Just a few days on the road with limited internet access. That’s all it took to read about Al’s new direction 
Though the underlying philosophy of replacing traditional “mix-and-match” separates with a more de-cluttered, integrated version is still on the cards …
Whichever way you go, Al - Bruno Putzey’s thinking seems to be still part of he equation (?), however small. And I’m still following your next upgrade with interest.
I’ve been doing the commute-for-work thing recently and naturally I wanted some good sound while away from home. I went to the local dealer (Ahead Stereo) and picked up a used pair of KEF LS50 Wireless II speakers. Really nice. That counts as an upgrade since it was an upgrade from no system at all. I suppose the next “upgrade” may be to switch the Roon core back to my laptop so I have a better interface than Tidal Connect. And perhaps a wired connection between the two speakers to increase hi res capability from 24/96 to 24/192. But I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised by how good these sound.
I just upgraded my memory drive to my Esoteric streamer from a Synology 2 bay NAS HHD drive to a Cenmate 2 bay SSD drive to find out the differences, and the sound is so unexpected.
My Synology is powered from a WW Platinum Electra 7 power cord. Then a WW Platinum S8 ethernet cable connected to a SR UEF switch box and a Muon Pro cable connected to a Muon Pro. From Muon pro, a SR Galileo Discovery ethernet cable to the streamer. 2 Toshiba HHD N300 Pro’s 8T each in RAID 1 configeration in the NAS. The sound is simply amazing from this NAS! I can’t say enough about it. I’m also curious about the difference from a streaming drive to a USB drive system.
Now the Cenmate is powered from a AZ Gargantua 2 power cord to a Farad Super 3 power suppy, and from there to the Cenmate. A 6-9 high purity copper USB cable to the streamer. 2 Sumsung 870 EVO SSD 8T hard drives in the Cenmate. No RAID avalible in Cenmate. The 2 drives works independently and both shows up in the App. I just use 1 for storage and the other for favorites. The only downside is the Synology can instantly display the cover arts becuase of the large capacity SSD Cashe installed. The Cenmate is quite a bit slower. BTW, I running the same Masterbuilt $12k USB cable from the Esoteric streamer to the Playback Design DAC for both the ethernet and the USB drives.
But as for the sound, the Cenmate has the nod. The sound is much more palpable and transients pops out more with greater speed and clarity, simply amazing! The noise floor seems lower with the Cenmate. Never heard my digital system sound so good! Love the Cenmate!
Here’s what the 2 drives look like. The Cenmate Is capable for either HHD 3" or SSD 2.5" drives. I choose 2.5" SSD drives.
I forgot to mention, I also tried plugging in a memory stick directly to the streamer and compared it to the Synology and Cenmate and the memory stick sounded duller and more veiled to both drives. I don’t understand since it would be a more direct connection. But it is what it is.
My mind is spinning right now from just “what is powering what” 
On the one hand I felt maybe the wrong thread… humor? 
On the other hand - if serious … , my Synology is 10M away from my Aurrender NH10 network hub - which is powered by a measly Transparent High Performance PC [the AP20, by a Premium) - both cables relatively entry-level. My IT friend laughed his @$$ off because I insisted feeding my NH10 with Fiber instead of twisted pair CAT6 … when I explained “noise rejection”, he laughed even harder … but I wasn’t deterred. But heck - my Synology being powered by a special PC? Nope, this is the point where I’d bail out.
Having said the above, I LOVE your post, not because of my comment above (which I hope you’re not taking as dismissive as to the extent of ultra-tweaking) but because:
Meantime, AI is telling me that there is actually sense in using high-end PC’s due to possible noise feedback to the house-grid (if I phrased it correctly). But I simply have too many computer equipment in nearby rooms - so I’ll probably bail out of chasing the last bit of performance.
If you are just starting out with streaming, enjoy, don’t analyze. There is lots of time for that. With the right gear, the streamer is not very important. Don’t try heroics at this stage. (Unless it’s part of the fun!)
I personally wouldn’t take a $5K+ streamer as a gift. In my world, there is no need.
(I have in the past, and it was wonderful and I am most grateful. But with my gear the streamer does not stand out as an important piece)
Sorry for making it sound so complicated. But in the case of streaming, more is more, not less. The more tweaks you make in filtering out jitter and noise, the better the sound. That’s where the Muon Pro filter, preminum switch boxes, and high quality cables come into play. I’ve made many comparisons and heard the differences. There’s one recording I recommend to do these comparisons. Check out this DSD256 recording and be blown away by how real your system can sound.
Al, you are still using a streamer to play your files, right? I have compared my brother’s Aurender N20 and my friends Aurender N30 SA to my Esoteric N-03t for fun, and found the differences are more in how the stored files ae played. Aurenders have internal storage drives, and Esoteric doesn’t. I find my tweaked external drives sounds cleaner because of the tweaking. Without the tweaking, they sound pretty much the same to me.
Al, when you mentioned your (possible) new route elsewhere, naturally I HAD to research what it is all about! So what you are saying here (about the streamer itself not being that important) - that’s exactly what my “research” (well, O.K. AI) also mentioned.
I’m not considering any changes at this stage - sticking to my AP20 and Spirits. But I may relocate in a few years time. THEN I reckon is the time. Especially since I’ll be able to learn from your experience (and mistakes?)
I have heard every Aurender streamer, including the 50. I have zero interest in any of them. YMMV.
When I was using an internal SSD in my Grimm, everyone said use a NAS instead. When I built my NAS, everyone said use an internal SSD. What Ever.
Maestro is proof to my ears that none of that really matters. It sounds so much better than Roon. So Roon doesn’t matter. The ridiculous interface that comes with Aurender makes me want to play 8 track tapes. So many people here are so focused on tweaking this and tweaking that. I know that is fun but I am done with that. My number one tweak is Bacch. And with that, streamers and tweaks don’t matter. My number one goal right now is to get Maestro running on my Bacch gear. But Maestro is changing hourly. When it settles down I will get my wish. At that point I won’t have a streamer anymore. I won’t need tweaks.
I will simplify my system to my Turntable, CD transport, my BACCH-SP and my NAS playing through Active Speakers. No amp, no preamp, and very few simple cables. And it will sound better than what I have now.
Good luck with your changes in your system, Al. I am curious on how a simplified system will sound compared to the manificent system you have now.
Me too. Unless my ear/brain connection has corrupted, I am guessing it’s going to be better. The Edgar speakers trip is a gotta do thing. If it works out it will be way cheaper than the Kii 3BXT route.
My friend Sean heeded my chatter about the Kii 3s. He bought a used pair within 30 hours. He was already a Dutch & Dutch 8C owner. Nothing was going to slide those out of the room. They were sold about two weeks after the 3’s arrived. I flew out to hear them. He was using a Roon Titan server plugged into the Kii controller via USB. My first 15 minutes was like that. It wasn’t doing it for me. But he has a midline DCS transport DAC, can’t remember the name but it ended in Apex. A fine word. We used it as a Roon endpoint and connected it to each speaker via McDonalds Dragon Balanced cables. The difference was night and day. I am an outspoken DCS hater, but not that box with those speakers. Good God it was startling.
A soundstage with no limits. I was hearing stuff from behind me at times. And nothing at all was missing or calling attention to itself. The room just took on the size and shape that was intended. And it was so pure! I think hooking a laptop running Maestro into the Kii Controller would satisfy my audio needs entirely. That is just with the Kii 3s alone. Add the BXT’s and suffer even better.
I brought my Bacch4Mac setup with and hooked it up. I heard a subtle improvement but Sean did not care for it. He tested it extensively with a couple of tracks he is most familiar with. He didn’t care for it. I got an hour by myself with it and found it exhilarating. Then I packed it up and we went without for two days. I didn’t miss it at all as the 3’s are so brilliant on their own.
Sean is now a Kii dealer, sweet.
I’ll give the Edgar Electrostats a good run. I’ll probably order Kii 3 stand mounts at the same time. My old gear doesn’t have a chance. But it isn’t likely getting boxed up anytime soon. It’s paid for.
Axpona was very disturbing for me. In a fun way.
I’m right behind you. We need to gang up on Edgar. lol
I talked with him at length about Maestro and asked him to hold off for a while. It’s been a rough week with it. I don’t want him to dismiss it so he said he would wait until I tell him to try it. I want him to accept it and deliver when that seems most likely, This last week, not so much. It does sound amazing feeding my B4M from my windows box.
Good idea. I shut my account off until its settled. I just didnt use it enough to make good time to give good feedback. Sitting this one out. Normally I can, but work is nuts, home stuff is nuts, so I just dont have time. I am really waiting for the iOS version too. I dont like using laptops to listen to music.
I don’t think the device it runs on has any effect on the sound you hear. It moves the bits along with no disturbance to any of them. I don’t get it but I am enjoying it as I type. But I understand taking a break. Paul is working hard and working fast. New features can wait @Paul . Lets get the core tight tight tight. You have my full attention.
When I say I don’t like to run music from a PC that is not SQ I am talking about, just personal preference from a usability standpoint. Sometimes I just pull my iphone out and hit play on a new album, sometimes I want the ipad to poke around. I hate having a full laptop on my lap. just bothers me. If I could get Maestro to work from iOS to BACCH and nothing in-between, that would be a dream right now. especially if the SQ is better as many are saying.
A lot of interesting posts while most of us were sleeping. I like Maestro, but I’ll like it better when the tablet version is ready. Right now I’m operating it on PC from 30’ away, and it has not been a smooth ride, and it slowed down quite a bit lately too.
But the current version is better than previous ones.
Time to do more important thing this morning 
I am a PC guy. If not for Edgar I would have no use for a Mac. I require my 3 iPads, but Mac is frustrating for me. Learning the basic healing-crystal alignment method is abrasive at best. If you were born and raised Mac it all makes sense. Like our current political climate makes sense for some, but not al.
Same here. I remote from my windows laptop to it when and only when its needed. other than that it just sits on top of my CAD device running. I just prefer tablet to search for music. Email, and general browsing, yeah I pull out the laptop.. hate pop up keyboards that block the web page etc…
