In any event, with respect to Roon endpoints, It would be great to be able to do side-by-side with Pulse 2i, but that doesn’t seem likely so it’s a matter of taking a leap based on research and reviews like yours. If anyone has done a side-by-side I’d certainly be interested.
@David_Hunter has effectively done this, if you combine his two reviews in these threads:
The other David likes the Pulse 2i better than the Z3 (and he should, because it costs significantly more ).
Or would a Naim or Devialet be so superior I wouldn’t need the AV system on at all?!?
I’ve spent some time listening to the Naim Mu-So and that sounds great (though I don’t think it’s Roon Ready, just AirPlay). The Mu-So is normally US$1,349, but it’s on sale at Amazon for $999. There are other Naim all-in-one streamers that are Roon Ready, but I think the cheapest is the ND5 XS 2, which looks like it goes for US$3,300.
The Devialet Phantom Reactor is on sale at Amazon for the same price as the Mu-So. I haven’t heard the Reactor, but if it sounds anything like what’s now called the Classic Phantom (which is not on sale at Amazon and goes for US$1,690), then that could be a good choice at the 2 x Z3 price point as well. I think the Phantoms are also not Roon Ready, just AirPlay.
Great, thanks again David. Lots to mull over. In the meantime, I need to get the Roon Nucleus setup and connected to my AV so I can relieve my Mac of Core duty. Once that’s up and running I’ll decide on a wireless option. No perfect solution there, just lots of tradeoffs…
).