Cambridge Audio Azur 851N

I stream Tidal through a Sonos and outboard DAC and the sound is way better than Spotify

I do fair amount of streaming off Spotify and Amazon and got lot of music stored on my FAT32 USB drive.

Keep in mind that FAT32 is not a robust file system. For example, although it is unlikely you could lose all of the data on the drive if power were to drop out at the wrong instant while the drive is in use, and cause the file table to be corrupted.

Which makes it doubly important to have your music files well backed up, preferably on two additional drives, and with one of them preferably stored at a different location.

Also, if whatever the drive is connected to can work with a more robust file system, such as NTFS which can be used by Windows or an Ext3 or Ext4 file system which can be used by Linux, I would consider reformatting the drive to the more robust file system and then restoring the data to it from backups.

Regards,
-- Al

"07-14-15: Lalitk
I own a Classe CA-2200 amp. My goal is to get better dynamics out of digital music. The sound from Olive and Sonos is pretty dull and flat on most music. I may try some hi-res (DSD) downloads in near future. But for now, it's pretty much Spotify and Amazon."

That's not a format issue, its an analog one. The analog section of the dac is what you need to look at for dynamics. A good example of what I'm talking about, is to compare a couple of CD players that I have. One is an Arcam 33. Its a nice, easy to listen to player, but the dynamics are just OK. My Wadia 302, on the other hand, has really good dynamics. Almost on par with vinyl.

I wouldn't recommend a Wadia for you because the company has issues. But I would definitely recommend Ayre. They make some of the most dynamic digital products you can get. Also, try your system without the preamp like I recommended in my last post. Having the right preamp in your system, will also have a big effect on dynamics.

Thank you all for your feedback, much appreciated.

Follow up to my thread... I decided to keep Azur 851N after direct comparison with Classe CP-800. The Azur was hooked up to SSP-800 (balance input) and SSP-800 / CP-800 daisy chained in digital bypass mode.

After a weekend of listening, I could not discern any differences, both DAC's produced music with absolute clarity and poise. I used Tidal HIFI streaming services with AirPlay.

IMHO, Azur851N is a groundbreaking component, given its asking price. If you're in market for a DAC/Network player with Apple AirPlay, you owe it to yourself to check out this amazing unit. I am keeping mine and returning CP-800 to my dealer.