Thanks! I just put in the order. I’ll see if it is available tomorrow. I guess I could have drove an hour and a half to Excel and listened to the L-907X with the Harbeths, but 
. It does check every box. It’ll be fun to see if it passes the sniff test.
Oh dang! Going in blind?? I hope it works out for you. I did really like my experience with the kwa150se though
It sounds like you want a music streamer box that also gives you Youtube and other non traditional music sources? Is that why a more standard streamer won’t work for you?
My take is that it’s an interesting idea but I think the weak point is that this is a pc. You have a motherboard that generates all kinds of noise and everything runs through it. You are adding things at the edges to fix the problem in the middle, if you see what I mean? Personally I see computers as an inherently dirty signal, rather than trying to make it less bad and adding endless expensive components where you still ending up needing to clean the signal on exit.
I personally think you would be better off with a single exit solution such as an external reclocker: either a consumer DDC; or a prosumer device like a Mutec. For the same money as these parts you could have a very good quality reclocker/ddc that deals with all the issues of using a PC as a sound source and money left over for your source device.
You could then go with an off the shelf NUC running windows and either access it directly or using RDP from another PC as mentioned above. Alternatively you could get something like a Microsoft Surface and use that as both device and control/viewing surface.
Haha, not entirely reckless. I’ve been researching it. I wasn’t sure if tubes and running 25w in class a would be too much of a good thing with the Harbeths. I think i just need to hear it to know. 75lbs and aesthetically it would be like going to a apple to a gaming pc made me skip it. The dealer is going to call me today so I’ll make the final decision today.
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I plan on also adding a DDC to the chain. Looking to do the best I can.
Share the links as I’d use something like that in my next PC build, planning one for 2024. 
Oops… looks like you already did, thanks.
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Check out SoTM, they have entire PC kits or even offer pre built PCs and far cheaper than the JCAT prices.
I personally wouldn’t go this route because you’re spending A LOT of money to make an inherently noisy device less noisy, with no other benefit. So it’s a tough pill to swallow but I can understand you not liking controlling the service with a tablet or phone.
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If it’s just for lossy music services, where you can live with a 100ms or so of latency, you can broadcast the audio from your PC to any UPNP/DLNA compatible device using Stream What You Hear.
Then your PC isn’t directly connected to the system at all except via network, and you can just buy a quality streamer instead of a D2D converter.
Not a solution for games, though my solution for that has always been just to use a “cheap” system exclusively for that. Mine is currently an SMSL SU8 → Whammy → HD800S, and I have to option of running an Elekit amp into a pair of speakers from the same DAC.
All my music goes over the network.
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Just got a new Pre amp that has a bunch of balanced / unbalanced inputs and thinking of getting some midfi dacs (< $1.5k) that have a significant change in sound signature:
Currently own Holo spring KTE & BF2 and thinking of picking up 2-3 more and wondering if there are some suggestions. I’m not necessarily concerned with the most technical options but those that do something interesting with stage, bass impact, or transients.
Current short list:
Gustard A26 / R26
MHDT Orchid
Bryston BDA 1/2
Mojo Mystique v1
Exogel Comet
Geishelli J2
Mytek Liberty 2
Arc Dac 3
Pontus 2
Hugo 2
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The Qutest has better outputs compared to the Hugo2 I believe. You’ll also see improvements by upgrading the PSU. They can be found used from about $1-1.2k.
It’d be a good alternative to R2R for comparison purposes (and I think it sounds good).
Looking forward to your selections and comparisons. 
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Honestly don’t think this is really worthwhile to do since you already have 2 pretty nice dacs (assuming you like them), I’d rather take that money you would spend and move up to something nicer for something more rewarding and useful imo
That being said, out of your shortlist I might look for the qutest as @ValentineLuke mentions since that would be pretty different from what you have, or an exogal if you can find one as well. The orchid would also be pretty interesting to me. I’d personally skip the bryston (not interesting), j2 (imo too low of a step), liberty (not interesting), and hugo (in favor of the qutest), and mojo (never heard a v1 but the v2 upgraded are where they seemingly get more interesting). The ARC could be cool but I don’t think I’ve heard that specific one before so can’t speak to it, and the gustard people seem to like but also not heard so can’t speak to it.
Pontus is a weird one, it sure would be different, but I personally really disliked the pontus 1 but apparently 2 was improved (but still skeptical based on what I’ve head about it), but some do like it so
A bit above your price range (few hundred off used) but something like a crane song solaris is pretty fantastic and worth checking out (honestly might take it over a spring personally). And most other stuff I’d suggest would be at a higher price point honestly, and that’s really the thing, I think you’d really still be better off just saving your money and making a more meaningful upgrade rather than something just for flavor for long term benefit if you still like what you have, but that’s just me. 2-3 midfi dacs might cost you 2-3k, and with that money I think you can get a lot more interesting and worthwhile single next tier up dac (that’s amber 3, la voice s3, (possibly) wavelight, yggy, meitner ma2, mystique v3, etc money right there)
If you’d be looking for something in that range highest performing for their used price (out of your list) I’d go exogal (or for something new price the crane song) although those are more on the accurate than exaggrated side of things space wise and more tight than slammy bass wise
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That is basically what I was looking for. What quality does it stream at? 16/44.1 or can it do 24 bit as well? And I won’t be gaming. The only thing would be YouTube video delay?
those 2-3 midfi dacs + spring 3 (lets say keep the BF2 for other purposes) brings you to Mojo X, Wavedream, Baltic, Berk 1, Weiss 501 territory,
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I think @Rmsanger has a spring 1 lvl 3 not a spring 3 so I don’t know if it would be that much of a budget jump if he sold it (although no idea what spring 1 go for these days) but still there’s a lot more options that open up that I think make more sense then spending on multiple dacs for the sake of different flavors. Believe me, I was a lot more satisfied consolidating everything into a few good chains than having dacs for different flavors lol
oh I missed that! but I’m still supportive of the idea. I own one DAC, sometimes wish I had two, but always go back to it’s probably better to keep upgrading this one then getting two personally.
For myself having multiple systems that serve different purposes I think 2 is a nice number, but more than that for a single setup I think becomes harder to really justify down the line and sort of doesn’t improve your setup as much as you might think it would vs upgrading to the next level. I get trying to go though stuff to find what you like if you don’t like what you have, but personally I think if you like what you have enough I’d just stick with it until a meaningful upgrade can be made
that’s why I keep eyeing the totaldac and mojo alternatives out of curiosity though never making the move but everyone knows that if I catch a wavedream sig in the used market it’s an instant buy for me
UPNP/DLNA is itself lossless, you configure SWYH for the target, and it resamples anything that plays in windows to that. It’s basically just streaming a wav file it’s also creating to the streamer.
Yes there would be som latency between the visuals and the audio, whether that bothers you I will likely depend on your personal tolerance.
For me short of gaming it was fine.
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My game plan is to buy 2-3 more Dacs on the list spend 3-6 months with them alongside my current ones. I’ll target used products so my downside should be minimal… At the end I’ll flip 1-2 of them and keep 3 dacs. Should be a fun exercise but we’ll see what I can get.
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Sounds great. Thank you for the recommendation! Now to research streamers…
Are you aware of any other software that can do that or is that the only way to accomplish my goal?
Basically is there any other way to connect a PC to a streamer via UPNP/DLNA besides that software?
And yet one more piece of the puzzle. Would you happen to know if EQ settings applied via EqualizerAPO will be sent with the audio stream?