Hi,
I would like to build my first stereo set - my budget is around $5000 USD . There is couple of aspects apart music - technology wise it have to simply work. In my case my 8 year old doughter should be able to use it.
After listening dozen of different configurations I think that I finally found config that suites me the best (mainly rock music) .
Now what I picked is XS3 + Fyne Audio F502. I rented it and for about a week I was listening music mainly using Cambridge Audio Dac 100 + PC (Spotify / Tidal)
So to support XS3 with actual music I would need to buy some streamer. To match budget I was thinking about Node 2i + some DAC in order to connect also TV.
I can’t figure out any other way to control everything other than Logitech Harmony. So although it’s playing nice - separate system seems to be quite complicated on a daily use.
So here is where Unity Star jumps in. I borrowed it and listened for a day at home. It was really simple config - connected HDMI, speakers and all worked beautifully. When I wanted to listen to Spotify it turned itself. This is what I was looking for.
So why I’m hesitant to pick Star? Software bug - in my case Star was hanging to the point that remote was not working and needed to be unplugged from electricity. After some gooogling I switched option related to HDMI and I think it was gone.
In the same time the auto input option was gone so back to using 2 remotes (or mobile app) to pick HDMI as a source.
Internet radio wasn’t working at all in my case - used Spotify mainly but was surprised anyway.
So at the end either I would have to chose classic system with multiple components or buggy Unity.
Do you have any other suggestions within this budget cap?