DAC for a streamer?

Posted by: Gajdzin on 23 March 2015

Since discussing non-Naim gear seems allowed here, I have a confession to make: I was unfaithful. I bought a non-Naim streamer for the bedroom: a Denon DNP-F109. In my (admittedly weak) defense: I was waiting for a "Unitiqute w/o the amp" solution (at half the price of Unitiqute) and it's not coming, so there.

 

The Denon is cheap and cheerful, easy to use, and plays internet radio MUCH better than Naim: hours and hours of listening to "Audiophile Baroque" that my ND5XS in the living room plays for maximum 10 seconds before running out of memory. A nice Denon iPhone app controls this streamer and even the ND5XS!

 

Where Denon fails, miserably, is the sound quality. Until now the streamer duties in the bedroom were fulfilled by an old, broken (but wi-fi still works) iPhone 4. It sounded better than the DNP-F109. I think the problem is that it's meant for a Denon separates set, to which it would connect via Toslink. The good quality D/A and the analogue sections would be in the amplifier. So they put a cheap D/A and analogue section in to the streamer. This means I'll have to buy a little DAC for the bedroom. Something warm sounding, with solid bass. I'm thinking NAD 1050. Anyone has any experience with it?

Posted on: 23 March 2015 by Huge

Poor sound quality is even more disappointing in light of the performance of the Denon DM39.

Posted on: 23 March 2015 by Gajdzin
Originally Posted by Huge:

Poor sound quality is even more disappointing in light of the performance of the Denon DM39.

Well, I don't know Denon DM39, but I have a Denon CHR-F109 CD player / streamer in the study and it sounds great into a Cyrus amp and Monitor Audio BX2 speakers. So I really think the designers of DNP-F109 meant it as a component that will be paired with something like DRA-F109 amplifier that will do all the D/A and analogue duties.

 

The box is very light, which is never a good sign for analogue circuitry.

 

I'm sure it will do great when paired with a good DAC. The amp it will go into is lovely: Unison Research Simply 2, just re-tubed with NOS Philips ECC-82 tubes from Watfordvalves. It deserves something better than the D/A and analogue out thrown into the Denon as an afterthought

Posted on: 24 March 2015 by Gavin B

I have the same unit connected to my main system, and I now run it through a small Rega DAC.  This certainly improved the SQ but I hardly ever listen to it and wouldn't like to comment on how it sounded compared to my Qute when I used that as a source.

Posted on: 24 March 2015 by Gajdzin
Originally Posted by Gavin B:

I have the same unit connected to my main system, and I now run it through a small Rega DAC.  This certainly improved the SQ but I hardly ever listen to it and wouldn't like to comment on how it sounded compared to my Qute when I used that as a source.

Have you tried running the Denon into the Qute, i.e. use Qute as a DAC...? You could easily switch between the same internet radio station (or DNLA stream) decoded by Denon vs Qute, with all other components (D/A, preamp, etc.) being the same - a perfect test of whether it makes sense buying a good external DAC for the Denon...

 

That would be an interesting test and would