I have a DAC (Schitt Bifrost) that I like. If I buy a basic Bluetooth receiver, like the Emotiva BTR-1, with digital output and run it through the DAC, is there any reason to consider an all-in-one streamer, like the Bluesound Node, for example? Do they have benefits over a simple BT receiver and DAC? I mostly listen to Spotify when streaming.
Since you already have a pretty good DAC, get the Wiim mini or pro instead. WiFi streaming is higher quality than Bluetooth and will give you a better upgrade path with your streaming service if you want to move on from Spotify in the future. I believe Wiim also accepts Spotify Connect.
That being said, I have the Node since it’s an excellent compromise between price, quality, and ease of use; especially since I didn’t already have a DAC and my wife uses it too. You could of course use a digital out on the node (which also has Spotify Connect) and run it through the Bifrost, but that get you to the question of whether or not you value the additional features and interface of the node at $450 more that the Wiim Pro.
I don’t know all their dacs don’t go above 192khz so how good is that really? Dacs now go up to over 1000 dsd not sure but I have a smsl dac that goes to dsd 512 and sounds better than the schit
Does it really matter how high a sample rate a DAC goes up to if your source material doesn’t need it? I don’t doubt that you prefer the SMSL to the Schiit, but I don’t think it’s because of DSD512 vs 24/192. That’s well beyond human hearing and into the realm of industrial calibration equipment.
I use Qobuz which caps out at 24/192 so anything beyond that is useless to me, and I’m not convinced I can even hear the difference between, say, 24/48 and 24/192. OP is streaming Spotify which I believe is at 16/44.1, so a DAC that goes to 24/192 is overkill for him at the moment.