As the owner of a Cambridge CXN (not v2), I can attest that it sounds good and the software is crap. You can’t even flag a track or album as a favorite from it. It does support Tidal, (but does not decode MQA) but not Quboz or the upcoming Amazon service. That is why I am thinking of going with Roon and a separate DAC. The CXN does expose a ton of internet radio stations though (some with near cd quality), which can be fun for exploring new music.
I am in agreement with dtximages, except that it does matter, for the sake of having options, which formats it supports. Any streamer that isn’t garbage will deliver all of the bits from the source in the same order as the source.
I am not an audiophile, but have been a software/data professional for more than 40 years, and digital music (until it encounters a DAC) is just data. Even the timing is just data. Even the occasional error won’t usually cause a problem as long as the receiving end has a big enough buffer (and they usually do: memory is cheap), a bad data packet will just be resent. To wit: a bit is a bit is a bit is a bit. It is either a one or a zero there are not in-between values. It is not like analog which is of course, real time and allows no second chances.
I am in agreement with dtximages, except that it does matter, for the sake of having options, which formats it supports. Any streamer that isn’t garbage will deliver all of the bits from the source in the same order as the source.
I am not an audiophile, but have been a software/data professional for more than 40 years, and digital music (until it encounters a DAC) is just data. Even the timing is just data. Even the occasional error won’t usually cause a problem as long as the receiving end has a big enough buffer (and they usually do: memory is cheap), a bad data packet will just be resent. To wit: a bit is a bit is a bit is a bit. It is either a one or a zero there are not in-between values. It is not like analog which is of course, real time and allows no second chances.