HRT Music Streamer II+

[xerxes]

I bought a HRT Music Streamer II+ on Ebay.





It only arrived this morning and I'm absolutely chuffed with it, it sounds great, a big step up from the USB Monica I have.

There's not much to it, a USB B connection one end and a pair of phono sockets at the other. It's powered from the USB cable and runs 24bit 96Khz asynchronously, theres a review and technical details here: www.headfonia.com/hrt-music-streamer-ii-2496-usb-dac/

I've tried it with my Pimeta and WNA MkII headphone amps with both my V-Jays and Sennheiser HD 650. It sounds lovely through headphones, theres a real density and texture to the sound, much more so than the USB Monica. Unlike the Monica it's also dead silent between tracks, the Monica is really quite noisy, you can hear a hissing sound with the volume at around 10 o'clock and above.

I also tried it on my main system and compared it to my Cyrus CD8x and PSX-R. There's not much in it, but playing uncompressed WAV files through the Music Streamer I reckon just pips the Cyrus CD player. Tonally the Music Streamer and Cyrus CD player are not dissimilar, but I think the image is more "solid" with the Music Streamer and maybe there's more space around separate instruments and perhaps ever so slightly more detail. Impressive considering the Music Streamer costs a fifth of what the Cyrus CD player and power supply combination did new.

Now I am happy that computer based audio can sound at least as good, or even better than a fairly decent CD player I'll be selling the Cyrus combo sometime soon and investing in a big hard drive to rip all my CDs to and maybe an even better USB DAC for my main system, perhaps one of these: www.itemaudio.co.uk/wyred_dac2.html which would serve as a preamp as well.

[Deleted]

Looks a nice piece of kit, pleased your happy with its performance. Did you purchase it from Gary at Anologue seduction.

Mick.

[PinkFloyd]

That looks a nifty thing Owen! Had a look on ebay expecting it to be pretty cheap... was shocked, they're quite pricey.... how will you be using it exactly?

Soundcard > Music streamer > head amp

OR

USB > Music streamer > head amp

?

[xerxes]

Did you purchase it from Gary at Anologue seduction.

No, I bought it on Ebay. It was used so I got it for £225.00, but it's in mint condition and you'd never know.

how will you be using it exactly?

It only works with USB and it's asynchronous, which is supposed to be better than the standard method. Here's some technical mumbo jumbo about it: www.hifi-advice.com/USB-synchronous-asynchronous-info.html

I have it hooked up to my Pimeta head amp which I rehoused in a new case and converted back to battery power. I had to change the op amps from the AD843 I was using to a LME49710NA on the ground channel and an LM4562NA for the L and R channels to as well, because an 8.4v rechargable PP3 doesn't have enough oomph for the AD843 which I think need at least 10v whereas LM4562NA will work with as little as 5v.

I also used a couple of switches to select inputs and outputs so I can use it as a little preamp as well when I finally get around to finishing the LM3886 chip amp I started building about 3 years ago.





I really rate the little Pimeta, I haven't heard hundreds of headphone amps, but it comfortably betters the Meier Audio Corda amp I have and I reckon it's as good as my modified WNA MkII.