Hit parade - non-Naim streamer

It might be good to know if you’re actually looking for a (dedicated) streamer, or for a DAC + streamer?

I’m not sure i follow here; you have a Naim 5si without a digital input right?

Right. Actually, that day I was upgrading WXAD to Yamaha rn803, but somehow bought Naim 5si and Spendor 3/5 :slight_smile:

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I prefer, in order of priority, just nd5xs2, then - a dedicated streamer, then - a streamer + DAC. The third option the case when I can not buy any of the first two.

If you are into tinkering, you could look at using a raspberry pi + hifiberry digital IO hat. I am using a rpi zero wh with a pirate audio line out hat into a pair of Ruark MR1 speakers for the office. Not tried driving the SuperUniti with it yet :slight_smile: . The zero + pirate + sdcard costs < £40 so a fairly low cost to play with. The rpi4 + digital IO hat + sd card + case quickly gets near the price of the WXAD, but would give digital out and be more flexible (or faff, depending on your view).

A cheap interim system would provide you with something while you wait… and perhaps find a use in another room when you get your Naim streamer.

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Allo DigiOne Signature (hosted by an RPi3 running umpdcli) → Naim DAC → SN2 + S-400, job done. This gives you a better DAC than the one in the ND5XS2 and better interoperability with a Naim amplifier than a non-Naim streamer. The cons are that you need more boxes, included a PSU for the Allo. For a one-box solution and depending on your location and budget, you might also want to check Bryston streamers: I have no experience with Bryston but the BDA-3.14 looks like a well specified device.

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There is also a new prebuilt Allo Boss2 streamer+DAC that is excellently reviewed. It’s available with different PSU options to choose from, starting around $150.

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Amazing! Thanks! Not sure if I can afford it, but it is an excellent thing!

As I mentioned, I have never used Bryston devices. But I have a second hand Naim DAC front-ended by an Allo DigiOne Signature for streaming from LAN UPnP servers or from internet streaming services (in the past, I have had subscriptions to Tidal, Qobuz and Idagio that I have meanwhile cancelled) and it works fine for me. A big advantage of the Naim DAC against more recent devices is the number of inputs. The drawback of this solution is the number of boxes. I power the Allo with an UpTone Audio JS-2 (RPi side) + LPS-1-2 (clean side) and that makes up to 2 small boxes (the DigiOne and the LPS-1.2) and two big ones (the nDAC and the JS-2). I am very happy with this solution but I think that, meanwhile, it should be possible to achieve about the same sound quality with one single box and more or less the same amount of money. If you are interested in single box solutions you should probably also look at Auralic (as already mentioned, by @Sloop_John_B), Lumin, etc. The problem with all these solutions (included Naim’s streamers) is the software. Over many years, I only had 2 minor problems with upmpdcli and MPD. In both cases the developers were very responsive and the problems were readily solved. My impression is that proprietary solutions are often poorely supported. There are probably exceptions but, generally speaking, I would not want to use a streamer that I can only control with a brand-specific app as these are often poor, e.g., in comparison with the BubbleUPnP app for Android. The other advantage of a streamer based on upmpdcli is that it can also be controlled with plain MPD clients and there is plenty of them!

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Thanks for sharing!

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