I don’t know your budget but you could remove all such permutations by going with the Kef LS50W speakers now, and sell on your Aurelic and speakers to recoup some of that initial outlay. I did this with selling on my Naim separates and Tannoy speakers and it’s worked out to be a good move.
Michael,
Better to quit while your ahead as further upgrades will only be confirmed as better based purely on confirmation bias and/or placebo effect to large extent, more or less. You’re in a rare position to stop now and enjoy your music and at a reasonable entry level price point. To delve in deeper will only serve to drain your bank account and have you babbling superlatives and placebo effect based comparisons regarding perceived changes between component swaps. Don’t let yourself become an audiophile zombie. You have been warned . lol
Sincerely,
An Audiophile Zombie
PS: Benchmark Media DAC2 HGC or the AURALIC Vega dacs sound very similar having the same delta sigma chip. The Vega is prettier looking and allows for higher oversampling rates as well as selectable filters, but the Benchmark newest version without preamp is only <$2k vs $2800 and the very competent Benchmark DAC2 HGC can be had for around $1250 used on ebay. They are very well made and last many years.
+1 from me-a recovering audiophile
Hey Jon, I wanted to update you on my system, I ended up getting one of the last Auralic Vegas direct from their website at a farewell sale of $1,899. It has made a noticeable few incremental notches up on the SQ. I still am using my 15 year AV Marantz SR8500 to power my Main speakers. I also have a 12 channel amp to run my ceiling speakers. Question, I have RCAs coming out of my Vega into the AV then another pair of RCAs coming out of the AV into the 12 channel amp so I am assuming the Vega is running the show? or is the AV’s DAC sending the signal to that amp? I could swear the music sounds better in the ceiling speakers since I hooked up the Vega.
If you are selecting the appropriate RCA analog input for your Vega DAC on your AV Receiver then the analog being passed out of the RECEIVER’S RCAS to your amps is most definitely the Vega and not the receiver.
I ran the RCA from the Vega to one of the inputs which happens to be labled “CD”. When I select CD on my AV I hear music on my mains. The other set of RCA are coming out of my AV from one of the outputs marked “Tape”.
Yes that’s fine. It’s a tape loop to allow you to record the CD or selected input or in this case feed your amplifier whats playing currently at any time. Im assuming you have a volume attenuator on the walls to adjust for volume on the ceiling speakers?
Yes I have analog control pad for volume and input selection. I guess my other option is to get the annalog XLR to RCA and run that from my Vega straight to the 12 channel amp. Would that benefit any? or would it be a waist.
If ain’t broke don’t fix it comes to mind. Besides the gain of xlr much higher than singlended it may overload the amp with too hot a signal if its expecting - 10db input and youre feeding it +4db or more signal. The grounding shield and common mode noise rejection is lost if you dont have xlr to xlr anyway. You wouldn’t gain anthing.
Agreed. Thank you.
Andrew, I am relatively new to Roon and have a related question about Ethernet vs. USB. I am using a MacMini i7 quad core, 8GB, 250GB SSD in Roon Exclusive Mode as my core with music files on external HD (RAID1) connected by Thunderbolt. My output is an Ayre QB-9DSD DAC connected to the core via USB. I realize there is USB noise/degradation because my older Ayre CX-5MPe cd player provides higher sound quality than my newer and better Ayre QB-9DSD. (I have done A-B comparisons of some favorite tracks and the difference is quite noticeable to my wife and I.) As you can surmise, I am most interested in sound quality. My wife and I both play instruments and we attend many live jazz and classical concerts. The convenience of a computer-based music system is outweighed by sound quality considerations.
The Roon Knowledge Base talks about connecting the Core and Output via Ethernet and if one has a USB DAC adding yet another small computer (with its very noisy, non-audiophile grade electrical devices and circuits) to receive music files via Ethernet and then transfer to the USB DAC. I don’t get it. Even with a supposed audiophile power supply (not sure how a $50 or $75 “audiophile” power supply qualifies as audiophile for these inexpensive bridge devices) It seems to me you’re just adding another device that will degrade the sound quality even further. As an alternative, I am considering adding an audiophile quality product like the Lumin U1 mini, which is Roon ready, but even then I still have to connect the DAC via USB. Does the Lumin serve to reduce the noise of a USB DAC? Am I incorrect in assuming the Lumin will be quieter than a $60 Raspberry Pi or Cubox? Another alternative is to replace my DAC with a newer one that uses an Ethernet input (e.g. Lumin T2). Your feedback would be very much appreciated. I enjoy Roon’s GUI and functionality, but am not willing to sacrifice sound quality for critical listening.
SMeyers
We have received customers reports of improved SQ when migrating from a Mac to U1 MINI. However, I will suggest that an Ethernet-connected Lumin T2 will give you a much bigger improvement over your Mac-connected USB DAC released in 2013.
Peter, thanks for responding. I just sent you another email with a few questions prior to seeing your response to my inquiry on the Roon site. I look forward to hearing back from you after you review my email. I had assumed the T2 would offer better sound quality than the U1 mini, and was also considering the U1 for that reason. But I am still left using a USB DAC with the U1. The T2 sounds like a great product at its price point. As I’d said I hope to have one to demo in the next week to 10 days. I will compare its sound both using its DAC and as a streamer using my current DAC. That will be the only way to answer the question of what sounds best.
You can also go with a microRendu or Signature Rendu. Both give great sound and are basically plug and play with Roon.
Signature Rendu is better due to high-quality built-in power supply.
Thanks for your suggestion. Signature Rendu may be a great product, but I’d be investing $3,300 for it to connect to a 5 yr. old USB DAC. The Lumin T2 is $4,500 and includes a new high quality DAC with a much newer chip in a single device. I will audition it at home shortly and compare it to my current Ayre DAC, as the T2 has the ability to output via USB and connect to my existing DAC. That will tell the story. Again, thx for your suggestion.
For those who replied to me, I want to advise that after A/B testing of the Lumin T2 as a streamer and DAC, vs. as a streamer to my Ayre QSB-9DSD DAC, I ended up purchasing the Lumin U1 mini streamer. I found the T2 to be more edgy than my 5 yr. old Ayre DAC. While it offered somewhat greater detail, my wife and I found its edginess tiring. Perhaps it was because the Lumin unit was new and I was only able to demo it over a long weekend, so maybe 75 hours of burn-in. I know it might have sounded smoother if it had burned in longer
We have been very pleased with the Lumin U1 mini streamer and using Ethernet to convey files to it. The USB output from the Lumin unit to the Ayre DAC is much quieter and better sounding than what came from the Mac Mini.
And now Ayre has announce a major upgrade to the QSB-9 DSD, making it the QSB-9 Twenty. New DAC chip and multiple other improvements that should significantly improve its performance.
- Diamond output circuit improves musicality and bass response.
- A new JFET differential stage lowers the noise floor.
- AyreLock power supply regulation for better rendering of fine musical detail.
- New AC noise filtering for improved resolution.
- Custom Ayre Asynchronous USB technology further reducing electrical noise in the system.
- New ESS DAC chip for improved signal to noise ratio and spacial detail.
- Six layer board design for optimal circuit isolation.
- Proprietary reclocking to eliminate USB domain jitter.
- PCM play back up to 384 kHz
- Native DSD capability up to DSD256 (4x)
- HDCD decoding
Based on my past experience with Ayre and their upgrades, I believe the $1,500 investment will be well worth it. It hopefully will be like getting a new, significantly improved DAC.
Hi Michael,
USB vs Ethernet?
A few months ago, my office ($2,500) streamer failed and was sent for repair as the manufacturer would not supply to power supply direct.
So, I threw together a temporary streamer (inc a DDC Digital Digital Converter) and to my surprise it sounded better than the Hi-end one (I found a secret source!). So, I trailed it in the lounge set-up with a $8,500 Streamer DAC and to my real surprise my temp streamer sounded better than its streamer section of that combo. I could A/B comparisons over BNC/Ethernet with ease (yes, I have a db meter to set correct pressure at the listening position and my Son did the connections for extensive blind testing). FYI Speaker are Wilson Benesch ACT and Chord Electronics Amplification …… I know, what about USB vs Ethernet. BNC over Ethernet (that is an external streamer BNC IN was just better than the Ethernet IN to the Streamer/DAC unit)
I am in effect considering (just considering) a proto ‘HiFi streamer’ business (long way to go) and have bought 12 sets of components that can configure 12 streamers PCB’s, DDC, power supplies etc, etc, etc from mid to hi-end and my office now looks more like a workshop with its milling machine, solder station etc!!!). The result is I have built 3 streamers and home auditioned many leading Streamers $2,500+ using USB and or Ethernet for comparisons with my 3 proto types + in addition I own a PS-Audio DAC with Bridge for extra A/B as this has USB and Ethernet… my 3 proto types did not sound poorer. That said I did not audition hi-end USB only streamer from say Lumin, innuos.
So, What ?!… get to the point
As a roon user with my library on a NUC using PCM (mostly) having heard 20+ streamer configurations I give it to Ethernet (in) to the streamer and BNC/ SPDIF to a DAC. AS I have found a good DDC does a great job for the bucks. USB can sound great yet on the PS-Audio DAC/Bridge = SPDIF is King followed by Ethernet followed by USB.
Side Note - Headphone Amp: I have a $2,000 headphone DAC/Amp with USB, Coax, Toslink IN. From the NUC (with an AQ Jitterbug) USB is by fare the poorest solution. The best was all 3 of my streamer proto-types using Coax or Toslink (not from the NUC with Ethernet in).
Apologies for all the words, but I hunger for peoples home comparisons and this is some of mine.
Interesting observation. I use USB from my SOTM SMS200 Neo (not the ultra). It only has an USB out. What is a DDC and how do I convert the signal to SPDIF into the Schiit Bifrost? Which brand are you using? Many thanks.
There are USB to S/PDIF converters at all price points. This one gets great reviews: