I was pondering a similar question recently. I have a dedicated computer running as my ROON core, it’s built just to do the single task. I have 4 streamers and only one the Innuos MK3 could be used as a core but it does not do the job as well as my little computer does. The only reason I even contemplated upgrading the core is because it’s fan is a touch noisy. Hmm, I think I will work on taking the case off today to see if I can quiet down the fan or possibly replace it instead. 
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I still use ROON so I need a core to operate. If I could figure out how to use one of the other backbones on my Pi and SOTM units I would consider dropping the ROON subscription and going all In with the Innuos Sense app to save another $150 of the yearly subscription cost of ROON.
The nice thing about a cheap streamer is that it’s cheap and you can find many of them used for… cheap. But a cheap streamer still needs a good PS and good cabling. So it’s not so cheap in the end, but those are things you can use when you get a not so cheap streamer later on.
That said even a decent streamer will more than likely best by a good bit a standard PC or laptop.
If capable, you can also put a DDC in line and reap additional benefits.
My experience has been when moving into more expensive streamers has been that it does matter and it gets better with more expensive ones.
The same with all the other components.
Thanks for everyone’s input.
What do we think about replacing streamers and desktop DACs with capable DAPs? That’s potentially a legitimate option, right? Or has anyone even found a DAP that is competent enough to replace an upper-mid tier desktop DAC?
There are definitely DAPs that compete with desktop DACs but it’s hard to say without budgets and more specific comparisons
Hiby R8ii vs. Comet+
Haven’t heard the Comet so I can’t comment accurately but I’m a big fan of Hiby DAPs
I own at least 7 DAC’s across the spectrum cost wise and have at one time or other had about a dozen in house. The Comet+ is very capable and hits much higher than its used pricing would indicate. (Despite its annoyances) It’s fine to replace it because eventually it will break and there is no recourse for repair but replacing it with something better will cost a pretty penny, it simply performs at much higher tier than you would think. Good luck and happy listening always.
I think a DAP is very adequate interim solution but if you’re looking to upgrade towards an end game or solid upgrade, then a DAP isn’t a long term solution.
Tell me about it. I actually sold my first Comet+ because I wanted to replace it with something more IEM friendly (Hugo 2). That lasted hours. Fortunately I tracked down another Comet+. It is the best DAC I have owned and second best that I have heard; Chord Daves really are something.
So, I am 100 % in with my streamer now. For listening to music it’s:
Qobuz > Node Nano > SU-1 > Comet+ > Taurus II > Transducer
I was going to experiment by taking my DDC out of the loop, see if it’s holding the streamer back or not. However, I wouldn’t then have any audio solution for my two PCs (which next two each other, each in its own desk with my hifi rack/trolly in the middle).
So, if I did find that my DDC was a bottle neck between my streamer and DAC, would there be any negative impact when listening to music via the streamer if the DDC is not in that chain, but is still connected to my DAC to feed audio from one of my two PCs as and when I want to watch YouTube or play CoD, etc.?
Or does my DDC need to be totally electrically isolated from my chain (i.e. disconnected from my DAC) until I want to use it to use audio from my PC and thus would need to plug it in each time.
Update on the above experiment, my DDC is actually making a large, positive impact on my chain. I have an array of WW Ultraviolet cables and so have been able to at least rule that out as having an impact on my experiment.
In short, take my DDC out of my chain, instruments become less well defined and harder to follow. With my DDC in my chain, instruments practically pop out of the mix and are very easy to follow. The streamer had a similar effect on the chain, but using both of them together is astonishingly good. That’s the word that keeps on coming to mind - astonishing.
I’m trying to work, but I’ve got Tool, Toto, Wheel, etc. playing and I keep on catching myself just sitting here, mesmerised by what I’m hearing.
The track I first listened to, going back forth, repeating the first 90 seconds was this:
It’s a fairly busy but well-executed production; big drum kit, bassist, three guitarists, various vocal lines, synth, etc. but everything is so well defined and pops out of the mix. I can so clearly hear the ride cymbal’s wash, in addition to the stick definition of it’s body - I often hear this being mashed together in a more two dimensional fashion, but when you’re in front of a real ride cymbal the two sounds are distinct but are still obviously coming from the same piece of metal; this chain is reproducing that. I can hear the resonance of the snare drum; not just it’s attack and associated pitched decay, but I can so clearly hear the air moving through the drum. Bass guitar, again it’s better defined and the character of the bass guitar is so clear.
I’m glad I’ve decided to stop flip flopping on gear and just travel hard down this road.
I just need to up/revise my cable game and I’ll be done 
@Go-Kart My very humble and personal opinion solely based on my own experiences, various levels of equipment used, and most importantly (can’t stress this enough) how far i have developed my own ability to listen for what sound quality preferences and desires i crave. My experiences rely heavily on digital streaming, not analog and very little on personally owned music files, so to be very clear, rented music files.
Quality of the recording and front end upgrades have made more noticeable to ME improvements in my overall enjoyment. What do i mean? As i improved my internet connection, as i beefed up and cleaned up SPIDIF and USB noise reduction, and searched out recordings, albums, tracks and genres that in general fit my amplification and transducer quality to synergize best; these are the areas that gave me the most quality improvements and enjoyment to date.
I use good cables BUT have not found significant or sometimes even noticeable improvements between for example a $400 power chord versus a $4500 chord. My $50-$500 cables (RCA, BNC, XLR, AES) give me excellent quality sound stage and performance compared to a few cables i own w/ MSRP in excess of $1000. You really, really should have a very solid grasp of your equipments performance and the patience to test one cable at a time for many many hours if you decide you want to spend “big boy” money on cables. My humble warning to you is that because it’s expensive does it impact your sound quality in a way that actually pleases you or simply gives you satisfaction because of what it cost? i like nice things and sometimes i find all i get out of really expensive cables is the satisfaction of knowing i managed to snag one for myself and not necessarily any appreciable improvement in my system 
I have gone back and forth with various pieces of equipment i own many times trying to gauge appreciable performance improvements using various high dollar big name brand cables and ultimately despite my desire to own them my equipment and my ears do NOT necessarily benefit from their prowess, materials and build relative to their cost. 
(they do look cool though) DO NOT DESPAIR though, i am NOT saying cable material and build are not worthwhile, on the contrary i feel very confident that the various materials used in both equipment and cable constructions do play a role, i just find bigger improvements elsewhere . (The limitation is most likely my own ability to discern differences and the level of transducer and other equipment used, not because of lack of performance ability of the fancy cables, they probably work just as advertised not necessarily in my application or to my own abilities)
Good power, enhanced internet services and components, a good streamer and most importantly, quality source material. The recordings themselves, once your equipment gets fancy matter allot. Not every version of a song sounds good and we are at the mercy of the recording studio, the technician that mixes the material, when and where it was sourced etc.
Good luck in your journey, put your faith in your own ears and preferences and have fun always, it’s your hard earned money spend it best possible, i hope my own experiences on this journey help you out in yours 
NOTE: One exception to all this is USB cables, for some reason good quality USB cables have repeatedly made a positive and noticeable differece in every single scenario, use good good quality usb cables when you can. 
Do you recommend any particular USB cables?
I have had excellent results with the FTA Callisto, Nordost Tyr 2 and the Ideon Siren. All random choices except the FTA, I purposely chose that particular USB after some research and recommendations from folks using it here. You don’t have to go that expensive though, the USB cables from Wireworld have also performed nicely too. I’m not technically schooled enough to give any sort of proper explanation, i just know from my own experiences that if you do any level of fine listening, really paying attention to your equipment, the USB is a fairly easy catch. And i mean from just a normal standard computer grade and many of the inexpensive $20-50 USB cables marketed as “hi-fi” grade. A good quality USB has been a staple in my home on every system that uses them for years now, i’m a convert. This was the reason i got off the laptop and went to a dedicated ROON core and streamers.
Thanks, Nick! I really appreciate the advice.
The upgrades for my cables I have in mind are actually to try and stay around the same tier (WW Ultraviolet, etc.) but just revise the lengths. I have had my DDCs on one of my two desks and then longish USBs, BNC, AES, Toslink to and from them to this hifi rack trolly that I have in the middle of the desks. This actually looks like chaos, and looking at it almost gives me a headache, but because I’ve been constantly buying and selling gear, it never made sense to neaten it up and cable manage it properly with the correct length cables. Now however, I’m in the end game. The gear that’s on this rack is what is pretty much what is staying on this rack. So the intention is get a shorter USB cable (I will investigate the ones you’ve mentioned, plus the ones on the good value cable thread) for when I move my SU-1 onto the rack in the coming weeks, as well as a shorter AES, etc…
With my XLRs I feel like I’m cheating. They’re Cardas Hexlink 5-C but from Ali Express that I bought years ago when I first got into the hobby. Are they even legit!? I’ve actually tried spending more money on XLRs recently and sent them all back/sold them on as I find these to sound good. These are so cheap (£30 for a 0.5m pair) that I am sceptical that they are actually Cardas, but I have put these against a few different cables that cost up to £100 and these fake (having now just gone to Cardas’s website, they have a whole section on how they haven’t made Hexlink cables in 10 years and Ali Express sells a bunch of fake junk!) sounded better every time. Other cables sounded bass lean and some times sharp in comparison. It maybe that these blag Cardas are so junk that they’re distorting the frequency response of my gear in a way that I like, but I would like to hear what a good cable/more neutral cable should sound like so I can make up my mind.
I’m trying to be very sensible in my expenditure in ending the hifi game because the money left over from my hifi pot is getting invested in a decent electric drum kit, so I can start playing again. However, if anyone has any recommendations for 0.5m XLRs that’d run £100 or less that are known good cables, I will investigate.
Headphone cables on the other hand, I have been researching what AWG and Litz means, and I understand how getting a reasonably pricey headphone cable can make a more significant difference, given the voltage and current being sent out of an amplifier, and the impedance of the can, etc… So, for this, as some have seen and kindly offered guidance, on my WTB thread, I am going to sink more money for that part of my chain.
I have found streaming music from Qobuz to often sound better than my local files, but I’m fairly sure this is because my local FLACs/WAVs are all CD rips, and Qobuz have a mix of CD and higher resolution stuff. I hadn’t paid the higher resolution much thought, but I’d just be listening to music as I work and hear something in familiar music that I hadn’t heard that before; it then wouldn’t take long for me to discern that it may/probably be because the version I was listening to was higher resolution. Remasters can catch me off-guard sometimes, but I try and stay away from those. This is also one of the reasons why I will always have a local stash of music. I hadn’t planned on going further down the higher resolution rabbit hole, but I may do when I have “finished” my chain. However, and you wouldn’t think this considering my recent pace of buying gear, A/Bing things drives me mad - I just want to enjoy my music.
Im planning on changing my BHC + Speedball for a (discontinued) woo wa3
Skip to the BOTTOM LINE for a TLDR.
@Camus I know you had a woo wa3, I dont know if you ever compared to the BHC but id like to know your take
So basically my BHC was built by me and it worked like a charm to my surprise because I thought I did a lousy job, I didnt use flux or solder fluid so a lot of the solder job looks lousy, nor was I prepared to do some of the more difficult ones since I thought it would be a lot more easy to build at the time.
Not a single cold solder tho. Every number right on the testing.
Apart from screws not being tight enough, ive given it maintenance, and to fix random noise I diagnosed the problem came from the headphone jack so I replaced with another same one from BHC and it worked.
Today I went out with a friend, my mom visisted and she knows not to touch anything mine, specially audio but shes getting older, she saw the BHC I left playing to burn in my new mullard and thought I must have forgotten to turn it off.
Out of the 10+ ways to turn it off or at least the music, I was using r70x 4.4mm with a 6.35mm adapter, she disconected only the 4.4mm part without the adapter and with the volume playing quite high, with some bad luck shorting the right channel of the amp and I really dont wanna diagnose and repair it but most likely its just the jack again.
I just wish I knew better when I first built it, I feel like resoldering all of the amp is like putting bandages over what could have been done better the first time.
BOTTOM LINE
I think ill get just a bit better sound with a woo wa3, Ill finally be able to use my tung sol 7236 without a ton of noise, and I dont have any 12au7 I want to keep anyway, so it feels like a new start.
I do plan to resolder or have someone do it for me on the BHC, have the jack or whatever replaced and sell it for cheaper here in mexico, with the basic tubes.
Another plan would be to just skip OTL amps for now and just use the quicksilver but I feel its not the same, theres some magic on OTL for higher impedance.
What do you think?
If you’re looking for a WA3:
A friend linked it to me before, I dont know how I missed it, its the version with a nice choke and the caps were upgraded as much as possible
Im not sure why would you put a mechanical pot in something as simple as a wa3 but its there anyway, I dont even know if its a stepped attenuator but whatever, im buying it, I hope no one wins me to it.
Polls are in, the Auralic has taken it. I wouldn’t say it is “better”, it just sounds more “correct” to me. The way it lays out the images across the stage. The size and shape of the stage. The overall frequency response. It just sounds how I want/expect it to sound.
Although I have a few cans and IEMs, I have made my decision almost entirely based on impressions from my HEkse, as this is my primary listening device and will remain so moving forward.
I upgraded my interconnects to QED Reference/Signature recently, too. I couldn’t bare to A/B my blag Ali Express Cardas cables, but everything sounds great.
Now, to wait a few more days for my Arctic Apeiron 