Best streamer type device to my Dac optical in

[vineetrad]

Hi,

I have set up a speaker+amp+dac setup in my living room that I want my family to be able to connect to with their respective mobiles and WiFi stream Tidal to a device that then sends the digital signal to the optical or coaxial in of my high quality dac.

Please recommend the simplest plug and play streamer type device solution. The PW Link seems to do what I want. Does anyone have pointers where to buy it from in India?

I don't really want its room correction ability (my room has good acoustics) nor do I want to use the dac of the streamer since I am using a high end dac. Is there some other device besides the PW Link? All I really need is a streamer + optical out that is still simple to use out of the box and has a robust android app that works reliably.

I am not interested in fiddling around with raspberry pi based DIY or other devices that are not plug and play.

 

[Yogesh]

Chromecast Audio! Simplest of solutions if you can get your hand on it.

One is actually on sale in sale section.

 

[jai1611]

I'd recommend a Blusound Node 2i

 

[vineetrad]

I'd recommend a Blusound Node 2i

Bluesound was the other brand I was trying to remember the name of. Thanks!

 

[bornfi]

If you use Apple phone then old Apple TV that has optical out.

 

[rpmahale]

Bluesound node 2i, Paradigm PW link, Denon Heos link, Yamaha WXC 50 are some of the good options to excercise. Else ifi Zen dac blue is another option where you can stream music from your phone via Bluetooth....Auris blume HD is also one option for Bluetooth streaming.....

 

[fLUX]

Hi,

I have set up a speaker+amp+dac setup in my living room that I want my family to be able to connect to with their respective mobiles and WiFi stream Tidal to a device that then sends the digital signal to the optical or coaxial in of my high quality dac.

Please recommend the simplest plug and play streamer type device solution. The PW Link seems to do what I want. Does anyone have pointers where to buy it from in India?

I don't really want its room correction ability (my room has good acoustics) nor do I want to use the dac of the streamer since I am using a high end dac. Is there some other device besides the PW Link? All I really need is a streamer + optical out that is still simple to use out of the box and has a robust android app that works reliably.

I am not interested in fiddling around with raspberry pi based DIY or other devices that are not plug and play.

Hi Vineet,

I have tried both Bluesound Node 2i and PW link. If using an external dac would recommend the PW Link , the ARC calibrations do contribute a good bit to the experience overall and come in handy. The PW Link has good variety of options to be used as a source only , preamp only with ARC etc ( no sub out though). I have written my observations between the two here

Streamer Comparison - Bluesound Node2i vs Paradigm PW Link

Intro I got a "Bluesound Node2i" from a gentelman on the forum about a month back and during the recent Amazon Great Indian Festival Sale got the "Paradigm PW Link" streamer primarily because of the presence of ARC coupled with a calibrated mic. Having listened to both for some amount of time...

www.hifivision.com

I got it from Amazon, later got in touch with the seller directly. Will message you his details

 

[manniraj]

Try out a Raspberry Pi + Hifiberry Dac pro which gives out both optical and coaxial output. Cheapest solution in the market now as getting a Chromecast audio is difficult. If you can get a CC then thats the best possible simple solution. Otherwise try the other combo running Volumio, best of both worlds and you get Spotify, upnp and other plugins enabled and can cast either with Android or iOS devices.

 

[vineetrad]

Hi Vineet,

I have tried both Bluesound Node 2i and PW link. If using an external dac would recommend the PW Link , the ARC calibrations do contribute a good bit to the experience overall and come in handy. The PW Link has good variety of options to be used as a source only , preamp only with ARC etc ( no sub out though). I have written my observations between the two here

Streamer Comparison - Bluesound Node2i vs Paradigm PW Link

Intro I got a "Bluesound Node2i" from a gentelman on the forum about a month back and during the recent Amazon Great Indian Festival Sale got the "Paradigm PW Link" streamer primarily because of the presence of ARC coupled with a calibrated mic. Having listened to both for some amount of time...

www.hifivision.com

I got it from Amazon, later got in touch with the seller directly. Will message you his details

Very useful. Thanks Sukant.

 

[Eight1zero]

I am also in the same boat .. having used audiolab 6000n . Which was amazing and had a great dac.. I had to let go just because of the dts play Fi app.. it’s quite a disappointment.. I am looking at Ayrlic s50 pro .. looks quite promising and is available for 15k..

 

[Mrli17T]

I’m also planning to add a streamer to my stereo setup. One difference is that I’m ok with pi based ones. If you want user friendly streamers, you can checkout the Sonos too. I’m not sure on the Sq.
There were couple of them on sale in olx.

 

[fLUX]

I am also in the same boat .. having used audiolab 6000n . Which was amazing and had a great dac.. I had to let go just because of the dts play Fi app.. it’s quite a disappointment.. I am looking at Ayrlic s50 pro .. looks quite promising and is available for 15k..

Curious to know what issue you faced to sell the device itself. I use a PW Link, play-fi is not very intuitive but does the job quiet good for Tidal/Spotify/streaming from my PC using their windows app

 

[Rajeshh]

Hi Vineet,
Considering you are looking at something simple, the Blue-sound Node 2i is a top choice. The BluOS App is a pleasure to use & this will get the Tidal connect support eventually.

Apart from the excellent choices that others have made, here are some.
1. The Audioengine B-fi
2. Project Stream box S2
3. Primare Prisma Np5 (Heard that Tidal connect & Qobuz connect is coming to this)

 

[Eight1zero]

Curious to know what issue you faced to sell the device itself. I use a PW Link, play-fi is not very intuitive but does the job quiet good for Tidal/Spotify/streaming from my PC using their windows app

Hi
At the time I was trying to decide between the bluesound node2i and audiolab 6000n.. while the BluOS was a treat to use the playfi was quite annoying and the tidal app looked like it needed a lot of improvement. I decided to go with 6000n only because of the dac. While using the 6000n I was very happy with the sound but was not very happy with the app experience.. I bought an external dac that’s why I sold the audiolab.. now i just need a streamer so I deciding between the bluesound And the ayrlic s50 pro

 

[Eight1zero]

Hi Vineet,
Considering you are looking at something simple, the Blue-sound Node 2i is a top choice. The BluOS App is a pleasure to use & this will get the Tidal connect support eventually.

Apart from the excellent choices that others have made, here are some.
1. The Audioengine B-fi
2. Project Stream box S2
3. Primare Prisma Np5 (Heard that Tidal connect & Qobuz connect is coming to this)

Bluesound node2i has got tidal connect. Can confirm it as I have used it .

 

[fLUX]

Bluesound node2i has got tidal connect. Can confirm it as I have used it .

Its now available on pw link too as per latest update. Yet to try though

Hi
At the time I was trying to decide between the bluesound node2i and audiolab 6000n.. while the BluOS was a treat to use the playfi was quite annoying and the tidal app looked like it needed a lot of improvement. I decided to go with 6000n only because of the dac. While using the 6000n I was very happy with the sound but was not very happy with the app experience.. I bought an external dac that’s why I sold the audiolab.. now i just need a streamer so I deciding between the bluesound And the ayrlic s50 pro

Bluos is indeed a treat to use, but having grown on mp3 players the playfi seems still decent to me. It certainly has a delayed response but don't find much issues in usability

 

[Eight1zero]

Its now available on pw link too as per latest update. Yet to try though

That’s great news.. how is the pw link just as a streamer? Can u please try tidal connect and confirm. Thanks

 

[fLUX]

That’s great news.. how is the pw link just as a streamer? Can u please try tidal connect and confirm. Thanks

Its really good , I use it presently just as a streamer with a dedicated dac and pre in the chain. Will let you know on the Tidal Connect

 

[Kumar442244]

Give linderman streamer a serious thought