I’m looking for a streamer with a built-in deck that has higher voltage pre outs. I need something with at least 5 V to fully drive the amps I have. I have a WiiM ultra and it works really well, but the pre-outs are RCA and only 2 V. Doesn’t even anyone know of a streamer that has higher voltage outputs that is at least close to as user-friendly as the WiiM?
I too have been looking for a balanced output dac and they all seem to stop at 4 v untill you jump into the $300 range. Both Topping and SMSL have some nice dacs with remotes in that price range that meet all your needs.
I am also building 2 streamers, one with a Raspberry Pi 4 and one with a Zero. In theory, running headless, they both should be “bit perfect”. The Zero is $15-20, so very cheap way to get started. Both eeding it to a “Digi hat” (generic black friday special).
The Schiit preamp might work better to unify a system having 4 analog inputs and balanced outputs that meet your needs.
I forgot to add hat the Schiit can be upgraded to a streamer with the Forkbeard dongle. $330 with forbeard is still a pretty attractive option, but do some research on forkbeard I have heard mixed reviews on the interface.
I recently got a aphex 228 8 ch unbalanced to balanced pro Audio interface, specifically to drive my ice power and xls amps for my active setups. I also have a Wiim ultra, as a streamer, it’s good enough - don’t see the benefit of going over 1k for tech that’s gonna get obsolete soon. All other gear can keep working with whatever comes next as long as digital out remains the same.
Eversolo T8 is digital transport only, in the ultr budget, fiio has the SR11 streamer transport. Neither of these have a DAC, so you can connect them to a DAC you want. You can also go from the Wiim digital out to a DAC too.
Read your comments again. In user friendlyness only eversolo and Wiim stand out for their apps and functionality. I have Wiim ultra and pro, do not have eversolo products.
Both DMP A6 and the DMP A8 have balanced xlr out. The A6 will do 5.2v xlr preamp. From the spec sheet of A6.
Analog Audio Output Pre-output: XLR (Balanced) + RCA(UnBalanced)
XLR Output Level 5.2V
Ken, can you start a thread on your streamer builds, am interested.