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Any way to listen to wav or high bit files with anything approaching audiophile sound?

Forgive the question, but this is my first time posting on Audiogon in a few years and I'm not up on some of the latest technology.  I'm doing a project where I'm going through as much music as possible for a blog I'll be creating where I find my 1,000 favorite albums of all time and ranking them.  I'm most of the way through my thousands of CD's (don't do LP's), and I have decent audiophile equipment, though nothing top of the line.

For other music, I'm going to have to listen to it online or purchase a digital version of the music, as there's no way I can afford to buy thousands more cd's, or they're out of print on cd's (as much of the music I love that I don't have is somewhat obscure), or they never existed on cd.  Some albums I know I won't be able to find. 

First off, is there a way to legally find more obscure albums online other than illegal downloading? 

Secondly, is there ANY way to listen to said music in anything remotely approaching audiophile sound quality?  Does it have to be a certain file type or bit rate?  I've always stayed away from digital files in the past, but now I kind of need them.  Is there some kind of audiophile digital storage device where I can download music to and play it on my stereo system?  I'm pretty ignorant about these things, so again forgive me, and any help would be appreciated.  I don't expect the music to sound quite as high fidelity as using cd's on audiophile equipment, but what are my options to get as close as possible?
soulgoober
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jazzman7
348 posts
 
In my view, subscription streaming services such as Tidal or Qobuz that stream at CD or better resolution would be part of your solution set. 
Once subscribed, a PC, tablet or phone would provide access to a whole world of music, not everything, but most of what is out there.
A good entry point in my opinion in terms of hardware would be to invest in something like a Bluesound Node 2i (retails for $550) and plug it into your system, much like you would a CD player, and then use your PC, phone or tablet to select what you want to listen to on your system via the Bluesound kit or some such.  
 
soulgoober OP
55 posts
 
Thank you, open to as many responses as I can get.  It looks like Bluesound Node 2i seems to be bottom of the audiophile chain according to some here.  Any in a similar or slightly higher range that are any better?  Any giant killers?

Also, my intention is to use this just to listen to music for my project, and when I find music I love to then eventually buy it on cd, but it'd be nice for this phase of the project, which will last a LONG time, to listen in as decent sound quality as I reasonably can.
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jazzman7
348 posts
 
soulgoober, can you tell us anything about your current system and budget.  The Bluesound piece in my opinion is very good entry level kit, very good value for the money, and comes with an excellent and easy to use operating system (i.e. your user interface).  And if you want to up your game and are willing to spend more, it can easily be paired with a quality outboard DAC.  There are other options out there, but in your position would not ignore Bluesound kit. (full disclosure, I currently have 4 pieces of Bluesound kit in the house, been Blu OS user since 2014, and have used them with and without external DACS, and used to have Node 2i in my main rig in combination with Chord Qutest.  You can check out a couple of my rigs here https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8156 and here https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/9168)


mlsstl
1,438 posts
 
I'm confused -- you mention your own music is on CD (not LP) and you apparently consider this appropriately "audiophile" for your needs. Then you ask if "digital" files are just as good. 

The thing to understand is that CDs are digital files. They are digitized at a 16 bit rate at 44.1 KHz. These digital files are simply stored on CD, just as if you bought a copy of Microsoft Excel on CD to install on your computer. 

Downloaded and streamed files are also digital files, but just delivered over the internet and either played "live" (streaming) or stored on your computer's hard drive (downloaded.) 

Streamed or downloaded files can come in a variety of formats from low bit rate MP3s, or CD quality (identical to what is on a CD), up to high-resolution files that are 24 bits, and up to 192 KHz, a much higher quality format than CD.

There are several streaming services that offer large music collections (tens of millions of songs) at CD quality and higher. I use Qobuz and have been very pleased with it. Tidal is another streaming service that is very popular with millions of songs.
calvinandhobbes
307 posts
 
I'm getting great sound from a Pro-ject Stream Box Ultra S2. If you put your WAV files on a USB flash drive, external hard drive, or external solid state drive, it will plug right into the back of the Pro-ject streamer and be output to an external DAC. The streamer has a user interface that allows you to see/play/control the files on the external drive

The Stream Box also connects to streaming services (Spotify, Qobuz, Tidal), Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay, and any USB input from a PC/Mac, phone or tablet.

I got the Stream Box because it is supposed to sound better than the Bluesound Node, but is still easy to use. I will say that digital files played back from local storage seem to sound slightly better to me than streaming music. One explanation that I have heard is that electrical noise can be introduced into the signal path & playback from a local file has a shorter signal path.

Also, if you connect an external CD drive to the Stream Box, you can also burn CDs directly to your attached external drive.

Let me know if you have any other questions I can answer including other music streamers that I considered in that price range and how to get the Pro-ject streamer to sound even better than out-of-the-box.
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