 This outcome is a very versatile network player, an MQA DAC that supports DLNA, UP and PAV, Airplay 2, Chromecast and can function as a Roon endpoint. The outcome is very well known for their sublime surround receivers. But they are very good in stereo too. So it was about time I reviewed the ST16. It was held up by accreditation by MQA or Roonlabs, I forgot which one, perhaps even both. You might consider it to be a nuisance but it is the only way to keep those two features reliable amongst all brands. Anyway, let's see how the ST16 is to be used. The ST16 is called Network Streamer, again a new name for a network player, streamer or digital audio player. It shows it is very difficult to give it a proper name for it functions as a digital to analog converter and a digital pre-app. Let's see where it finds its place in your stereo. It needs to be connected to your amplifier that in turn is connected to your loudspeakers or headphones. It also needs to be connected to your home network over either a network cable or wifi so it has access to streaming services and internet radio. If you have music stored on your computer or NAS, it needs to have a DLNA or UP and PAV server program running and it needs to be connected to your home network of course. You could alternatively connect a USB drive containing music to the ST60 or even keep it all connected and keep all functions open. You can select a source and select the music using the knob on the front in combination with the display. Use the supplied remote control with the display or use a tablet or smartphone to select the music. The ST60 works with DLNA server software on your computer or NAS with Apple Airplay 2, Google Chrome and with Rooners Endpoint. MQA audio files are decoded and rendered too. As said, the ST60 can function as a DAC too so you could connect the digital output of your CD player, TV, game console or smartphone to one of the four digital inputs to enjoy a higher quality sound. The heavy housing has a classy looking bronze brown front and a grey brown cover. It measures 433 x 306 x 102 mm and weighs 5.5 kilos. The front holds a rotary encoder that normally works as a volume control but in menu mode lets you navigate and select. That menu is opened by pressing this menu button. Above it the input select button and on top the play-pulse button. In the middle a large window that holds a 145 mm color display that shows the source, the track name, artist, album name, album art, sampling frequency and track progress. A small LED shows the power state and to the right the power button. At the back we find the IEC mains inlet, an RS232 port for domestic control systems like Control 4 and Crestron, a USB 2 socket for USB storage media, the network socket, two SPDIF inputs, two Toslink inputs, a Toslink output, a SPDIF output, stereo balanced analog outputs on XLR and stereo single ended outputs on RCA. At the SD60 there are four circuit boards, the power supply, the digital board, the analog board and a board that holds the control electronics, the knobs and the display. On the power supply board we see an XP-Power switch mode power supply module with a rounded sum filtering. On the digital board we find the Motorola PIC32 micro processor. I presume it does the audio processing. The SPDIF inputs are transformer decoupled individually while the AKM4113 SPDIF receiver handles the incoming AES3 signals. Wi-Fi is taken care of by this piggyback board holding Ampac technology behind a metal shielding. The audio board on the right filters the incoming DC voltage and over the band cable receives the digital audio that is sent to the ESS9038K2M DAC chip that has its clock oscillator very close by. From there the analog signal is converted from current to voltage and buffered separately for balance and single ended outputs by the circuits here. To maintain proper power, voltage regulators are plenty on this board. As we have already seen the SD60 can be controlled using the infrared remote together with the color display on the front but it is more likely you will use the app on a smartphone or tablet, the latter being the most comfortable. Let me show you on my iPad Pro. After startup you can choose what device to control after which this screen appears. It lets you set a number of features like the brightness of the display or switch of the display altogether. Then there is an audio switch-off function of which the time can be set and you can easily choose what reconstruction filter to use. I particularly don't like the linear phase ones. My favorites are Apple Dising and Minimum Phase Slow. But since it's so easy to compare, pick your choice. The fixed volume is handy if you want to control the volume on your amplifier. There is nothing wrong with the volume control in the SD60 so if you want to hook up a power amplifier directly please feel free to do so. You can set the volume on switch on and the maximum volume to avoid surprises when switching on the power amp. As said I use the fixed output except for a short evaluation of the volume control. When music is playing you can see the input sampling rate here while beneath it the software version and the IP address are shown. On the left side there is a power button that will switch on the SD60 when Wagon LAN is set. Then the mute button and the input select button. Below it the volume control and the chosen input. The display names of the inputs can be changed, for instance in CD player, TV, game console and so on. On the sources screen you can choose your streaming sources. Let's start with the DLNA sources in the right column. I go for the Minim server on the SYN8 server since it works faster and shows more metadata than the standard DLNA server on the SYN8 and SYN18nesses. Let's go for the artist. On the right edge of the screen you see an alphabet being built up to enable fast access. I choose the P and immediately find PJ Proby, the 70s artist. From there on I can scroll further up or down. But I can also search for an artist's name. Let's do Pink Floyd to find 65 albums, yes I am a Pink Floyd fan and have several releases of albums as you can see. My favorite track is Dogs from the Album Animals. From the sources screen you can also choose streaming services like Tidal, Kuboos, Deezer, Amazon Music and so on. But also internet radio. Let's open that and look at local stations. A comprehensive collection of Dutch radio stations appear immediately. I also like the high quality section. Let's go there and open Link Classic. On the display of the player the sampling frequency is shown but not there nor in the app whether it is a full CD quality or lossy compressed file. There is a fast responding app, although it does need some time to find everything you want. But that is about the only critique I have. The SD60 plays files up to 192 kHz 32 bit over the network and speed of inputs. The Toslink inputs are limited to 96 kHz 32 bit, which is more than needed for connecting a TV or CD player. The output voltage of the single ended outputs is only a few millivolts shy of the Redbook spec of two volts. The balanced outputs of course are double that. The manual specifies the output voltage of 2.2 volts single ended. Further measurements show a nicely designed digital player. Given the price of the SD60 it was placed in my setup 2 where the amplifier is the Moran's KI Perl light. It drives the acoustic energy radiance 1 loudspeakers connected over Kimber 4PR loudspeaker cable. These are supported by the RELT-5 subwoofer that is connected to the loudspeaker terminals on the Moran's using the cable that came with the sub. The network switch is the Uptone Audio Ether Region with Uptone Audio Ultra Caps 1.2 power supply. It was played from the Synology DS1819 Plus NAS with DX517 extension. The sound quality impressed me right away. The stereo image was wider and deeper than I normally hear in this setup. Highs and mid-range sound clean and offer excellent resolution for as far as I can judge it on this setup, while the lows are quite good but not exceptional. This is the best source I have connected to this setup so far. Let's see what it does on my reference setup 1. Setup 1 is placed in the living room on the ground floor. The AIR AX520 amplifier drives the PMC FAC12 signature loudspeakers on Isobe Acoustics Gaia II isolators. These are connected to the amp over AudioQuest Robinhood Zero loudspeaker cable. The SD60 was connected to the amp over Grimm Audio SQM XLR cables and to the SQM S&H 10G network switch over a network acoustic MUON Ethernet cable. Music came from the same Synology NAS where the D&L was used and from the Intel Noc i7 running RoonRock when Roon was used. Of course this setup is out of balance but I can't afford to have even more setups, both logistically and monetary wise. But it showed how good the SD60 is for in the mids and highs it is very close to the quality of, for instance, the Mitake Brooklyn Bridge streaming DAC. Microdynamics are even better. Also the stereo image is somewhat wider and deeper and has very good focus and placement. Only the lows offer slightly less resolution. Impressive for about half the money and that is using normal flag files. There is still a small step to win using MQA files. The SD60 decodes and renders them perfectly, further improving transients and spatial information. The SD60 has an MSRP of €1699 which makes it a very attractive proposition. I like the understated design, the large display made possible by the 443mm full width and the fact it comes with a full function remote control. But most of all it is the impressive sound quality that I like the most. This is a very well sounding streamer and DAC. Oh and that's another thing I like, the fact that you can upgrade your old CD player by hooking it up to the SD60. And I know MQA is controversial in some circles. Here it shows again it does have added value in the shape of added sound quality in affordable equipment. And with that thought I'll leave you. I'll be back next Friday at 5pm central european time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. Help me reach even more people by giving this video a thumb up or link to this video in the social media. It is much appreciated. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and let me improve the channel further. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.