Comments on Profile Post by GoldfishX

Are you talking about Schiit DACs? Unsure what you mean.

Just in general. Schitt DAC's tend to be modular, so I wonder if, say, a card that accepted an NVME or SD card would be feasible. Non-modular DAC's don't have that option (some have streaming capabilities, but few are one box solutions). Plenty of DAC/amp combos, but few source/DAC combos

So library storage, the ability to install an interface, and a dac all in one? It think there are all kinds of solutoins out there that meet this criteria. The Pi2Design Mercury fits your use-case description. Talk to @Michael Kelly . He makes awesome stuff that sounds great.

With all due respect, his DAC implementation is a bonus (he basically said so) and the streamer seems to need some serious work-arounds to get an NVME drive running well (I acknowledge it's probably great for a network setup).

The streamer on the Pi2Design stuff is your choice - volumio, rolpiee for ROON, spotify etc - very well proven solutions. There is so much great stuff out there that does exactly what you're looking for. What I was gently saying is that streamer+dac+storage integrated solutions exist and are well documented.

Aren’t there streamers with audio outputs like this?

Not as many as I'd like, but basically none where the DAC is the main feature. Mola Mola Tambaqui and the higher end Weiss ones both have streamers but no local storage. The Eversolo's are probably the best option. I doubt the internal DAC is amazing, but they get the importance of internal file storage.

But when you add all that you have a computer.

And then people will start to say things like computers are noisy, and we should not have the soundcard (DAC) in the same box.

GOTO 2001. Replay.

(I've never had a box called a streamer, but yes, it's a PC dressed as hifi)

I guess I'm weighing the potential added noise vs all the added complexity of another box: Power cable, digital cable, placement, "which input works best" and coming up with the extra outlet if you're not using a conditioner. With large spinning HD's, I can 100% see the issue. NVME's are really low key and SD cards should be as well.

The Taiko Audio Olympus is actually sort of what you’re getting at, where they are now recommending using an onboard DAC card (in an AMD Threadripper solution mobo) instead of USB output to a DAC. The kicker is it is $70k lol.

It’s total ORFAS stuff at that price but it’s usually cited as the best of the best by the ORFAS dudes (or at least the previous product was, the Extreme). Here’s more from one of the early backers if you want to gawk: https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/reality-quest-review-of-the-taiko-audio-olympus-music-server-part-1-of-2-r1305/

Well, I'm just a deaf old fart anyway... but I have never done anything other than have just one general-purpose PC that does everything. Simultaneously.
I haven't hear an hdd in quite a few years, at all. (Honestly though, that could be me) and I think they are still rated best for write few read many data storage...

...ie you add a song once but play it often.

NVME, though, is of course best for speed, which is not even necessary for an audio box. Oh... can't get much neater if one wants small.

The Chord streamer modules (Poly/2go) do exactly this. It’s not a built-in solution per se, but it’s the closest thing I can think of short of a streamer box or RPi.