Streamers / Network Players without DAC

[Mayank Shah]

Hello, Any suggestions for Network players without onboard DAC? I want to use my external DAC only. Don't need fancy multi-room setup etc. Simple network player with Tidal etc. Hope to take Coax out from the network player into external DAC.

 

[jai1611]

Allo have some good products. USBridge if you want a USB connection; Digione/Digione signature if you want SPDIF.

Note that these are Rasberry PI based and dont have the same level of ease of use/functionality as commercial players like Bluesound (one obvious example is Tidal integration). Sound quality is excellent for the price though

There are also options from brands like SOTM, Auralic, Aurender etc but generally in a higher price segment. Not sure about India availability

 

[firearm12]

Allo digione signature recommended. I believe to surpass the sound quality you need to shell out more than a lac rupees. I compared it with ca stream magic and it was way better. It works seamslessly with bubbleupnp so can work with google music, tidal, qobuz and local network media. Gaana, amazon, spotify it cannot work until you root your mobile.

 

[newlash09]

Hi Mayank..... you will have loads of options if you go for roon playback. Lots of kit act as roon end points at differing price levels. So maybe worth a punt. That said i use a metrum ambre as my roon end point going into my dac. And pretty happy with it. It is basically a glorified Rpi with a well optimised power supply. And before I went roon, I removed the SD card that came with the metrum Ambre preloaded with a roon end point software, and swapped it for my own 16gb microsd card with a linux volumio image. And I downloaded the volumio app on my android tablet and gave it a spin. Unfortunately I the volumio running on the Rip didn't have the horse power to munch by 850gb of music library. So track searches and album art were slow to load. Then I finally went to roon, and shoved back the original microsd card that came with the metrum Ambre, and been happily using it as a roon end point. Having said that, Iam couldn't hear any differences in sound quality between roon and volumio.

 

[Mayank Shah]

I do have the pi3 and digione and waiting to get back home, dig it out and tinker with it. Was using it with an external hard disk and Rune Audio (not roon). I still love the rune audio interface, it's elegantly excellent. Somehow the lag while using it on my phone put me off. Am using foobar remote android which is way better apparently due to running it off the pc. There are many mixed reviews about tidal off the PC, need to check on that too. Any views on picore player?

 

[sajjad4joy]

Lumin U1 mini is the best option if you have the budget.

 

[Orez]

Gaana, amazon, spotify it cannot work until you root your mobile.

@firearm12 Can you explain this further. I thought that all one needs to do is open a browser in Digione with these websites and the browser of the OS in Digione does the rest.

 

[firearm12]

@firearm12 Can you explain this further. I thought that all one needs to do is open a browser in Digione with these websites and the browser of the OS in Digione does the rest.

Browser in digione? Am i missing something? I am not aware of any browser in digione volumio.

I meant to say that digione with volumio can act as a upnp renderer on home network. Yiu can use bubnleupnp android app to play google music tidal and qobuz and other local music through the volumio-digione upnp renderer through mobile.

If you root your mobile and install some thing as air audio, you will be able to send all mobile audio to the upnp renderer and so will be able to play spotify, gana, amazon or anything on mobile and audio will play on digione.

 

[Orez]

Understood. I was thinking of Boss/ Katana (the players) from Allo and put Digione in the same category. Thanks

 

[superczar]

I use a couple of Paradigm Link devices and am quite happy with them.
The Pre-amps support TOSLINK in and out so you should be able to hook up your DAC easily.
In terms of streaming, they support pretty much everything from Tidal (which I don't use) to Amazon music via Alexa - with the notable exception of Airplay2 (my workaround being an airport express toslink out plugged into the toslink in on the paradigm)

As an added bonus (and a big one at that), they support Anthem room correction
The internal DAC on them is actually quite excellent (and can do 24bit/192khz) so for what it's worth, you may not need your external DAC at all but you could always A/B between them to see what you prefer
Last but not least, they were marked down to 22K on amazon for the pre-amp which i think is excellent value for them

 

[Orez]

@superczar Cannot get much info from Paradigm site other than they act as streamers. Can one play apps like Gaana, YouTube which do not seem to be mentioned in the Paradigm site? Also, can a TV be connected using optical without lag in audio?

 

[bornfi]

Sorry if this is a repeat but HDMI to coax converter together with AirPlay or chromecast device is what I used once.

 

[superczar]

@superczar Cannot get much info from Paradigm site other than they act as streamers. Can one play apps like Gaana, YouTube which do not seem to be mentioned in the Paradigm site? Also, can a TV be connected using optical without lag in audio?

a) Gaana etc won't work native - It's a DTS Play-fi device and thus The list of native supported streaming will be what Play-fi supports (Spotify/Tidal / Qobuz etc)
I use an airport express connected to the optical in for streaming any services it does not support natively - If you are on android, you may have to use a CCA for the same

b) That should certainly be possible - am never heard of any lags when using optical . I used to use TV optical out on an old AVR and did not have any audio lag issues . Don't think this one will have any issues either

 

[Orez]

If you are on android, you may have to use a CCA for the same

Got it. The only issue here is that CCA becomes a potential blocker because production is stopped. In case the CCA goes bad, with no replacement options, the entire chain will be unplayable.
Does the Anthem ARC in the Link work well enough to make a significant change in the sound? Are any details lost?

 

[superczar]

Got it. The only issue here is that CCA becomes a potential blocker because production is stopped. In case the CCA goes bad, with no replacement options, the entire chain will be unplayable.
Does the Anthem ARC in the Link work well enough to make a significant change in the sound? Are any details lost?

There are plenty of other options to stream directly.
The device presents itself as a DLNA player and I think there are plenty of apps in android that let you stream, to a DLNA renderer.

As for ARC, I think it opens up the details since often the finer details are lost in untreated rooms - and it fixes that to a fair degree

 

[Orez]

There are plenty of other options to stream directly.

Will explore these. Thanks

 

[Mayank Shah]

Thanks to @superczar, who was very patient and helpful in pointing out all the nitty gritties I had about the PW Link. Turned out to be the ideal thing I was looking for. Have ordered for it. Will post first impressions soon. Thanks to all for their suggestions. Cheers.

 

[AmaravatiListener]

Thanks to @superczar, who was very patient and helpful in pointing out all the nitty gritties I had about the PW Link. Turned out to be the ideal thing I was looking for. Have ordered for it. Will post first impressions soon. Thanks to all for their suggestions. Cheers.

Hey I googled "Streamer and no DAC" this thread turned up. So how did the PW Link work out for you?

 

[gangasjith]

How about trying MiBox 4K as a substitute for CCA...

 

[dazzwilliams]

Thanks to @superczar, who was very patient and helpful in pointing out all the nitty gritties I had about the PW Link. Turned out to be the ideal thing I was looking for. Have ordered for it. Will post first impressions soon. Thanks to all for their suggestions. Cheers.

Looks like it has everything.
Have you looked at the Sonos ZP90?