I am loving my new BHK Preamp. Currently, I have a Nuforce sta200 (class a/b) amp with the Pro-Ject s2 usb dac (both low-to-mid fi) with a really long usb cable and powered hub (I know —not ideal). The BHK Pre really improves the Nuforce amp and smooths things out (compared to my old Rogue RP-5). I was looking at M700 monos, however, I might as well go BHK since that is what I will eventually want to buy anyway. For Dac Streamer, I’m looking at Lumin T2, PSA DSD/bridge, maybe Brooklyn Bridge or Manhattan.
I cannot purchase both at once. Just see what opinions you have for my system upgrade path.
Since you already own the bhk pre, I’d vote for upgrading the dac first to DSD. I think that will give you the biggest upgrade now. You might consider a p3 or p12 before the excellent bhk250 is added.
The Nufore (Job) STA-200 is a first class amp no matter what AA was selling them for. If it is enough to power your current speakers to comfortable levels I would leave it alone for now and concentrate on the DAC. Both the Lumin and the DSD/Bridge are quality products and which one you chose depends in part on whether or not you need any DAC inputs which the Lumin doesn’t have. I have owned a Lumin and now the DSD/Bridge but not the T2. I would suspect that the T2 with it’s ESS chipset sounds a bit different than the DSD whereas the models with the Wolfson chipset are closer.
I agree, the dsd would be my next move, or Auralic Vega G2. I have been using the bridge2 for at least 3 years, I just replaced it because it has a nasty habit of blasting distortion through my speakers that seems like it could damage something. I would recommend against the Bridge.
The sta200 sounds miles smoother with the BHK pre. I am leaning toward the T2. I really do not need the inputs. I rarely play cds or sacds anymore. My entire collection ( thousands of cds) ripped lossless. Plus all of my sacds ( hundreds) ripped dsd ( sonore oppo network method). When I purchase music now, its all hi rez/dsd downloads. When I do buy Sacds or special edition cds, I rip them immediately. Qobuz and Tidal are main services I use. Wife prefers Apple Music.
The T2 also has usb out if I ever wanted to try a different dac. I’ve read a mixed bag of opinions on the Bridge opion for the DSD. Plus, hardware wise, the Lumin is a later l than the DSD.
I’ve owned both the STA-200 and for several years the Job 225. Honestly hard to tell them apart sound wise and the price we paid was vastly different. I run mine in my office system with an STP-SE I bought years ago for use with the Job. You can’t go wrong with any of the Lumin streamers and the support from Peter and his people is top notch. You will find the largest group of Lumin users over at the AudioShark forum along with Peter the software support guy. Also people who have owned both besides myself.
Peter also participates quite a bit over at the ROON forum as well. Looking at the comments, seems the Lumins are quite trouble free when using ROON as an endpoint. The D2 looks nice, however, many are saying the T2 is a major leap in sound quality.