Innous Pulse, Lumin 2 mini, SOTm, Mano Ultra those were the ones I was looking at.
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I like my lumin u1 mini. It has a modded lps that takes it up a huge amount. The U2 mini is more of the same and can be lps modded as well.
Only issue is the app itself looks old, and is mehhh all around. Competent but mehh. I use it with a usb library attached. It also needs a wired Ethernet, even just to control the local library.
@orrman still selling that auralic if Iām not mistaken
Edit: works best with an iOS device though and if you use roon you most likely will take a hit in fidelity
Indeed I am! Will work great with the Mojo through USB and in case of need with wifi 
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Pleased with the SOTM but itās also fully decked out and has the added LPS.
I have the Innous Pulse on order, I finally broke down and decided I needed at least one streamer with an AES to get away from USB on some pieces.
The Innuos Sense software is included with the Pulse and in my direct A/B comparison was my preference over ROON but not as feature rich. Sound wise though it was the winner when really listening hard for the smallest differences.
Hope this all helps someš
This is a completely subjective opinion and obviously nothing tested in any sort of controlled environment, but i did have a small preference for the innuos sense streaming software, just by a slight edgeš And lastly, itās already included in the cost so all you have to pay for is a single service like tidal or quboz and off you go.
@5605KNC edit to add, The SOTM streamer, USB, LPS with the internal upgrades is a Very high quality great sounding set. Easily in my opinion a performance piece. Iām not crazy about the software interface. DbCooper had to set mine up for me I was not technically competent enough to do it myself.
My Innous Zenith I was able to set up myself with the current software package, I ASSUME the Pulse will be as simple and fairly straightforward. The Innuos team though offers excellent technical assistance but you need to be weary of the time difference they are in Portugal and assisting on a different time zone.
It will come down to features you want, cost and software requirements you have. I think both will provide too quality sound. Good luck.
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Helps greatlyā¦ Are you talking Pulse mini or Pulse? Does it make sense to pay more for a streamer than your dac?
PM with your info and I will take a lookā¦Tks
I ordered the Pulse. I desired its specific features and abilities. Iām comparing performance to the Zenith which should speak volumes to the SoTM, other than soundstage width and some height it was pretty close. In my very subjective comparison 
Iām not going to say yea or nay, instead I will have you think about it yourself based on what you are trying to do overall. The material and the source, when top tier or at least really good will then feed the rest of your chain allowing you to maximize the rest of your gear. When you shortchange your source it really doesnāt matter how good everything else is does it?
You need to make that choice yourself though based on how you feel about digital quality. 
This one got a bit long, consider yourself warned. TL,DR - Got a Mojo Mystique X SE, great at details, natural, organic, harmonic coherency. Iāll likely be keeping it.
I got a Mystique X SE about 2 weeks ago and have given it a good break in (over a 100 hours) and also getting used to it. It didnāt have an aha moment right off the bat but Iāve been slowly noticing changes in different headphones and addition of a better digital source took it to a different level as well. Itās currently being fed from a Rockna Wavedream NET with a DH Labs D750 Spdif cable over RCA with USB lifted. Not the most high end cable but it was a decent recommended cable in the cables thread so I thought itād be a good starting point. Itās outputting SE to Studio B which is also fed to a CFA3 (only for 1266 TC). According to the manual
Most people find our single-ended analog output has better time, tune, tone, timbre,
harmonic coherency, and musical flow. Most people find our balanced analog output has
more gestalt and intensity at the expense of musicality.
Now I havenāt heard a lot of dacs so I am not sure what exact characteristics dacs can change but I had a Holo May KTE for several months last fall, then went back to BF2/64, then had a TD unity very briefly, then BF2 again to hold me up and then X SE without much changes in rest of my change (ok I did add LessLoss power cables and a PS power plant last month). So although I didnāt have a very scientific A/B, I have been going through some different dacs since Sept '22. Unity was a bit of an outlier since I really didnāt spend much time with it due to work stuff etc.
Although Unity did have a wow factor out of box in terms of immediacy which I didnāt find with Mojo which disappointed me a bit at first. It could also be a difference in baseline because as good as BF2 is, going back to it after Unity was just not happening so I basically minimized my listening till I got the Mojo. So I went directly from BF2 to Unity but effectively went from Unity to X SE. Sorry for the detour but this was my logic for the missing wow factor but as M0N says, sometimes dacs donāt have a wow factor and it takes time to digest them which it certainly did for me with the X SE.
I think this dac kinda made me realize what I was looking for and probably get me to a good closing point on chain for some time, hopefully this year lol. It might not be exactly neutral but itās definitely not brighter leaning. It sounds weird but to me it feels like a bit of a chameleon as in it can be a bit warmer leaning when I wish it was but overall I donāt feel it is so Iām inclined to say it just presents the music at it should be.
Overall presentation is quite natural and organic. I use the word organic here to mean that music is presented more like it would feel in a āliveā setting rather than a recording. I put live in quotes because one doesnāt always listen to live recordings so itās not a real live stage but closer to one appropriate to the song, hopefully in-line with artistās intention. This works for me because it makes feel like Iām listening to the band around me somewhere rather than my headphones on my couch/chair.
Because of reasons explained above, stage is not huge or small, it is what it is or rather what it needs to be. Spatial presentation always feels just right and whatever the headphones are capable of at the end. I did notice an considerable improvement in imaging, more on some headphones (1266) than others (Utopia). Although the stage is not huge, the spatial presentation is enveloping as in the music is being played around you rather than at you, but without feeling artificially too grand or big, just as much as the song calls for. Big atmospheric pieces sound big, intimate songs feel intimate.
This is something probably more relevant to me but I am used to listening to music a little louder than others. My main reference point is my wife who (I think) listens too quietly but Iām getting a decibel meter soon to confirm. Since getting the Mojo though, Iāve been listening to much lower volumes. It only takes me like 3-4 seconds to normalize to the lower volume after reducing the volume and then I donāt even notice it. This kind of self-similarity is something new to me and make me think of the harmonic balance that Ben often talks about.
Besides the natural and organic presentation, the other stand-out for me is the detail, especially in bass and vocals. Itās going to sound funny but it just seems like the notes have taken on a shape and I can just reach out touch them and feel the texture, itās just that tangible. Regarding vocals, I think it goes the harmonic coherency that Ben talks about. Iām usually not the one to focus on vocals typically, especially because I listen to a lot of metal and instrumental jazz but with X SE, Iāve noticed myself focusing and often understanding (without reading lyrics) vocals/growls in metal songs which is usually rare for me. It adds a new dimension to that kind of music for me which is pretty cool.
One special synergy I found in my system was with the 1266 TC. I know 1266 is quite a polarizing headphone and for me itās been a challenge to get the most out of it from day one. But with the music I like and the way I experience it, I donāt think Iāll part with them unless I stop listening to metal. Fortunately, X SE improved the imaging on 1266 quite a bit. I never thought TCs had the best imaging (for e.g. compared to Utopia), but with X SE, separation and imaging got quite sharp on the TC and the wide stage feels a bit more natural instead of just crazy wide like the HD800. The bass also seems a bit more refined, instead of the in-your-face bass that TC is known for, X SE seems to tame it a little by making it more natural. So overall, I am liking the TCs even more with the Mojo (now if I could just get better timbre, I could also listen to jazz on them).
I think this has gone long enough so to summarize: very solid dac overall in my system and although I had planned on auditioning some more before making up my mind, I think this one going to be staying.
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At some point try the AES input of the X SE, if itās like the other Mojo DACs you may like it.
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Did Ben ever mention if aes or the rca was his prefered? I feel like he did but i cant find it.
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iirc he did say he preferred aes or spdif over usb with a nice source, but I donāt know if he said he preferred one of them specifically. I do want to say at one point I saw something from him saying he found some spdif cables to outperform aes cables but Iām not sure. From my experience I think it really comes down to the quality of the cable and what your digital source sounds best with for which one to go with
I guess given he prefers the rca out over balanced, I guess might carry over to coax spdif vs aes lol?
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I havenāt tried the AES yet. I actually grabbed a used D750 BNC to RCA as a starting point. I know the X SE has the upgraded spdif inputs and with the usb lift, I figured its got to be better than the usb which is why I was avoiding usb digital sources. Iām not sure if WD NETās AES or BNC/RCA digital out is better than the other. Iāll have to check with Rockna for that.
haha that was actually my weak logic for going with rca over aes but I was going to write to Ben to confirm at some point.
AES via a 3 pin is balanced and that MIGHT have a meaningful advantage over coax/RCA for jitter.
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Only thing I can think of in favor for spdif is that typically rca/coax/bnc connectors are generally nicer than the xlr used in some coax cables. But yes in theory the better shielding and balanced nature might be better. Although personally I really think it just comes down to the cable and the quality of the source, since Iād really just go with the one you have a nicer cable for lol. Another thing is that with cable runs that short that the advantage of aes might not be important
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I swear I just read somewhere that the same timing/jitter issues that can happen with coaxial can happen with AES cables as well, so lengths do matter. If you canāt do 1ft or less, 1.5m or longer is best.
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Yes generally you want your digital cables at least 1.5m for best performance to avoid reflections, although thatās not always absolute as I mean thereās some spdif cables that sound great that are shorter or way out of spec impedance wise (hereās a good example), all depends, but yeah Iād generally shoot for that
AES was basically really only designed for longer spdif runs, so being that itās designed for longer runs than spdif is perhaps thereās an argument for making aes runs even longer than spdif for being ideal but idk lol, Iāve always just stuck with the 1.5m ish and not worried about it lol
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Yes, the transmission line issue is certainly as true for balanced as it is for SE, but there is a good chance there is less RF noise on a balanced cable, itās why all high speed serial connections are differential.
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Yes Iāve read several pieces on why impedance matching for audio digital cables is all irrelevant, and there are more important things to optimize for.
Iām in the who the hell knows camp on that, I buy cables 1.5m long and just worry about the sound.
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