Streamer recommendations

[Blackbird]

Yes improved filtering added

[Innocent_Bystander]

RF? Network in, digital out, or power supply?

[Blackbird]

Mainly added caps on DC in but also improvements changing existing caps to better ones. I have AB tested original against the improved one and the improvements are very audible in a good way

[Innocent_Bystander]

Ah, thanks. But I’m curious as to how you did A-B comparison as it must have taken at least an hour or two to complete and get back in the system, and you presumably didn’t revert? Or did you manage have a second one available?

[Blackbird]

I had two. One original and one modified So just seconds between them.

Have you checked “Gabster CRC power supply filter”? I assume similar improvements.

[What_Are_You_To_Me]

I’ve not used one, but has the Innuos Zen or Zenith been mentioned yet? Some great deals to be had on second hand units now they’ve launched a new product line. As well as having a great app they also have inbuilt linear power supplies. I would definitely consider one if I didn’t already have a Roon Nucleus.

[malfordlad]

… Innuos Zen with Chord Qutest or Zenith with Hugo TT2 sound great to me (YMMV).

[IWCDoppel]

Well a few months on and my next question and an update.

To start the journey and give me some flexibility I bought a used N130 and experimented a little as I had an old DACMagic that I had always got on with in a few A-B’s many years ago. The DacMagic was better using COAX out over the internal DAC on the N130. Given the age of the DM I opened her up and yes a few leaky caps, so I recapped the unit (actually they all still measured in spec even though a few had weeped a little on the board) I used decent low ESR caps in the digital side and audio quality in the Opamp side so no longer full of Xunda moderate ESR caps but Panasonic FM/FC and Nichicon Muse for the bipolar etc.

The DM after 100+ hours if play is a good bit better than before and some way ahead of the internal Node N130 DACs and output stage.

So my next steps and any thoughts on these next ventures

My ethernet in is wall (Cat 6 wired from base Netgear) then via super cheap patch to old Router for WiFi then via cheap long Ethernet cable (6 I think) to N130, then via Chord Coax 2m Clearway to DacMagic to naim 32.5 then biamped naim 135’s to Sonus Faber Extremas and in parallel the 32.5 feeds a 10x10 DSP and 5 subs for the bass the Extrema miss, so down to cinema frequencies

My question is what next and what priorities

1. Swap the router or add a switch after the router
2. think about better Ethernet cables, especially the patch from wall to apple router ?
3. Upgrade the streamer (possibly LPS for the Node ?)
4. Try other DACs - but budget is tight at the moment and no room to fit a nice unit on a shelf

Oh I know I could tidy cables but there’s a lot of them in a Cinema set up… you can just see the Node and DM hidden away !

[stavrose]

Some people on here are gonna be quite triggered by that… spaghetti

My suggestion would be to get a dedicated audio network switch and some decent Ethernet cable either side of it but particularly for connecting the switch to streamer.

Not sure how much outlay you can justify on your system - no point going overboard. A used ee8 (or similar) plus a quality Ethernet cable such as shunyata gamma to connect it to your streamer should work well.

If/when you upgrade your streamer/dac the same switch and cable will give you even more performance gain.

Just my thoughts