The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

My hope is that Samsung/Harmon builds a Blusound competitor at around the price point of the Node. They can use Roon as their streaming software and have a lower entry point financially to streaming devices for people.

Roon’s setup isn’t exactly easy for the typical person but if it came preinstalled on a streamer I’d guess that would do extremely well for them
 
MikeH said:
Yea--I figured this may not be a terrible thing, but it does feel like 9/10 times big companies do swallow these smaller guys then just do nothing with it or somehow make it worse.

I'm still mad Apple bought Dark Skies which was my favorite weather app and now I have to deal with stupid apple's own damn weather app which is the worst.
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I forgot how awesome Dark Skies was, loved that app so much
 
trickyseven said:
I forgot how awesome Dark Skies was, loved that app so much
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It was so good. Accurate to the minute pretty much when it came to rain in my area. It was wild. Now apple weather sucks and doesn’t know anything haha. I’ll be looking out the window and it says it’s currently raining with no sign of rain outside
 
They should have put outputs on the wiim amp. I think they shot themselves in the foot there. That thing seems great otherwise.
 
Lee Newman said:
They should have put outputs on the wiim amp. I think they shot themselves in the foot there. That thing seems great otherwise.
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Which one are you talking about? Why would an amp have outputs? All of their other streamers have outputs. The pro plus I have has line out, spdif out and coax out. I used an external dac with the Wiim mini.
 
Kris said:
Which one are you talking about? Why would an amp have outputs? All of their other streamers have outputs. The pro plus I have has line out, spdif out and coax out. I used an external dac with the Wiim mini.
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Because it’s not super powerful:
www.crutchfield.com

WiiM Amp (Gray)

Wireless streaming amplifier with Bluetooth®, Apple AirPlay® 2, and Chromecast built-in
www.crutchfield.com www.crutchfield.com
 
Kris said:
I see, but an amp usually doesn't have outputs except for tape outs. Trying to understand what type of outputs you'd want in an amp.
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I don’t know. It’s nice but seems like it needs more. Mine has outputs so I can use it as a pre if I ever want to upgrade to power amps.
 
Lee Newman said:
I don’t know. It’s nice but seems like it needs more. Mine has outputs so I can use it as a pre if I ever want to upgrade to power amps.
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You have a much higher price amp with much nicer insides. My guess is the wiim is built to a cost and so things like that are deemed an unnecessary expense plus the fact that it probably isn’t a good enough preamp to make it worthwhile. It’s a case of pairing it carefully with efficient enough speakers or just full out upgrading it.
 
Qobuz’s gift guide has a $20,000 DAC.

Bartók - The Modernist | dCS

The Bartók reimagines headfi. DAC, music streamer, upsampler, pre-amp and headphone amplifier combined in a beautiful and future-proof design, offering a remarkable experience for both headphone and stereo listeners.
dcsaudio.com dcsaudio.com
 
Lee Newman said:
Qobuz’s gift guide has a $20,000 DAC.

Bartók - The Modernist | dCS

The Bartók reimagines headfi. DAC, music streamer, upsampler, pre-amp and headphone amplifier combined in a beautiful and future-proof design, offering a remarkable experience for both headphone and stereo listeners.
dcsaudio.com dcsaudio.com
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That sounds like pocket change in the dcs line….

How the other have live!
 
Joe Mac said:
That sounds like pocket change in the dcs line….

How the other have live!
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Like I don’t see anything in the specs that makes me go, oh that’s why it costs that much…. It is a pretty website though. The dac just looks like a box.
 
Lee Newman said:
Like I don’t see anything in the specs that makes me go, oh that’s why it costs that much…. It is a pretty website though. The dac just looks like a box.
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When you get that price I think there’s very little relationship with reality. What I’d say it is very likely that they’re using more expensive internal components but that equally that it still had little or no relationship with the actual cost.
 
Joe Mac said:
When you get that price I think there’s very little relationship with reality. What I’d say it is very likely that they’re using more expensive internal components but that equally that it still had little or no relationship with the actual cost.
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I think it is also a nod to the rich people/no labels/it looks nice but not gaudy thing.

As for performance, I’ll concede it probably sounds better and measures better than my Denafrips, but it’s so far past the point of diminishing returns it’s just silly pricing.
 
MikeH said:
Damn. Is it incompetence or do they just buy stuff to gut it? Why buy Roon and then do nothing with it? They aren’t even a competitor are they?
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They buy stuff for patents. Sometimes it’s easier to just buy the whole company instead of licensing 20 patents. Plus they get all the immediate cash flow, stock jump, lay people off, EBITDA goes up for the year, everyone gets a big bonus, rinse and repeat.

Ultimately Roon is just a nicely designed aggregator of streaming and networking. So for Harman/Samsung they pitch “one app, from your car, to your TV, to your kitchen, to your portable speakers. All of your media in one place, at your finger tips. From Samsung (powered by the legendary Harman audio portfolio)”
 
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