell him he is right. And he is regarding how fast teach there changes so inexpensive one working properly is all you need and want. We know it's transparent trough Toslink let him play with DAC. If he wants to sprinkle money around MiniDSP has streamer lines too and if he wants to improve things he will need sub's too. I hope that's expensive enough for him.

 

[TheKoC]

Since pride of ownership in fancy gear seems to be important to him, I would just recommend the Eversolo DMP-A10.
It's about twice as expensive as the A8, so the Soundstage should be at least 20% bigger....

 

[Miguelón]

Eversolo DMP A8 for $2k.

Eversolo DMP-A8 Balanced Streamer/DAC Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Eversolo DMP-A8 balanced DAC, Streamer, HDMI ARC, and Analog/digital Preamplifier with DSP support. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $1,980. The DMP-A8 is stylish and functional in every sense of the words. Running Android with a...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Maybe one of the Matrix Elements. $3k abd $4k or so.

Review and Measurements of Matrix Audio Element X DAC/Streamer/Amp

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Matrix Audio Element multi-function audio streamer, DAC, and headphone amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member who purchased it and had it direct shipped to me. As it turns out, the company also contacted me to send me the same unit so...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Matrix Element X2 Streamer Review

This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of the Matrix Audio X2 streamer, DAC, preamplifier and headphone amp. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $4,399. Compared to our typical desktop audio products, the X2 is a clear step above both in construction, material and...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The Matrix is precisely what the Hi-Fi guru tries to sell him: he has not the type of work he can spend a lot of money, surely he should demand a credit to the bank.

What I try to do is to convince him to get a good streamer DAC with balanced outputs even if probably don’t need balanced since his CD player and preamp, amp are at the middle of their speaker, 1.5 m of cable should not cause interferences.

 

[TheKoC]

Maybe the best thing to do is to recommend him a visit to ASR

If money is a relevant facor I would personaly go with your idea of the DMP A6 2nd Gen, it's a beautiful unit with great functionality

 

[Miguelón]

Maybe the best thing to do is to recommend him a visit to ASR

If money is a relevant facor I would personaly go with your idea of the DMP A6 2nd Gen, it's a beautiful unit with great functionality

It can be my new-year- purpose to rescue someone from the snake oil of audio marketing: he spent 500€ in each of his cables… hope he will sign up ASR, now he’s interested in room correction so is a good opportunity to him to learn here

 

[Sokel]

My crystal ball shows me a Melco (either soon or after testing the cheaper ones) or the shorts of it on his rack,old habits die hard.

 

[antcollinet]

Hi everybody!

I have a friend who owns an ancient but very expensive (to my possibilities) gear and wants a recommendation to a streamer-DAC. I recommended him WiiM Ultra but apparently is not enough expensive to him, has a Hi-Fi guru that sold all of his stuff including super expensive cables…

The guru argument was “those type of things are not at the height of the rest of your equipment so it will degrade the soundstage”. Personally I only find unbalanced outputs the only flaw of the WiiM, since his preamp and amp are balanced.

So please, if anyone can give a recommendation to a good streamer with balanced outputs to avoid my friend expending more than 3.000€ on hi-fi marketing, I will be thankful!

I thought in Eversolo demp A6 gen 2, apparently had improved DAC and costs 900€ here in Spain.

His setup:

-Bowers Wilkins 804s speakers 8 Ohms
-Krell Kav 2250 amp (2x250 watts)
-Electrocompaniet 4.8 (first version) preamp

There is no way to answer this. As others have said - just let him buy any old expensive device he wants. Pick the most expensive one reviewed here that is recommended in the review. This one at $11K or so.

Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC and Streamer Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Mola Mola Tambaqui USB DAC and Ethernet streamer. It is on kind loan from a member which is quite special when you consider it costing US $11,500 (£8,999). As it should be the Tambaqui weights a lot relative to its size with generous use of...

www.audiosciencereview.com

It won't sound better than the ultra - but he may be happy with it. If that one is too expensive for him just go down the list in price order until one is inside his budget.


Or if you want to make some money, buy an expensive machined aluminium case, and bolt the ultra in it. Sell him that, and he won't know the difference

 

[Soniclife]

The true luxury part of a streamer is a software interface you enjoy using, which is personal preference. What happens to the bits after you have hit play is such a solved problem, and kind of hard to actually get wrong these days, but you can certainly be financially exploited by the clueless.

For me roon is the best streamer software, and it's probably the most expensive, so it must sound best .

 

[ahofer]

RME ADI-2 DAC+ a Raspberry pi. He can EQ the shrill highs out of his B&Ws and enjoy dynamic loudness for a state-of-the-art low volume soundstage.

 

[SIY]

The true luxury part of a streamer is a software interface you enjoy using, which is personal preference.

And my cheapskate heart is gladdened that I find the Wiim interface an absolute delight to use.

 

[Miguelón]

The true luxury part of a streamer is a software interface you enjoy using, which is personal preference. What happens to the bits after you have hit play is such a solved problem, and kind of hard to actually get wrong these days, but you can certainly be financially exploited by the clueless.

For me roon is the best streamer software, and it's probably the most expensive, so it must sound best .

I agree, I would also add stability as well as the gorgeous interface. Personally I’m happy with WiiM Home app but apparently Eversolo has nice software also

 

[Miguelón]

There is no way to answer this. As others have said - just let him buy any old expensive device he wants. Pick the most expensive one reviewed here that is recommended in the review. This one at $11K or so.

Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC and Streamer Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Mola Mola Tambaqui USB DAC and Ethernet streamer. It is on kind loan from a member which is quite special when you consider it costing US $11,500 (£8,999). As it should be the Tambaqui weights a lot relative to its size with generous use of...

www.audiosciencereview.com

It won't sound better than the ultra - but he may be happy with it. If that one is too expensive for him just go down the list in price order until one is inside his budget.


Or if you want to make some money, buy an expensive machined aluminium case, and bolt the ultra in it. Sell him that, and he won't know the difference

At least we’ve agree on going to his home and connect the WiiM to his preamp, hope he will realize that it doesn’t sound different than his CD player which is the actual source on the setup…

 

[masterhw]

I see no reason to go beyond something like the Bluesound Node Icon. Fully balanced XLR outs. Though I'm in the Heos ecosystem myself, I've consistently heard BluOS is the better ecosystem.

NODE ICON - Reference Music Streamer

The NODE ICON is a flagship wireless music streamer, designed for the audio obsessed. With its sleek aluminum chassis, and vibrant 5” full-color display, it sets a new benchmark for wireless music streamers.

www.bluesound.com