@danny No upsampling? Huh. Why not?
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Perhaps because his speakers do the upsampling.
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Does anyone have experience with Rockna gear?
Their Wavedream DAC is very nicely put together with an upgradeable FPGA and discrete R2R boards (like MSB) doing the DAC part and selectable filters (inc NOS)
I have personally always preferred the sound of R2R chips like PCM1704 over DS like the ESS models where I struggle with harshness especially at high volume
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Haha. Well, even with the “sizzle”, which I can only notice with particularly detail-oriented gear, I still prefer the sound of ESS DACs over the AKM “velvet sound”. If you actually want “liquid”, I thought the Hugo TT was particularly “musical”. If I listened to nothing but jazz and live recordings, I may have chosen that over the DAVE.
Reading back, I noticed that you’re in the bay area. It sounds like your favorite local store is Music Lover’s. I’ve definitely given them a decent amount of money (I bought my pre/amp and speakers from the SF store). If you cross the bridge over to SF, Audio Vision SF is a PS Audio and Chord dealer. I did have to schedule demo time with them maybe a day in advance, but I think it was really just to make sure that the products that I was interested in were set up and ready to go when I arrived. They allowed me to bring in my own headphones and amp to demo DACs for a few hours, with little interruption.
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As far as I know, the cheapest streaming DAC RoonReady is Auralic Altair. Auralic is running a summer special now at 20% MSRP, which would bring the price to slightly over $1,500. Cannot beat that. Not sure of the DAC quality though, as it appears it has an older Sabre chip. Thoughts?
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Spend some time listening to the Altair, compare with other solutions, and decide if it’s for you.
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Sure. You have one I can borrow?
Obviously the best solution is to buy it and try it for myself. But if I went this route, I would have to buy / return a lot of stuff. It is a starting point, and my idea is often to read from actual owners on their experiences first. I don’t think there is anything wrong doing this. No?
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With the Altair specifically, I was thinking you could just visit a dealer. I guess I’m not looking at it objectively, since there’s an Auralic dealer within walking distance of my house. I’d certainly agree that if you don’t have a dealer within easy striking distance (and of course with brands that don’t sell through brick-and-mortar dealers), then it’s a PITA. Still, it’s do-able.
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I’m a longtime vinyl guy (Linn LP12, Ekos…) who bough a LInn Karik/Numeric when it first came out, and upgraded through the DS players ending with an Accurate DS. Last year I sold the DS and bought a PS Audio DirectStream/Bridge II primarily for Roon integration. I have the XLR outputs directly connected to an Ayre VX5 then to Vandersteen Quatro Wood CTs. I noticed a VERY substantial improvement replacing the DS with the DirectStream: a combination of (i) much more organic (I hate to say vinyl sounding because it is much cleaner then vinyl, but has the same engaging sound that just sucks you into the music), and (ii) extracting much more from the PCM stream: this is not subtle I am hearing things on familiar records that I had never heard before and the Akurate DS was no slouch. I also really like the FPGA approach, which has resulted in two substantial (and free) sound upgrades since I bought the DS.
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Coincidentally intereresting CA topic -
Isn’t the OP in that thread looking for server and streamer only he has a DAC already.
That’s right. Just some overlap.
I’ve started to look at a separate steamer too (and a DAC) - I’m finding there’s a lot more choice of high-quality DAC’s that don’t have an ethernet input.
I would put separates like the exasound e32+playpoint and totaldac d1xxx+server (even ‘integral’) in that ‘separate streamer’ category too, since they have an external cable/linkage from the streamer to the dac.
I’ve been particularly impressed with the dCS bridge. (For example - the Ayre QX-5 sounds worse via ethernet, than when driven by the dcs bridge.)
Some dac’s ethernet inputs don’t seem to compare with a dedicated streamer like the dcs, or the sonore, etc.