As seen in some of my other posts I’ve been holding out with my CD player and FM tuner. But I’m now coming to understand the benefits of streaming. I’m looking for suggestions for a one box or two box solution which will be used for subscription service, probably QoBuz and internet radio to match my Musical Fidelity M6i amplifier and PMC Twenty5 22 speakers. I enjoy a wide range of music but SQ is most important for classical and female vocals. I appreciate the old school MF sound such as from my A5 CD player. Budget approx £2k to £3k. Two options that I’m keen to investigate are Auralic Aries G1.1 or Musical Fidelity M6x DAC partnered with a Bluesound Node streamer or similar. I would welcome advice on these and any other options to demo. Many thanks
Streamer and DAC suggestions?
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I have a Bluesound Node 2. It is ok but you really need an IPS and external DAC, so not one box but 3. I had some issues with Qobuz after a BluOs update, Tidal and Deezer are fine and this seems quite an isolated issue but has affected a few members on here. Im considering streamers from Auralic and Innuos, some have found them better than the modified Node. @Lurch is one. I would be looking at buying a used one.
With a £2.5k - £3k I personally wouldn't bother looking at the Node or similar £500 - £1k streamers and strapping them to an external dac. If your an Apple user then Auralic is a good shout, additionally if your gonna use an external DAC and don't need onboard storage/ripping then look at the new Innuos Pulse.
I had a Node2 for 6 years which I pimped, ended up with an SBooster + Ultra LPS and feeding it into a Mutec MC-3+USB + 10Mhz master clock and then onward to a pimped Black Ice DSD (£2. 1k). This combo I thought was good and so it should be for the ££s invested. However I did some digital auditioning in late October and realised it wasn't as good as it should have been for the money, I ended up with an ex-demo Innuos ZenITH 3 feeding my Black Ice DAC directly via USB. The sound is street's ahead of the Node combo and I got over £1k back selling off the excess boxes
I had a Node2 for 6 years which I pimped, ended up with an SBooster + Ultra LPS and feeding it into a Mutec MC-3+USB + 10Mhz master clock and then onward to a pimped Black Ice DSD (£2. 1k). This combo I thought was good and so it should be for the ££s invested. However I did some digital auditioning in late October and realised it wasn't as good as it should have been for the money, I ended up with an ex-demo Innuos ZenITH 3 feeding my Black Ice DAC directly via USB. The sound is street's ahead of the Node combo and I got over £1k back selling off the excess boxes
Having thought my Goldnote streaming was crap and then listening to it again after an on line update…and changing my mind….….Streamers are different. I am inclined to the old adage. You get what you pay for. Streamers are developing fast and getting almost as good as vinyl
I'd suggest you have a look at the NAD C658. It has streamer (controlled by the excellent BluOS app), ofrers lots of digital and analogue inputs including phono if required and outputs to your amp via XLR balanced or single ended RCA sockets. Sub and headphone outputs if required and Dirac Live to help with room acoustic problems if you can't sort these out without DSP. All for list price of £1600, but look for offers
Hi,
some good suggestions above.
I have had the MFM6X DAC since September. It replaced a broken TEAC ud701n, which sounded wonderful until it didn't! Fed initially from 2021 Node, Qobuz, Radio Paradise FLac and MQA streams. Although very acceptable sq, the arrival of an Innuos Pulse has elevated sq to another level. Connected with an AQ carbon usb, I use the filter 8 which upsamples to 352.8/384 and the difference between red book and high res is now negligible in many cases. I have a few MQA CDs which unfold to 352.8 and are excellent- close to SACD. No HF noise or sign of lossy to my ears. Regular CDs benefit from the upsampling. The Pulse will output MQA via usb, should that be of interest. There are some MQA tracks on Qobuz to test it and works seamlessly. At just over £2k, the M6x is good value to my ears, but haven't heard the competition - after my TEAC experience, will not buy Chinese again. The pulse would stretch the budget, but the pulse mini might suit. The Innuos Sense app is just as good as BluOS, perhaps better and plays RP natively with simply superb sq to my ears. MF do a streamer for similar money.
the M6X and Pulse are my end game front end and don't doubt there are many fine sounding alternatives, but not many are built in Europe with a good reputation for support and reliability. Well worth an audition, imho.
edit to add: just re read your post and agree female vocals sort the wheat from the chaff. Joni Mitchell hi res, Agnes Obel, Sophie Zelmani, Patti Griffin and Natalie Marchant all sounding lovely to my ears. Rainy Night House, live by JM with its delicate HF percussion wonderful.
Sense app screenshot.
some good suggestions above.
I have had the MFM6X DAC since September. It replaced a broken TEAC ud701n, which sounded wonderful until it didn't! Fed initially from 2021 Node, Qobuz, Radio Paradise FLac and MQA streams. Although very acceptable sq, the arrival of an Innuos Pulse has elevated sq to another level. Connected with an AQ carbon usb, I use the filter 8 which upsamples to 352.8/384 and the difference between red book and high res is now negligible in many cases. I have a few MQA CDs which unfold to 352.8 and are excellent- close to SACD. No HF noise or sign of lossy to my ears. Regular CDs benefit from the upsampling. The Pulse will output MQA via usb, should that be of interest. There are some MQA tracks on Qobuz to test it and works seamlessly. At just over £2k, the M6x is good value to my ears, but haven't heard the competition - after my TEAC experience, will not buy Chinese again. The pulse would stretch the budget, but the pulse mini might suit. The Innuos Sense app is just as good as BluOS, perhaps better and plays RP natively with simply superb sq to my ears. MF do a streamer for similar money.
the M6X and Pulse are my end game front end and don't doubt there are many fine sounding alternatives, but not many are built in Europe with a good reputation for support and reliability. Well worth an audition, imho.
edit to add: just re read your post and agree female vocals sort the wheat from the chaff. Joni Mitchell hi res, Agnes Obel, Sophie Zelmani, Patti Griffin and Natalie Marchant all sounding lovely to my ears. Rainy Night House, live by JM with its delicate HF percussion wonderful.
Sense app screenshot.
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Hi,
some good suggestions above.
I have had the MFM6X DAC since September. It replaced a broken TEAC ud701n, which sounded wonderful until it didn't! Fed initially from 2021 Node, Qobuz, Radio Paradise FLac and MQA streams. Although very acceptable sq, the arrival of an Innuos Pulse has elevated sq to another level. Connected with an AQ carbon usb, I use the filter 8 which upsamples to 352.8/384 and the difference between red book and high res is now negligible in many cases. I have a few MQA CDs which unfold to 352.8 and are excellent- close to SACD. No HF noise or sign of lossy to my ears. Regular CDs benefit from the upsampling. The Pulse will output MQA via usb, should that be of interest. There are some MQA tracks on Qobuz to test it and works seamlessly. At just over £2k, the M6x is good value to my ears, but haven't heard the competition - after my TEAC experience, will not buy Chinese again. The pulse would stretch the budget, but the pulse mini might suit. The Innuos Sense app is just as good as BluOS, perhaps better and plays RP natively with simply superb sq to my ears. MF do a streamer for similar money.
the M6X and Pulse are my end game front end and don't doubt there are many fine sounding alternatives, but not many are built in Europe with a good reputation for support and reliability. Well worth an audition, imho.
edit to add: just re read your post and agree female vocals sort the wheat from the chaff. Joni Mitchell hi res, Agnes Obel, Sophie Zelmani, Patti Griffin and Natalie Marchant all sounding lovely to my ears. Rainy Night House, live by JM with its delicate HF percussion wonderful.
Sense app screenshot.
thanks that’s particular helpful. I’d pitched the M6x and MX stream at top of my budget on the basis of seeing me out, but also don’t want to overspend if it would be too much for my system Musical Fidelity M6i amp and PMC Twenty5 22 speakers, what are you using? It’s a bit of a hike to the MF dealer but probably worth it.Hi,
some good suggestions above.
I have had the MFM6X DAC since September. It replaced a broken TEAC ud701n, which sounded wonderful until it didn't! Fed initially from 2021 Node, Qobuz, Radio Paradise FLac and MQA streams. Although very acceptable sq, the arrival of an Innuos Pulse has elevated sq to another level. Connected with an AQ carbon usb, I use the filter 8 which upsamples to 352.8/384 and the difference between red book and high res is now negligible in many cases. I have a few MQA CDs which unfold to 352.8 and are excellent- close to SACD. No HF noise or sign of lossy to my ears. Regular CDs benefit from the upsampling. The Pulse will output MQA via usb, should that be of interest. There are some MQA tracks on Qobuz to test it and works seamlessly. At just over £2k, the M6x is good value to my ears, but haven't heard the competition - after my TEAC experience, will not buy Chinese again. The pulse would stretch the budget, but the pulse mini might suit. The Innuos Sense app is just as good as BluOS, perhaps better and plays RP natively with simply superb sq to my ears. MF do a streamer for similar money.
the M6X and Pulse are my end game front end and don't doubt there are many fine sounding alternatives, but not many are built in Europe with a good reputation for support and reliability. Well worth an audition, imho.
edit to add: just re read your post and agree female vocals sort the wheat from the chaff. Joni Mitchell hi res, Agnes Obel, Sophie Zelmani, Patti Griffin and Natalie Marchant all sounding lovely to my ears. Rainy Night House, live by JM with its delicate HF percussion wonderful.
Sense app screenshot.
Happy to know that you are pleased with the Innuos pulse. By any chance, did your goodselves do any comparative listen with the usual lumin, auralic or aurender suspects. I definitely need a proper streamer. And presently inclined towards the zenith 3. But I don't need local storage or CD ripping. Besides it's a little long in the tooth. Hence curious about the pulse as well as the pulsar.Hi,
some good suggestions above.
I have had the MFM6X DAC since September. It replaced a broken TEAC ud701n, which sounded wonderful until it didn't! Fed initially from 2021 Node, Qobuz, Radio Paradise FLac and MQA streams. Although very acceptable sq, the arrival of an Innuos Pulse has elevated sq to another level. Connected with an AQ carbon usb, I use the filter 8 which upsamples to 352.8/384 and the difference between red book and high res is now negligible in many cases. I have a few MQA CDs which unfold to 352.8 and are excellent- close to SACD. No HF noise or sign of lossy to my ears. Regular CDs benefit from the upsampling. The Pulse will output MQA via usb, should that be of interest. There are some MQA tracks on Qobuz to test it and works seamlessly. At just over £2k, the M6x is good value to my ears, but haven't heard the competition - after my TEAC experience, will not buy Chinese again. The pulse would stretch the budget, but the pulse mini might suit. The Innuos Sense app is just as good as BluOS, perhaps better and plays RP natively with simply superb sq to my ears. MF do a streamer for similar money.
the M6X and Pulse are my end game front end and don't doubt there are many fine sounding alternatives, but not many are built in Europe with a good reputation for support and reliability. Well worth an audition, imho.
edit to add: just re read your post and agree female vocals sort the wheat from the chaff. Joni Mitchell hi res, Agnes Obel, Sophie Zelmani, Patti Griffin and Natalie Marchant all sounding lovely to my ears. Rainy Night House, live by JM with its delicate HF percussion wonderful.
Sense app screenshot.
The lumin u1 is due for a replacement. The u2 mini comes with a switch mode power supply. The auralic is limited to ios. And the aurender n200 also comes with a hard drive and is expensive. Iam mostly considering between the aurender N200 and Innous pulsar.
Can you please share a few pics of the pulse please. As there is not a single clear picture to be seen anywhere online. Thanks in advance.
I own an Auralic Aries Mini mk3, Auralic Altair G1 and Innuos Zen Mini Mk3 with Innuos Power Supply. In addition I own a Benchmark DAC2 HGC and Luxman DA100 DACs. On my journey to own these streamers and DACs I listened to quite a lot of kit in various combinations.
As others have said skip the Node and I will add to skip the Auralic Aries Mini and any of these good budget options and go either for something all in one like the Auralic Altair G1 or a separate streamer and DAC. Better streamers will give you better results.
The Innuos app is probably the best on the market unless you end up being a Roon user; I am not. The Auralic App is very competent but doesn’t have the meta data searching that the Innuos Sense app has.
As others have said skip the Node and I will add to skip the Auralic Aries Mini and any of these good budget options and go either for something all in one like the Auralic Altair G1 or a separate streamer and DAC. Better streamers will give you better results.
The Innuos app is probably the best on the market unless you end up being a Roon user; I am not. The Auralic App is very competent but doesn’t have the meta data searching that the Innuos Sense app has.
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There are quite a few images online but it has not been that long.
Plenty of manufacturers images.
Also: https://www.stereonet.com/forums/topic/566710-innuos-pulse-series/
Stingray's link provides much better images than my low light blurry iPad shots! A good summary below of the Pulse range ethos. When released, I expect the Pulsar to be hard to beat, but I had to draw the line somewhere and commensurate with my system. Having used the TEAC/ lumin/esoteric app for 3 years, I would rate Innuos Sense considerably higher, with RP FLAC stream native included, it made my Node redundant. The black one is stealthy!
I didn't listen to any competitors or even audition the Pulse!
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Glad it helped, with he usual caveat that one man's meat etc. if your cd has digital out, the M6X might offer an alternative presentation. Not investigated the MF stream. Well worth checking out that its operating system suits your requirements. If you are new to streaming, the OS is a very important consideration, imho. Good luck with auditions.
At the other end of the budget I’m wondering how the Arcam ST60 would fit? The reviews are positive and I would expect some synergy with my amp and speakers. However the reviews don’t compare the ST60’s SQ with other, particularly more expensive options. Does anyone have any experience to share? Thanks
Was messing about with a second system in the bed room at the weekend.
Streaming was via CCA optical into a Marantz dac then on to a integrated and speakers.
Another configuration used was CCA as dac with a trs into 2xrca adapter going from the CCA into a power amp using the CCA as both dac and pre remote volume control via phone.
It doesn't get much simpler than CCA as dac and pre into a preloved power amp.
Streaming was via CCA optical into a Marantz dac then on to a integrated and speakers.
Another configuration used was CCA as dac with a trs into 2xrca adapter going from the CCA into a power amp using the CCA as both dac and pre remote volume control via phone.
It doesn't get much simpler than CCA as dac and pre into a preloved power amp.
I got mine via an excellent open box deal from Peter Tyson. My experience was that it took 100 hours + to burn in, (there is a lengthy thread on here somewhere which references this). Out of the box it was aggressive and harsh and I hated it. Now I love it, I added an external lpsu and that improved it even more. IMHO a really excellent DAC for the money.
It gets good reviews that is true. No experience of it. Can you do a demo with some others at a dealer?
Have you seen this: https://www.avforums.com/reviews/arcam-st60-network-audio-player-review.19135/
I have the ST60. Unfortunately, I don’t have experience of other streamers or DACs to give you thoughts on how it compares. However to my ears sounds great and worth a demo if you can. Cheers john
I recently bought a Hifi Rose RS250a (the latest version with better DAC and op-amps) and have been very impressed with it.
It has superb sound quality running straight into my amp and the screen is a joy to use and look at. I use it going into my Aqua La Scala DAC but have done a comparison and it’s quite close which is saying something as the RRP on the La Scala is almost £6,500.
It’s very flexible too if you check out the specifications.
The App could do with some work but it’s more than good enough for the job and Hifi Roase update their software on a regular basis. I think it would be well worth hearing one if you can.
It has superb sound quality running straight into my amp and the screen is a joy to use and look at. I use it going into my Aqua La Scala DAC but have done a comparison and it’s quite close which is saying something as the RRP on the La Scala is almost £6,500.
It’s very flexible too if you check out the specifications.
The App could do with some work but it’s more than good enough for the job and Hifi Roase update their software on a regular basis. I think it would be well worth hearing one if you can.
Can't find that album on Qobuz?Hi,
some good suggestions above.
I have had the MFM6X DAC since September. It replaced a broken TEAC ud701n, which sounded wonderful until it didn't! Fed initially from 2021 Node, Qobuz, Radio Paradise FLac and MQA streams. Although very acceptable sq, the arrival of an Innuos Pulse has elevated sq to another level. Connected with an AQ carbon usb, I use the filter 8 which upsamples to 352.8/384 and the difference between red book and high res is now negligible in many cases. I have a few MQA CDs which unfold to 352.8 and are excellent- close to SACD. No HF noise or sign of lossy to my ears. Regular CDs benefit from the upsampling. The Pulse will output MQA via usb, should that be of interest. There are some MQA tracks on Qobuz to test it and works seamlessly. At just over £2k, the M6x is good value to my ears, but haven't heard the competition - after my TEAC experience, will not buy Chinese again. The pulse would stretch the budget, but the pulse mini might suit. The Innuos Sense app is just as good as BluOS, perhaps better and plays RP natively with simply superb sq to my ears. MF do a streamer for similar money.
the M6X and Pulse are my end game front end and don't doubt there are many fine sounding alternatives, but not many are built in Europe with a good reputation for support and reliability. Well worth an audition, imho.
edit to add: just re read your post and agree female vocals sort the wheat from the chaff. Joni Mitchell hi res, Agnes Obel, Sophie Zelmani, Patti Griffin and Natalie Marchant all sounding lovely to my ears. Rainy Night House, live by JM with its delicate HF percussion wonderful.
Sense app screenshot.
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