2. digital
  3. 140561-89202

Sound Quality of red book CDs vs.streaming

I’ve found that the SQ of my red book CDs exceeds that of streaming using the identical recordings for comparison. (I’m not including hi res technology here.)
I would like to stop buying CDs, save money, and just stream, but I really find I enjoy the CDs more because of the better overall sonic performance.
 I stream with Chromecast Audio using  the same DAC (Schiit Gumby) as I play CDs through.
I’m wondering if others have had the same experience
128x128rvpiano
rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano OP
2,653 posts
 
Mahler123,

Have you tried IDAGIO?  It’s exclusively for classical.  Wonderful search engines designed for the music lover.  Only $10 per month.
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,467 posts
 
lalitknot at all...
ron17
607 posts
 
@jafant 

Yes please explain....Have you heard a quality streaming system?
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
I’d genuinely like to know why. ASR measured the jitter reduction inherent with his AP by doing a J-test with a Toslink loop, then measured the Toslink output of the CCA (using the same cable I would assume), so if the jitter reduction was any worse, it would should up, and the differences were near non-existent.

Very well.  The bandwidth of the AP system measuring jitter is not high enough to capture the jitter completely.  You need at least 5GHz bandwidth to get real-time direct jitter.  Even higher would be better.

This is exactly like trying to measure a fast 10MHz digital signal with a 100MHz B/W scope.  You will miss everything going on in the waveform.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
@audioengr

You are talking about measuring the picoseconds worth of jitter (which does need to be in the MHz region). I am talking about doing a J-Test and finding out how the jitter will affect the passband after being reduced with a DAC, which would show up as any added noise to the waveform. It’s the same test Stereophile uses. I do not know the psec equivalent, but it is stated as worst case scenario, and when paired with even a cheap-ish DAC like the Topping D50, any jitter with using the CCA via optical was reduced to below -130dBFS, much lower than any residential noise floor.
More to discover