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Why does my old CD player sound so much better than my new streamer?

Earlier this year I upgraded my system. Briefly, new Prima Luna Dialogue Premium HP integrated, new Lumin D2 streamer/DAC, kept my Tekton speakers, bought a 10 year old Muse Erato CD player, new Nordost Red Dawn cables all around.  After plenty of break in, the Lumin D2 streaming Tidal, even 24/96, does not sound close to as good as the Muse Erato.  I understand the Muse was about $10k new years ago, I paid $650 for it on Audiogon, is that the difference? It replaced my Naim I had for 20+ years and I bought it on the chance I want to listen to something not on Tidal, but now I'm going to CDs when I want to sit and listen instead of streaming. I considered upgrading to the Lumin T2, but will that be more of the same Lumin sound, which is accurate but thin and a little cold compared to the Muse.  I like the Lumin when just letting Tidal shuffle music as I move around the house, but from the opening note in an A/B test the Muse just sounds so much warmer, live and simply more enjoyable. Any thoughts or suggestions?
fsgattuso
fsgattuso OP
29 posts
 
Any thoughts about an upgrade to the T2? What does it do better than the D2?
larryi
4,225 posts
 
How are you actually retrieving the music?  Are you using a streaming service or retrieving files from some storage device?  Did you rip your CDs, and if so, have you compared the rip to playback from your CD player?  I ask because I've heard plenty of crap sounding albums from streaming services, even those claiming CD quality.  

Everything counts in audio.  How everything is connected up matters.  I don't use WiFi for anything audio (except to control devices via a iPad), so I don't know if it degrades the sound, but, that certainly is a possibility.  One of the dealers in my area, hates USB connection, another thinks that having really high quality ethernet connections count a lot.  
fsgattuso OP
29 posts
 
To Larryi, I am streaming Tidal, MQA when available.  Regarding this, I am not noticing much of a difference between 16/44 and MQA through the Lumin and the old CD player sounds better than both.  Maybe this is indicative of a problem with how I am using the Lumin? I have not ripped any CDs, I avoided the need to do that by buying the Muse.
tuberist
951 posts
 
T2 is in a whole another league than the D2
mike_in_nc
1,173 posts
 
I owned some Muse gear many years ago. It was superb, even with the stock power cord ;-).

I have not owned a Lumin, but I stream my own library and also Qobuz through an Auralic Aries G1. The sound of my own library streamed is first-rate, at least as good (some friends think better) than a CD through a Simaudio transport. I find the Qobuz sound variable, though I am puzzled why. It sometimes is as good as local files, but last night, I played the same track both from Q and from my own library, and the local source sounded better (more "there").

If you have a local music library, how does that sound, streamed through the Lumin? Unless you can compare that to the CD player, you have too many variables to figure out what’s going on.
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