I recently purchased a pair of KII3 speakers. I am looking for a recommendation to buy a streamer. I currently own a ROCK , an Aries, and Sonicorbiter. I do not need a device that has storage as I only plan to use these speakers for streaming from Tidal and my NAS. I am not sure if one streamer will produce a more musical sound than any other. I have been happy with the Sonicorbiter and the Aries. I have been considering the new Aries G1,
but am open to other suggestions for quality streamers that cost less. It is very confusing going through all the Room partners to decide what options are available. Any help is greatly appreciated.
I’m trying to understand why with the equipment you’ve listed that you already have, a streamer is necessary.
Apologies in advance because I am not very technologically savvy about all of this. But here is what I have:
Roon Core running on an iMac.
Roon Endpoint connected to my two channel stereo (in another room) that consists of a microRendu and a Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital DAC.
With this equipment Roon seems to see all my music and identifies each album I play (as best it can – assuming it has credit information, etc.)
What functionality would I get from adding a streamer?
I have several systems in my house. The Kii Three need a roon ready streamer to play. I could connect a Mac to the Kii controller , but that is not what i am looking to do. The Kii Three are self contained amp/dac but are not Roon endpoints… I hope that clears up your question…
My Aries and Sonicorbiter are connected to other devices in other rooms, all connect to a Roon Nuc.
Thanks. I was not familiar with that page… I will look through the devices in my budget…However, I noticed that many of the devices are dac/streamers. I think i only need a bridge to the Kii Threes. They already have dac and amps inside the speakers…
So what sort of input(s) are we talking about?
Thanks Arthur.
I think your looking for another renderer end point for your Kii.
I have the Dynaudio Focus XD 60 and use ultra rendu.
You already stream from your NUC.
I could use either USB, TOS, AES or COAX. I have each of these cables. I think I would prefer AES.
I am not sure if the word is renderer or bridge. My top line budget is 3000.00. I am considering the mRendu, but also considering the Aries G1/G2. These latter have more input choices.
I think both words are synonymous.
SONORE uses the word renderer.
For ex. The Signature Rendu SE takes an Ethernet audio stream and renders it to a perfect, ultra-low noise USB feed to one’s USB DAC
Well look again. There is a separate category to the left named “network bridge”
Best bang for buck is probably a Pi with USB or SPDIF hat added. Can do this for a couple hundred. Next up from that would be a Sonore microRendu.
I have the Vega G2 and has been very happy with it as a streamer+DAC. I got it in part because of the display. The Aries G1 or G2 also get you that nice display, but they are a lot more expensive than the Pi or microRendu route and I suspect you’d be very hard pressed to hear a difference in sound quality. The two Aries units do also have the advantage of internal power supplies. (Over on the Auralic forums, their CEO basically said the G1 is the replacement model for the older Aries you already own, while the G2 is the upscale model.)
What is the type of network connection. Are you going to use a bridge, or can you hardwire?
If I understand your question correctly: the bridge will connect to the active speakers and to ethernet which connect to ROCK.
Thanks for the info on the Aries. Is there an improvement in musicality with the new Vega G2 compared to what you previously had? I am very tempted to buy the Aries G1. I have been happy with my original Aries and I have found Auralic to be very responsive when I have had problems.
Do you have the Kii Control? If so then I would suggest a NUC running Rock, or if you want it already built an Innuos Zen mini either connect to the Zen to the Kii’s via usb or together with an Allo.com usbridge connect that to the Kii Control to the Allo via usb and you are away.
The Vega G2 replaced a Logitech Transporter. I like how both of them sound, but the Vega supports more modern audio formats like native DSD streaming. And Roon’s support for the Transporter sucks canal water through dirty socks… That’s the main reason I started looking around for a new streaming DAC.
And yes, Auralic seems to have pretty good support and regular firmware updates to correct things. That was also part of my decision process when I purchased the Vega G2.
I have a Kii control and I have Rock. I thought that I would need a Roon bridge connected to my network and the Kii control. So I think I don’t understand your suggestion.
You don’t necessarily need one. It is considered best practice but you can try it in principle by connecting the ROCK device to your Kii USB in if they are close enough together.