Computer Audio..Stream or download?


Fellow Audiophiles,

Until now, i never cared for music streaming or downloads, simply because of compression. I owned fairly large selection of CD's, SACD's, DTS and DVD audio discs. DTS and DVD audio are long gone and SACD's are now pretty much limited to classical titles. I have been watching the digital trend pretty closely..it seems that we have evolved from digital downloads to now streaming. For sake of convenience, i have installed Sonos in couple of rooms. In my HT setup, Sonos just couldn't live up to high standards set by Krell and Raysonic. The streaming from Spotify, Amazon and Rhapsody is just average (flat and dull most times).

I am looking for ideas and feedback based on your experiences with high-res downloads. I am only interested in listening to high-rez / DSD64 or DSD128 files.

Please respond with your recommendations on DSD software and DAC's/Players.

MY Equipments:
Classe SSP-800 / CA-2200 / CA-5200
Krell Cipher
Raysonic CD-128
B&W 803s/804s/HTM2s/SCMS
Audience Au24 SE - IC's, Speaker, Power and Digital Cables
Audience AR6-TSSD/AR2-TSSD
128x128lalitk
Tbg LOL !!!

"I doubt that streaming will ever amount to much"

Oh man - Streaming is what the entire world is evolving too.

Not just for HI-FI but streaming is pretty much revolutionizing how we share information with everything.

Not too long in the future there will be no need for any physical media and it will all be streaming...
Fsmithjack, you may be right right for people accustomed to earbuds. I need realism rather than 24/7 noise. Frankly when I'm at the club, I have to wear ear plus to keep the racket out (what some think is music. But I do agree that CDs are going to pass away. I wonder where streamers will get their music. I doubt if streamers can do much more than 44.1 sampling rate. I listen at nearly 3 million sampling rate.
Fsmithjack, I just committed to a Aurender N100H. I should have in-house by end of next week. I thought it would be good start. I will post feedback by end of August.

Tbg, like yourself I am hanging on to my SACD's and CD's. I realize CD players are a dying breed, but some Hi-end manufacturer still continue to churn out CD player that cost thousands of dollars....I guess some purist still buying those players. I am quite content with my Krell Cipher SACD/CD player.

Cheers!
If you are going to do a lot od DSD playback or use HQP to upconvert all to DSD, i would strongly recommend looking at Lampizator. Used, as DSD only L4 Lampi will run you about $2,500.

I think the DHT versions will give you even more and a Lite 7 is the cheapest entry point there. Lampi uses "chipless" DSD and its unlike anything else in digital to me. Lots of guys with deep pockets and SoTA setups are jumping for the top model, the Golden Gate, but its quite pricey at $18K approx. They are also pairing that with the new Lampi server, the DSD Komputer which is a maxxed out CAPs style server for about $7K or so.

I myself have a Big7 and am delighted by it.
Lalitk - Great Choice !!! Those are sweet and you are going to love it.

Congrats!!!!

I love those! I am enjoying playing around with my Aries and improving it but I have my eye on either an Aurender or Antipodes and I am sure one of those will be on my short chase down and tackle list soon enough.

Awesome choice. I know for sure their sound is excellent and one of the best but they are hands down the best looking, best build and slickest units out there. Very cool...

Wisnon makes a good point about the Lampi's in that used price range for their DSD but I really like the DAC you were leaning toward already the Modwright Elyse DAC.

I like the Modwright stuff and I think it will be a fantastic match to your great transport choice!!!

I love the build concept of the Elyse and his approach to his power supply design. A power supply that uses the natural sounding tube rectification but ties it up tight with dual-discrete solid state voltage regulation. That is a nice approach to combo both strengths into one power fine supply. I like it.

Then he adds in the sweet Lundahl tranny coupled inputs which will tether up your transport the right way and then he doubles down with the Lundahl tranny coupled outputs so no preamp will be needed with his pure Class A / zero feedback implementation of the 6922 in the output stage. This tube which let you tailor your sound better than any other tube I know IMO. Love the 6922 who needs the super tube anyhow. Now you just need to get yourself a pair of Upscale / Platinum / Cryoed / Pitched Waist Amperex PQ's and a Mullard Blackburn Factory built circa mid 60's GZ34 rectifier Tube (get the Hammond organ labeled ones and save some scratch for exact same tube) and you are good to go. You will be first rate all the way!!! Congrats again and great choices ...