I have a N10 on loan, and I expected more from it.

[imprezap2]

The N10 should blow the bluesound streamer away, imo there is a bottleneck somewhere in your system.

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by imprezap2

The N10 should blow the bluesound streamer away, imo there is a bottleneck somewhere in your system.

I believe you, I just don't know where it is, I can only guess it's the digital cable. But I don't have an awesome digital cable to test out my theory, and my 48 hours are up. I'll have to give it back.

[Mouse]

Or the bottleneck could be the MX122. Maybe even in pure direct it's still getting reprocessed.

[imprezap2]

There is one setting in the N10 where you can choose Professional/consumer, this has to do with some legacy DAC's, I hear that the consumer setting can cause a very "bland" sound with certain DAC's.

Cables can vary, but I don't believe a cable can change the sound from bad to very good.

I owned the Aurender N100H for a couple of years (USB connection to Ayre DX-5) and was very happy with that. Recently I purchased another amp (Aavik U-300, with internal DAC).
The Aurender N100H also played great connected to this amplifier but I had the possibility to try a N10, over USB the N10 was only marginally better then the N100, when using SPDIF (coax in my case) the N10 played out it's strength and basically "demolished " the N100.

IMO, if you only have a USB DAC, the N10 is not worth the extra money over the N100, but over SPDIF the extra money is worth it

[Mouse]

I'm going to pass on the N10 for now. I like the app, and it's very reliable to find over the internet. There is plenty to like.
But on the sound quality I need to fix the bottleneck and try this again. In the meantime I'm going to get something lower cost like a bluesound until my system can benefit from something better. Thanks for the help guys

[Mouse]

One small update.
It did smooth out some after 48 hours lol, masterlu was right
But I gave it back on the third day.

The big difference was to not use the digital cable. I used a free optical cable that came with something else. With the digital cable to N10 the OPPO 205 with hdmi sounded better When I went to the optical cable it became more clear, and the timing became sweet and short. Drums and cymbals became shorter and more precise, I could hear more detail and separation between strings with an acoustic guitar.

The oppo was the winner, now the N10 is the winner. But when comparing the N10 versus the bluesound the difference is marginal with the edge going to N10.

I still didn't get huge gains that I was expecting, when the Mc MX166 comes out, I'll revisit the N10 for sure.