2. digital
  3. 179322-96

Anyone else feel like it’s the Wild Wild West?

I’ve been following the streaming threads here for a while now, and I find it both exhilarating and intimidating.  I mean, we all know everything in high-end audio matters to some degree or another, right (Ok, maybe except for the flat earth contingent)?  From what I’m reading and from my own experience the process of optimizing steaming has near unlimited potential, and some even say it rivals or even surpasses vinyl if taken to the max.  Cables, routers, optical, filters, extenders, power supplies, switches, etc., they all seem to make a significant difference despite the naysayers who say bits are just bits.  I’m all in on this steaming renaissance, but most of the jewels of useful info are buried in other posts, so I’d like to have this be a consolidator post of your best streaming experiences and recommendations for others who could benefit greatly from your hard-won victories and maybe save a lot of people the agony you went through to get to streaming nirvana.  So have at it — let’s empower this community in this noble task and help everyone realize the amazing potential of this magic gift to audiophiles.  What say you?

soix
drbay
42 posts
 

@soix @facten Reason I chose Bluesound Node is practicality, from blueOS app you can switch to you TV and streamer seamlessly. This is very important for my family, we do not want to use 3 remotes, 5 buttons to toggle between TV and music. Node has a great HDMI connection which makes life super easy. Also there are some DDS like Denafrips Hermes or Gaia to improve existing digital source output, that is my possible next step.

@juanmanuelfangioii I do not own an analog FE, all digital. I only enjoy analog music at HiFi conventions like Axpona. I totally agree with you this is preference thing. I love tube amp sound but I did not buy a tube amp for many reasons. If you own analog FE, absolutely enjoy it. I have CD collection and have CD player connected to my DAC. I try to get most out of what I have.

juanmanuelfangioii
958 posts
 

@drbay I hear you my man and enjoy  your system.

Have a great rest of your day.

soix OP
9,695 posts
 

@drbay I’m sure I must be missing something, but couldn’t you just route the TV’s audio output into an unused input on the Hegel?  All you’d need to do is just change the Hegel’s input to toggle between music and TV, no?

drbay
42 posts
 

@soix I wanted all digital sources including TV output to go through my external DAC. TV digital out comes from HDMI EARC to Node to DAC. I watch a lot of concerts from YouTube, I wanted to improve sound quality of TV output as well. 

frazeur1
345 posts
 

In it all over the years, I have just learned to trust my own ears and go with that. Too much mileage that varies between each persons thoughts and feelings on any one topic, let alone the gazillions that we read about on all the forums these days. I'd rather just sit back and enjoy my music!

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