Adding steaming to my older kit

Posted by: NoFitState on 11 February 2015

So unfortunately my trusty Royd Doublets have died so I'm off to demo some replacements.

I figured while I was at it I would take a look at something to stream music off my NAS.

When I started looking through the choices I started to wonder what my best choices would be. Do I add an a streamer with inbuilt DAC? Or would I be better adding a seperate DAC and use a basic streaming device? Are there better choices to naim DAC?

And given the age of my existing gear would something like an all-in-one naim solution actually provide improved sound quality over my fairy dated kit?

CD5, nac90 with flatcap, nap92

I'll obviously go demo any kit before buying but I guess being so new to the whole streaming / DAC options I thought someone might be able to help with a starting point on what I should be looking at

Thanks!
Posted on: 11 February 2015 by Solid Air

Wow - wide open question. All options are possible :-)

 

An all-in-one streaming solution would likely sound different to your current system. Whether better or worse depends on your preferences and wallet - certainly something like a SuperUniti will have more power than the Nap92! Might give you more speaker options too I guess. But better? I'd say yes, but it's your ears that count.

 

You could equally get an ND5xs and keep your current kit. Seems an awful shame to replace it if you like it.

 

If you get just a Dac you'l need another streaming device, but that can be done. In addition to the Naim options, the Chord Hugo dac gets a lot of love around here, if you can live with the look of the thing. There's a 'TT' variant on the way that might not frighten the horses quite as much, at least in black, in the dark, if you only ever look at it in a mirror.

 

Posted on: 12 February 2015 by DC71

If you want to 'dip your toe in' at not too much cost you could start with something like a QED Uplay Stream. I've been thinking of adding one to my bedroom all-in-one system, since I'm loving the convenience of streaming from NAS through my Qute2 in the main room.

 

A bit higher up the chain, a Sonos Connect would also be an option before you get to Naim-level gear.