2. digital
  3. 1389132319

How To Get The Best Sound From Pandora & Rhapsody?

.
How do you get the best possible sound from Pandora and Rhapsody? Is a computer via USB Dac the best way? Or, will using one of these newfangled streamers and a Dac give you better sound?

The majority of my listening is from these two sources, and I'd like to go whole hog to get the best possible sound from them. I still listen to cd's and vinyl, but Pandora and Rhapsody is so doggone convenient, that they get the bulk of my listening time.
.
128x128mitch4t
theo's avatar
theo
2,681 posts
 
I am using a Sonos Connect with a Rega Dac and am very pleased with the results.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
The first step to getting good quality is to lower the digital stream jitter. This can be accomplished with a Sonos, iPod docking station or computer with toslink output driving a Synchro-Mesh reclocker and then to the DAC.

Once you have a low jitter digital source, you can drive virtually any DAC, SS proc. or receiver with it and get good results.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
sfar's avatar
sfar
1,758 posts
 
If you're fond of Pandora and Rhapsody give mog.com a try. The streaming from mog is at 320 kbps, compared to Pandora's maximum of 256 and there's an audible difference. I've almost completely abandoned Pandora and Spotify in favor of mog.com, both because of the audio quality and the ability to either play whatever I want or let mog offer options.
More to discover