STREAMERS & SERVERS

Today, digital sources come in 3 flavours: Spinning physical media, CDs and SACDs. Playing computer files from storage using a dedicated Media Server. And finally, playing music direct from Internet Streaming services (Tidal, Qobuz and Internet Radio). All of these methods require a Digital to Analogue comverter and this is often a separate device in its own chassis., connected to the CD transport or Streamer/Server by a digital interconnect.

Playing files from a Streamer has become very popular on the last 7 years or so. This is partly because at most given budgets, a good Streamer/Server easily outperforms playing a CD on an equivalent priced transport or integrated CD player. So the streamer is very important in the chain if you are playing digital  files from a hard disk. Development and understanding in this area has advanced hugely in recent years. The retrieval and transmission of the information into your DAC is subject to all sorts of noise so the better the the streamer, the impact on sound quality can be as profound as changing the actual DAC.

Until you get to the very best products, streamers/servers do not generally improve the noise floor from the internet though, so spending money on optimising the home network is also very important. Your home network is a huge source of noise and it is connected to your hifi through the streamer so we find that any improvements in noise reduction to your router and its connection will pay handsome dividends in terms of sound quality, whether you are playing files or streamed internet music. Read my guide here if you are interested. The take out headline is that the “network” should actually be viewed as a component all of its own that can be upgraded considerably, just like an amplifier or a set of speakers.

Finally, the digital interconnect, whether that be a USB cable, SPDIF, AES or ethernet cable, the wire that sends the digital signal from the streamer or internet to the DAC is also extremely important; it is probably the second most important cable after the speaker cables and will directly govern how much potential you will unleash from your Dac and Streamer. It is as influential on the final performance of the digital front end as both the Dac itself and any streamer/server. Some of our digital products use more advanced and beposke technology here (Wadax’s Glass Optical system, Tidal Audio’s i2S TidalLINK) because it is critical if you want to push the boundaries of the best digital in the world.

Before you get to the Ultra High End servers from Tidal Audio and Wadax, Melco is our go to streamer brand at more affordable prices. This is a well populated area of the marketplace and other good similar products would be from the likes of Innuos, Antipodes and Aurender. We were never convinced that any one of them was a clear winner as they all had various pluses and minuses from aesthetics to functionality, sound quality, strength of the company, reliability etc. but we did always feel that Melco was at least at the top for out and out sound quality. Melco also happens to be born out of an extremely robust parent company so things like stability, market presence, aftersales, infrastructure and new product development are first rate. We have retailed Melco since the very start.

The Tidal Arkas is our most popular Streamer for high end systems. As well as an obvious choice in an all Tidal system we have furnished many non-Tidal systems with them. It can play from disk but also has much inherent technology to make streamed internet music sound amazing too. The upgrade you get from the best that the likes of Melco and Innuos can produce is enormous – at the same level as the venerable Taiko Extreme – and it offers as much performance as most would ever need. The Tidal Contros takes an Arkas and combines it with the Camira DAC and the purest volume control so it is listed here as as streamer too.

For those who have to have the best in the world, the Wadax Atlantis Reference Server takes this much further again. It can be furnished with teh additional Akasa power supply and then the Akasa glass optical connection if one is lucky enough to also own the Wadax Atlantis Reference DAC.