I think Amir was somewhat less impressed with the DAC/amp combo: “There appears to be nothing broken in the design of the Chromecast Audio DAC as long as you use the right software to drive it. While performance falls in the bottom third tier of tested audio products, it gets there without any drama or obvious faults.”, though he was very impressed by the value proposition. But the MX160 has its own internal DAC, so the Toslink output would be indicated anyway.
So, who else on this thread has a McIntosh MX160 that they’re driving with their streamer?
I don’t think I “recommended” anything. I pointed to an interesting article Terry might want to read, and offered a guess at what I’d buy if I had to drive an MX160, based on my perception of the world.
I mean, dude, who’s the real troll here?
I should have added … for $35 (£30)
My preference/ recommendation would be an RPi+hat combo with switching supply.
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It strikes me that anyone who’s running that integrated amp is probably not interested too much in cost. Convenience and fit would be a better thing to think about regarding “value”. Which Roon-ready endpoint has the fewest problem reports? Which auto-updates? Which looks best?
I’m really sorry this is so upsetting to you. But you are wrong about that – we are interesting in learning, but one of the things we’ve already learned is that one can also learn from modes other than direct perceptual interaction, and that, in fact, many of those modes are free from distracting irrelevancies that may mislead the unwary.
Bill all the guy was trying to say is that your recommendations are based on something you read rather than something you have owned or own. You never heard the USBridge that you recommended. You read an article that said it was good so it must be because all digital is the same. Everything on the Internet is true too. 
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And then again, he will tell you that he does not have to go to North Pole to know it’s cold in there. Like he told me. You cannot win with these types. It is what it is.
So basically, to put this long essay written in a smartly gibberish way in layman’s terms, you don’t need to listen to stuff, because you already know how they will sound or not sound based on reading you did on the Internets. Way to go! Enjoy your reading, while I enjoy my music.
McIntosh MX-160 has many kinds of digital input, so maybe you should decide which one to use. Cheap end point usually won’t have all kinds of digital input.
High grade streamer like LUMIN U1 MINI can match them all but it is a full function streamer.
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Hi Terry,
I can easily recommend the Sonore ultraRendu too, especially for great support (even phone if required) and ease of use.
By the way, are you going to buy an i7 QNAP NAS just for running Roon Server and music storage?
Or is the NAS going to be for other things also?
And how much music (in gigabytes/terabytes)?
Or did you already have this i7 QNAP?
The mentioning of our product brought me to this thread. I’ve looked at the specs of your MX160. If you choose to use our product Lumin U1 MINI I’d recommend you use AES connection to the MX160.
Actually, I have. But not into an MX160, that’s true.
But that’s not what he’s saying. What he’s saying is that the only true fount of recommendation is direct perception and judgment, instead of from knowledge. That it’s unethical to recommend something based on understanding. That’s a perspective which harks back to pre-Enlightenment times, almost to pre-civilisation times, and if carried to extremes would destroy modern civilization.
I’m not just reading things on the “Internets”. I actually understand what I’m reading. The digital world is not that complicated. You don’t ever “hear” digital signals. Rather, you interpret them by running them into some other piece of gear. Could be Wireshark and a computer terminal to get a textual output. Could be a DAC and amplifier to get an audio output. In that audio signal, anything going on in the digital world is going to be overwhelmed by the characteristics of the gear itself. The tests performed by Archimago and Amir verify that hypothesis. So there’s no need to listen; a simple check of what bits come out of the digital side will give you all you need to know. (Yes, I’m ignoring electrical noise on the USB bus, assuming that the “gear” you run the bits into will handle that correctly, which seems to be the case, again basing that on published measurements.)
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I did not put that well. I don’t mean to say that DSP processing, for instance, would be inaudible. I meant that anything which depends on varying latencies of different sorts in sufficiently powerful digital processors should be inaudible.
Thanks Sean. The QNAP is to replace an older QNAP that has reached end of life. It stores music, off premise backups and some other functions. However, I have decided instead to purchase a Nucleus+ and run the digital audio output directly to my MX-160 for my primary zone. After considering the pros and cons of using the QNAP as a Core, I decided to leave that function to a dedicated machine that will reside near my MX-160. @dabassgoesboomboom
Thank you very much everyone for all of your input. I have decided to go with a Nucleus+ connected directly to my MX-160, eliminating the need for an end point in my Primary Zone. @Bill_Janssen, @thyname, @John_Aiello, @Martin_Webster
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Great choice! Congrats!
What Monty Python sketch is that from again?
.sjb
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Hehe great stuff Terry because the Nucleus was exactly where I was going with this (instead of an i7 Qnap).
I think later you may still have some SQ improvement by having the Nucleus in a separate room and just having a low powered Sonore ultrarendu connected to you MX-160 but that can be a later step. You may be ultra happy with Nucleus alone.
Enjoy!
