dCS network bridge, but you really want a dac that can utilize the dual AES, so that you can run 384 KHz, but as a streamer board its very good.
Not much it can’t do as far as streaming platforms, plus its upgradeable going forward.
Obviously it was designed to work along side older dcs dacs, but if you can get the best out of it with the dac you have or planning to get, then i dont think you really need to look much further
Indeed. Double AES is a dCS thing (at least in the consumer market, not many have that).
AES is more or less a balanced S/PDIF, and brings noise reduction. Which is nice for long runs.
But, both AES an S/PDIF bring jitter issues. It’s a trad off…
USB if well implemented, on both sides, outperforms AES and S/PDIF (for short runs) and has no sample rate limitation
So, in theory USB should be a lot better!
But in the real world…
sounds like you should dem the three you list
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For that sort of gear, which goal is to feed a DAC.
Measurements should suffice : phase noise, clock stability and accuracy, transmitted common noise, etc.
Unfortunately, no company provides those measurements. For various reasons, most customers don’t understand them, some of those measurements can be environmental dependant, etc.
So yes, the only way is to audition those transports. But it won’t be possible. That’s why forums are interesting, to a certain point.
Considering you’re mainly looking at maximum performance, a point of note might be that in an earlier test that @frenchrooster posted the Lumin D2 performed worst in terms of digital jitter measurements:
This doesn’t necessarily translate to the U1 ofcourse, but it could be something to keep in mind going forward.
The Lumin D2 is a cost effective transport, while the Lumin U1 appears to be their flag ship transport.
Not sure the Lumin D2 measurements are relevant for the Lumin U1.
I understand that Thomas doesn’t want a server, only a transport with Roon Endpoint. However I feel that the best transport today are also servers. Top Antipodes, Taiko, or Innuos Statement are the most used in other forums, with the most expensive dacs available today.
The DCS bridge is perhaps the best as transport only, but its dual AES are very specific.
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Pink Faun is built to order and they develop custom made equipment. So maybe they can provide a tailor made solution. Regarding cost no object: they streamed an aries cerat full scale system at 2019 HE Munich and the new Pink Faun 2.16 Ultra comes in at £23,500.
Just checked their website.
What they offer is roughly pimped computer motherboards.
They then add their own ad-dons like PCI cards, power supplies and clocks.
Not really what I’m looking for.
Thanks anyway 
The short list remains short :
- dCS Network Bridge
- Sonore Signature Rendu Optical SE
- Lumin U1
They do a Lumin U1 mini too
If cost is no object, I’m sure Naim would build you an ND555 without a DAC in the box…
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I am sure that you would get better responses if you were a little less coy about the name of the DAC and indeed the details of the whole system. What exactly is your Roon endpoint fitting into? Perhaps you could achieve something better by reducing the cost of the DAC and getting a Statement preamp? This could then be linked to a M Scaler and Dave or a dCS Vivaldi. With these decisions made or clarified the choice of Roon endpoint then becomes much easier. I realise that this is diverting the discussion but hope that, ultimately, this could be helpful.
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Antipodes CX/EX or the later ‘S’ range should be added to the list.
What is the actual use case here ??? - to make any use you will need DAC/amplification/passive speakers OR active speakers (inclusive of DAC) to make any use of this standalone streamer
How about the Aqua LinQ?
However only S/PDIF and AES output for non-Aqua DACs, with an I2S output for their own kit.
Or the Weiss DSP501?
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Totaldac also just have a streamer.
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“however because of its architecture it is also capable of running different platforms such as DietPi, PiCorePlayer and Volumio.”
Raspberry pi inside?
Well, any of these streamers will have to have a microprocessor inside. However, from this picture this seems to be the RPi Compute Module, which is just the core processor etc. and not a full RPi device and the all the digital signal processing is custom.
I am not in anyway recommending any of these - just interesting researching what Roon Ready streamers are available.
I think Thomas wants something without anything “raspberry”.
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