Sonore Streamers

[Zappydev]

Oh yes, you asked about 'wow' moments.  Well, I have had many 'wow' moments over the years.  Going from AIR to the mR resulted in a very pleasant & enjoyable listening experience, but no 'wow' moments.  Adding the Mutec with latest v1.10 firmware, many 'wow' moments were delivered, which I have not had at home for a while.  Away from home, the most recent 'wow' moment was listening to the 1000 Pro, fed via Aurender N10.  'Wow' moments before this were also delivered by the Melco N1Z, Aurender N10/W20 & dCS rig.  It's been a busy year!

Hello Confused

Taking this post in isolation, this clearly seems to set AIR behind all of the other sources or inputs that you have mentioned. Is that a fair assessment (in your opinion) ? I know you have posted extensively about various combinations that you have tried or heard, but a few folk have suggested that AIR 3 is pretty close to everything else you mention apart from the dCS, so I am trying to get a feeling for the pecking order based on someone who has had the chance to make multiple comparisons.

Z

The short answer is yes.  To be honest, I have always found Windows AIR to sound very good.  Plus in terms of functionality it is superb, after all, it will run with anything that will run on a Windows PC.  Taking the Melco's, Aurender's etc., I preferred the N10 and W20, I think it is a case of a preference for anything that feeds via AES/EBU.  It is perhaps worth mentioning that the combination of the Aurender N10 with the 1000 Pro was sensational.  But they all offer pretty poor functionality (depending on what you want), so taking price, usability and sound quality into account, I did not think the sacrifice of usability with the Aurenders and Melco's was worth the gain in sound quality, then you have the cost on top!

The mR / Melco combo edges ahead of AIR for SQ, and has terrific functionality.  It's perhaps worth mentioning the mR / Mutec has also been 100% stable and glitch free.   Now my Mutec has settled in a bit and is running it's latest 1.10 firmware, I might try another Mutec / AIR back to back.  In fact I have noticed a SAM related reason for trying this, more at the weekend if I get the time!

I would be interested to hear how that turns out. As a lifetime Rooney (not the Wayne variety!) I am not especially interested in anything that relies on a different UI unless the SQ was massively superior. Even through all my earlier AIR woes, I always found USB sounded terrible (when fed directly from the PC) so I resisted buying add-on boxes to try and fix it. Now, AIR is stable for me, sounds good and works well with Roon, so it is tricky to know where the next step might come from. The mR is affordable enough, but adding an LPS, a Mutec, a fancy clock ...... There is no end to it! We both heard the dCS at Oxford, so I am trying to gauge the spectrum between AIR & dCS in terms of SQ vs cost.