Roon Ready Endpoint & DAC?

What’s your budget?

Let’s say $2k. T1 is out. The T1 is out of my range. D1 looks good but the hardware is going on, what, almost 3 years old now? Don’t know much about the OPPO UDP-205 but wasn’t really looking for a disc transport and associated video stuff … which no doubt eats up a lot of the cost.

fwiw, I have a usb/dac stack of SMS-200 (powered by SPS-500), Intona, Denafrips Ares R2R. Yes I could upgrade the Denafrips Ares but instead of doing that thinking it would be nice to consolidate these 3 pieces into 1 and get out of the USB chain nonsense.

What I really want is a great midrange DAC with a Roon Ready ethernet endpoint stuck on top of it … I guess I could look at Rpi/Allo concoctions.

Auralic Aries??


or Altair

The Aries is just a bridge/endpoint no? And I would still need a Dac. The Auralic Altair would be an option though it would seem … don’t know much about Auralic (yet).

I agree with @bearFNF that the Altair seems like what you’re asking for … but are you unhappy with the SMS-200 & power supply? If not, why not hang on to those and just upgrade your DAC?

Good starting point here:

http://roonready.com/front?f[0]=maximum_output%3A84

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Thats a new one to me @RBM!
I was looking for something similar recently but gave up!

It’s kind of shocking when you look at cost, in both ends of the span! :slight_smile:

In your price range, as far as I know, Auralic Altair is the only (decent) one.

I got my Lumin T1 (if you read my posts, including the thread that the guys split at I just got the Lumin T1 today), and I am happy with it.

If you are not in a rush, deals at your price range or slightly high come up in used market.

Lumin D1 is $2k as well though - same price as Altair. Those seem like the two best choices available in this mid price segment. Is the T1 known to be significantly better than the D1?

D1 comes with an external switching power supply that can be replaced (e.g. Sbooster).
T1 comes with an external linear power supply and is more analog sounding.

The cheapest option is to get a Auralic Aries Mini.

Small in size big in features!

P.S: Aries Mini is certified by Roon in the latest build 269!

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When it becomes available (hopefully soon) -

TEAC NT-505.

It’s not an all in one, but given that I don’t need all of the network streamer stuff that most of these products provide, think I am going to go with gen 5 usb gumby and cheap roon ready endpoint e.g. allo usbridge. The gen 5 usb should obviate the need for an expensive endpoint/usb stack. And that keeps me under my budget at around $1500.

Anyone using Oppo UDP-205 for streaming music as Roon endpoint? How is the SQ?