Just required a stand alone dac as partly replacement for a SB Touch.
Now looking for the other part, a streamer - but with volume option to be controlled by Roon, since my amplifier doesn’t have remote control.
Is this possible and suggestions?
Yes, this is possible with a lot of streamers.
I can fully recommend my streamer: a LUMIN U1Mini, that has an advanced digital volume control (usable via Roon).
There are less expensive and more expensive options on the market.
Any idea on budget? Any other requirements?
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Ah - forget to mention - there are also DACs with volume control and DACs with integrated streamer.
Did you already decide on a DAC?
Yes, the dac has been purchased, a R2R based Denafrips.
Haven’t really decidedon the budget, thought I could control volume if using my Rock directly linked to the dac, but not possible apparently.
Heard good things about Denafrips, congratulations!
Again, there are so many options for a streamer. I had an (older) Auralic and a SOtM, but ended with that LUMIN U1Mini. It‘s great sounding, operates flawless and the software is - imho - the most versatile and stable one compared to the other ones I experienced.
What will be your criteria to make a decision?
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Thanks, yes I did hear as well so here we go.
Main criteria is the volume option, so in a way I guess the quality of doing that function is important.
Lumin does regular software updates (see here: http://www.luminmusic.com/firmware-notes.html)
The last major one introduced a new algorithm for volume control: LEEDH
You can read about it here: http://www.luminmusic.com/support-leedh-processing.html
If the U1Mini fits your other needs, it’s a great choice imho.
If you have more money to spend, there’s also the Lumin U1 (without the Mini), which has an external linear power supply.
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Personally, I would not want to be performing (digital) volume control/reduction prior to any quality DAC, no matter how good that volume control is. If the DAC doesn’t have an integrated volume control, do the volume control in the analogue domain afterwards.
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Joel, I agree (given the analogue volume control is of high quality). But as the DAC of Redwine does not have a volume control and he stated this:
… he really needs a digital volume control via the endpoint.
Sure, but if he has money for a streamer with a good digital volume control, I would have thought that there would be a downstream solution? (and one that is automatable)
Are there other options than the Myteks that allow Roon to control the volume at the preamp level (looking at you, @Kii_Audio) ?
Yes I am aware of the issue but sometimes you just have to make a compromise;
My amplifier has no remote function, neither has the dac like most.
So what’s left, new amplifier or a streamer handling it? And since I understand most favour a streamer separating Rock and dac anyway, I thought it was the most clever way to go, but maybe not!
I use a raspi 4b as a streamer with Ropieee XL as the OS. I also added the raspi display and remote so I can control volume on Roon with remote instead of using my laptop. You can find the guides for assembling this elsewhere on Roon, on Ropieee site, or through Google search. This also supports bluetooth, airplay, and Squeezebox.
It’s a tricky one, I’ll give you that!
Coming from the Meridian world, in your position and depending on budget, I’d consider something like a used Meridian 502 preamp which is volume controllable via RS232 and is automate-able via a Roon plug-in; but even then, it’s not a simple solution (you’d probably need an RPi to do the RS232 connection).
I’m considering a set of Sanders Model 10e, which requires the use of a supplied digital-domain crossover (they’re active biamped speakers).
For this use case, it seems that a digital volume control with a streamer makes more sense (
streamer + volume → crossover → DA conversion → amps vs.
streamer → DAC → Preamp → AD converstion → crossover → DA conversion → amps)