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£200 streaming option beats all comers upto £5K
#1
Catchy thread title eh?  Although it just might be nearer the truth than you think.

Over the years, posts about various streaming solutions for the Devialet have been popular.  There are many options of course, just use AIR, the value for money stuff like the Cubox and Raspberry PI, Mac Mini's, Laptops, then the "good stuff" (or too expensive stuff some might think) from Aurender, Antipodes, dCS, and others.  Then network end points from SOtM and Sonore.  Then add a £3k reference clock, the list goes on.

In my experience, the options I have really liked for pure sound quality, such as the Aurender (N10 / W20) and dCS (Vivaldi Upsampler) have also been the worryingly expensive options, which is a shame.

So what is the thread title about?  Recently there have been some fascinating reports on Computer Audiophile regarding exceptional results being obtained by Intel series 7 NUCs.  The gold standard here seems to be a NUC 7 running "low latency" AudioLinux OS, which is booted into RAM from a USB stick, preferably running from the best LPSU you can find.  (which does push the price up a touch)  This can be configured as a Roon endpoint or for HQPlayer NAA etc.

It also seems that all aspects described above contribute to performance, the NUC 7 is a factor, so is AudioLinux, so is the RAM boot OS.  So how good is this little NUC option?  If you believe the reports, it is very good indeed, end game class.  Just using a NUC as an endpoint is apparently better than a Innuos Zenith SE, better than the SOtM sMS-200ultra / TX-USBultra / REF10 combo, better than the dCS Network Bridge, you get the idea.

This is very much a DIY option at the moment, not for those that want a nice reliable turnkey solution, but if reports are to be believed, this is the new audio Nirvana irrespective of the fact it is also an incredibly cheap option.  Good results have been reported using NUC 7s as either "network endpoints", servers, or a kind of two NUC solution.  Can it really be true?  With something like a Paul Hynes SR4, you could have a giant-killing solution for well under £1000.

So far I have not seen anyone try such a solution with a Devialet, so this important (for this forum) aspect is currently an unknown.  Maybe someone out there with the necessary time, skills and motivation might want to try?

Plus, for those adverse to a DIY solution, there is a guy offering bespoke NUC builds, see link:

https://nuckleheadaudio.com/

I could write a lot more on this topic, but there is no need for me to keep typing, it is currently being very extensively covered over on Computer Audiophile.

The first post that started all this NUC experimentation is per the link below.  Be prepared to read about another 100 pages (and counting) if you want the full story......

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forum...ent-860030

OK - I know some will think all this to be very unlikely and yet more subjective Audiophile snake oil nonsense, but at least it is relatively affordable for once!
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
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£200 streaming option beats all comers upto £5K - by Confused - 26-Nov-2018, 23:22

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