Re: streaming recommendations for newbie

I recently found a new in box Bluesound Vault 2i for $700. It’s amazing to me. Not only does it stream anything through a respectable DAC, it has a CD slot and it rips CD’s in 12 minutes each and has a hard drive large enough to store my rack of 1600 CD onboard.

Now I just need two full weeks of time to save my collection. I know, why save them when I can stream them? Well, just to have them in case the internet goes down for a long time.

Happy hunting.

andym23456

11 posts

04-18-2024 at 07:22am

I know, why save them when I can stream them? Well, just to have them in case the internet goes down for a long time.

@andym23456 it seems streaming services can and do sometimes pull albums / artists off their catalogues without warning. Kind of like Netflix dropping movies or series with little or no notice.

That’s an even better reason to save your disc collection files.

To OP and anyone else on the learning curve, some of the claims made of streamers in this thread have no evidence, just subjective conjecture, nor basis in current (pun!) electrical knowledge, so self-educate before getting carried away is a fair plan.

Chasing “better” streamers relies on factors that don’t make much sense if you will be streaming via Bluetooth. That should perhaps be first thing out of the chain if one hopes for improvement, lest you constrain your streamed files from the get-go.

I’m going to try to eliminate the Onkyo & see if my phone & the Oppo shake hands.

@danmar123 Great that you’re getting the AVR outta your 2-channel signal path as that’s a huge bottleneck to performance. I started streaming from my iPhone using the Apple Camera Adapter to run USB into my DAC with Qobuz, and it sounded good until I realized CDs sounded significantly better, which was very disappointing. Following advice from people here I got a streamer (an inexpensive iFi Zen Stream) and my streaming immediately sounded as good or better than CDs — literally a night and day difference. So while the iPhone is certainly a cheap and easy way to get started, if you’re concerned with sound quality you should plan on getting a streamer down the road. Just my experience FWIW.

@soix , yesterday I tried to handshake my phone to the Oppo, no dice. Did a google search & came up with an Oppo app for my droid. No dice there too. I can connect my Comp. via Cat 6 wire. I have an Creative sound card there. I'll give that a try. I also tried the Comp. via bluetooth & didn't like the SQ. I have to say that, using my phone to steam Tidal was better than the Comp via bluetooth.  

@tlh28 welcome to the streaming journey, it’s awesome to have such a vast category of music at your finger tips.  The ability to get streaming sound quality on par with analogue is achievable.  It can be a finicky journey though.  Clean power supplies, jitter free Ethernet or Fiber Optic signals often dominate discussions.  Do a search on this topic as there are a lot of threads on it and there are a lot of varying opinions. 
 

General rule of garbage in and garbage out applies with streaming, that’s where having a quality streamer and power supply for the digital chain is key.  Once you have that, tons of debate on if streamers really play a role in overall sound quality.  Some will swear they can make a big difference, others would point toward say a Blusound Node 2i with an upgraded power supply and say going beyond that is a fools errand.  
 

Most agree that in the digital chain, a DAC will play a bigger roll in the sound quality and sound signature than a streamer.  Separates are a great idea, makes it a lot easier to upgrade or simply tweak your digital chain by swapping out DAC’s.  DAC’s are also a rabbit hole, there are a lot of different designs, R2R, Tube Staged, FPAG, different DAC chip manufactures, Sabre, AKM.  
 

Node 2i is where many, me included start their journey but some of the other recommendations are also really good.  I would potentially shift a bit, but a used streamer from Aurilac or Lumin, both dedicated to the digital market, spend your budget on the streamer, use the DAC you have in your CD player for now.  You’ll then be in a great spot to upgrade your DAC but you may find there is no need to.  
 

Important when you look at streamers to look for streamers that have a variety of outputs and understand, which output provides the best sound quality, synergy between a streamer and DAC’s are key, some DAC’s will sound best in a fully balanced system or when using a USB input, some streamers are designed to sound best using one of the several output options.  The App that you use to manage the streaming is huge, don’t overlook that.  If you like the interface of the App for the streamer you are using, things will be fantastic, if you don’t or the manufacture doesn’t support updates, improvements and hasn’t developed a serious App to manage streaming, even if things sound good, you’ll likely be unhappy.  The Node has a great app, probably in my opinion the easiest to navigate, most flexible on the different streaming services supported.  Aurilac and Lumin have great Apps, little more finicky than the Node but I think overall the quality of their streamers offsets the ease of use / flexibility of the Node App.

Good Luck, read up on all the different opinions and find the solutions that work best for you.  Don’t sleep on used gear, I think you can land a streamer used that you won’t have to upgrade anytime soon which would be a great foundation to start with.