Sound Quality of red book CDs vs.streaming

For this reason, I think it’s just a matter of time before CD makes a come-back, similar to vinyl.

Radio was not - is not  free just spend 10 mins listening to it and you hear the not free part every other song they are called advertisements. I'd pay $10 a month for free from adverts with out question. in the age of $5 coffee $10 a month for all the music you can stream is a very good deal IMO.

once your streaming equipment is the same quality as your CD player I think you'll hear they are the same or better if higher rez files.

same or better if higher rez files.

I connect Chromecast to the Gumby with an optical cable.
i am using a coax to connect CD transport to Gumby.
What can I do to improve the streaming quality.
How do I minimize the jitter from the Chromecast?
I don’t know what a reclocker is or how it connects.

This is simple. The Synchro-Mesh reclocker connects in-line with the digital coax cable. Cable in and cable out, so you need a second cable. All coax cables should be 1.25-1.5m in length, not shorter. You can connect your sources to the Synchro-Mesh input using Toslink or coax and the output to your DAC using either Toslink or coax. You can actually connect two sources, both the CD Transport and the Chromecast to the input of the Synchro-Mesh and switch between them, one Toslink and one coax. They can both have lower jitter going to your DAC.

The Synchro-Mesh in addition to lowering jitter also provides galvanic isolation, so the ground of the sources are not connected to the DAC. This eliminates ground-loops and the noise that these produce. The Synchro-Mesh also upsamples the data from 16/44.1kHz to 24/96kHz, which is beneficial because your DAC will select a better sounding digital filter that has minimal artifacts in the audio range.

The risk of trying this is low because the SM and BNC cables have 30-day money-back guarantee, less shipping.

BTW, I highly recommend this Toslink cable:

https://btpa.com/TOSLINK-XXX.html

Steve N.

Empirical Audio