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Any advantage to Bluesound Node 2i Versus Streaming from PC

I'm trying a loaner Bluesound Node 2i streamer which salesperson said will sound better than streaming from my PC.  I doubted this since both are just feeding a digital signal to my Amp.  It's just zeros and ones right?   I have the Bluesound connected with a decent (not high end) digital coaxial cable to my Lyngdorf 3400.  The PC is connected with a cheap USB cable to the same Lyngdorf.  The sensitivity of both inputs is set to 0dB.  The bluesound is set to fixed volume and the PC volume is set to max.  I am playing Tidal through both input devices.  I am trying to discern if there is any difference in sound quality.  When played through the amp the bluesound volume is a whole lot louder than the PC.  I have not found a way to level match the two inputs for comparison.  The bluesound sounds good and is a lot louder per any particular volume setting on the amp.  Does this mean the Bluesound is sending a better signal to the amp?  Is the  coaxial cable a better medium to transmit the  audio signal?  Is this the reason it's louder?  Could the Tidal feed through Bluesound be better than the Tidal Desktop app on my PC?  I need some help as I have to decide by Saturday whether to keep the Bluesound or return it. Other than sound quality there are only minor advantages to owning the Bluesound which don't warrant the purchase.  My amp has a built in streamer but no built in Tidal (which is the reason I'm using the PC.)
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itsjustme
682 posts
 
I tried Roon with a MacAir vintage 2010.  It worked for a day but when I turned it on the next day the Computer froze and seriously overheated.  My one day trial didn’t tantalize me enough to want to retry.  I would run it on a dedicated PC, or else buy one of Roons own machines. 
You had a different problem.  When i trialed Roon, i tried it on a 2009 Macbook pro - this is like 4 generations of chips old - and it worked great.  Now, when i went "all-in" on Roon i built a ROCK with a 4-core NUC, but honestly the sound quality difference is zero.
if oyu run lots of room correcting DSP YMMV, but i don't. I keep things bitperfect aside from upsampling integer multiples.



itsjustme
682 posts
 
Regarding SSD disks almost all people who has tried with music streaming says that it is better.

It will certainly read faster (although that's rarely a limitation) but regardless less power = less power supply noise = better.  Exactly why still a mystery to those of us who design :-)

itsjustme
682 posts
 
The amp is listed as “Roon ready” and Roon shows up as one of the inputs.  If I had Roon does this mean I can stream directly to the amp without going through my PC as I’m doing now?

yep
Advantages? Less stuff.  I cannot see any possible advantage of going ethernet --> ethernet --> stuff --> SPDIF (which has timing issues) --> DAC (built in) as compared to ethernet --> DAC's bridge

soundchasr
159 posts
 
Direct is always better.  Unless something in the chain does something to the sound that you like. 
itsjustme
682 posts
 
Direct is always better. Unless something in the chain does something to the sound that you like.

Generally good advice, but in the digital streaming chain there are complications:
1. sometimes an intermediate device isolates noise, for example any time you add a network (ethernet) connection rather than source --. USB --> DAC.  This is almost always good.
2. to distribute processing power - both for load balancing and again to isolate the resulting noise.  Roon is very clear that they favor a 3-step chain of 1) core, 2) bridge, 3) DAC

That said "downstairs" i go directly from my ROCK core to my DAC.  Bad me. Sounds great.
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