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Top music streamer for 2019? Aurender N10’s?

I will shortly be purchasing a Gryphon Diablo 300 integrated with its internal DAC module.  I’m now wondering what to do about a music streamer, as I’m doubting that my current stock Mac Mini with Audirvana will do justice to the Gryphon.  My budget is < 10k.  After scanning forums this is what I’ve found consistently:  1) Aurender is frequently recommended, seemingly more so than other brands, 2) the Aurender N10 sounds much better than the much less expensive N100H, 3) Any higher end dedicated streamer will elevate sound significantly over my Mac Mini.

So it appears my best option is the Aurender N10 other than the price tag.  My questions are:  1) Do people agree with the statements above?  And, 2) How do the much less expensive Moon Mind 2 and Bluesound products compare with the Aurender N10?  Is the difference large?  And, 3) How big is the sound quality increase going to a N10 from a Mac Mini, and what specifically are the differences I should expect? 

Thanks

nyev
nyev OP
57 posts
 
Audiotroy, you make a stronger argument for Roon than the guy from Roon did when I quit the trial!
pophaudio
33 posts
 
Hey guys what do you think about dCS and esoteric ????
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
1,621 posts
 
We have sold both Esoteric and DCS in the past. 

Personally we feel that Esoteric's products are very good but are being surpassed by things like Lumin's awesome X1 which is a reference class streamer/dac which is $6k cheaper then the Esoteric version and the Lumin still sounds better.

DCS is a sound which some people like others don't they don't sound particularly liquid the DCS sound is clean, quick, and very detailed. 

In terms of Dac's we are very fond of the Aqua Hifi Dacs for a number of reasons:

1: They are very liquid and analog like
2: They are the most up-gradable dacs on the market they are both FPGA based with R2R ladders and the dacs are built on all discrete cards for every function of the dac: analog boards, power supply boards, incomming data boards, outgoing dac boards, 

if you look at the $8k Lascala XHD it has a total of 7 individual replaceable boards, this allows the entire unit to morph into an entirely new product over time as the Aqua engineers figure out new tricks to boost sound quality.

Our ultimate flagship dac the $32k Light Harmonic Davinci is also upgradble and we have had clients upgrade the older Dual Dac to the ew MK II Dual dac for a nominal charge.

It ultimately comes down to the sound quality and feature set you are looking for, all products in this discussion are excellent it will come down to personal preference.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Aqua, Lumin, Light Harmonic dealers


audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
1,621 posts
 
Thanks Nyev, we do a lot of evaluation on a lot of different products and tweeks. 

Roon supplanted Jriver as being a better more user friendly platform with a supeior user experience. 

The nice thing about Roon is that the product keeps on evolving, hopefully that will gain Spotify, we would also love to see XM radio intergration one can only hope.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
pophaudio
33 posts
 
Thanks for response, I’m fan of accuphase nothing will change my mind, but what streamer would you recommend for accuphase dac , I’m using vault 2 right now.???? Thanks 
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