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Playing CDs sounds better than Qobuz — dammit

I’ve built a decent HeadFi rig over the past few months and am quite happy with it streaming Qobuz as a source via my iPad/iPhone.  I recently brought my CD player into the rig as there are some reference CDs I need that aren’t available on Qobuz.  Well, I made the mistake of playing some CDs and compared them to Qobuz, and in every case the CD sounds better — specifically a quieter background and more transparency overall.  I’ve got good cables from the dongle out of my iPad to the USB cable that runs to my DAC for streaming, so let’s leave cables out of the discussion for now because I think this goes deeper than that.  Needless to say I’m pretty disappointed right now because I’ve enjoyed not spinning discs over the past year or so and certainly don’t wanna go back to buying CDs again.  Ugh.

So, what I’m thinking is that streaming over WiFi through my iDevices may be the bottleneck.  IF that’s the case and I need to up my streaming game, what would be the cheapest way to go to overcome the bottleneck?  My thought is going hardwired (which I can do) to something like an iFi Stream or maybe a ProJect Streambox, but just wondering if that’d get it done?  Something else?  I need something pre-made and won’t wrestle with doing a Raspberry Pi with hats, etc. as I have no patience for configuring/troubleshooting tech.  Thanks for any advice/thoughts. 

soix
mofojo
2,288 posts
 

I streamed for years. Tidal Qobuz Amazon HD. One morning I got up and and hooked my old nad CD player up on a lark. Using its spdif out to my DAC. I haven’t streamed a song since. I upgraded to a Cambridge cxc transport and it’s even better. I play cds that are scratched up where the nad would skip. I’ll one have missed a beat on the Cambridge. Personally I’m done. Probably if I went with one of the 5k streamers and treated the internet noise with all those gadgets it might be equal or better? Now finding used music stores and finding cool cds is a new hobby of mine. As good as the cxc sounds I will probably upgrade my transport at some point. 

mofojo
2,288 posts
 

Ahh I do still stream in the car sometimes. 

sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 

@soix 

So, let’s drill down a bit here.  I realize I need to go hard-wired to a good streamer, and it also makes sense I should upgrade my switch.  Can’t do both right now, so I’m guessing I should go with hardwired streamer first and then upgrade switch?  Or Optical Rendu?  Thoughts?

That's what I do now. Ripped all my discs to NAS and use wired ethernet to opticalRendu. That beats the microRendu I had previously by eliminating a lot of noise as described in many posts below. Even the microRendu crushed my MacMini w/Audirvana+ or Amarra because a low power specialized device with a good LPS is SO much quieter than a PC/Mac running many processes unrelated to audio playback. 

You don't have to go nuts ripping all disks at once...just start with your most frequently played and do a few each week while you're watching movies, etc. 

The mastering of what you've got on disc vs. what services stream is a mystery and huge rabbit hole. Your findings are no shocker. With rips to a NAS or SSD, clean wired ethernet and a decent streamer you should well be on your way. FWIW, Andrew at SGC recommended a $20 TP-Link switch that sounds very good at nominal cost. Just don't skimp on the power supply for your streamer/renderer; they make a huge difference in SQ. Cheers,

Spencer 

sns
3,193 posts
 

Optimizing streaming is not easily achieved. I'm discovering the most experienced streamers are going to completely discreet solutions. This entails something like Roon library on stock or modded pc, server running proprietary OS, endpoint/streamer able to run that server OS. This system will also need to have high quality ethernet cable, LPS for all components, fiber conversion.

 

Of course we have streaming at all levels from beginner to the above optimal setup. With almost unlimited streaming solutions and a number of different cd transports available each situation could bring about differing favored digital solution.

 

I can only speak for myself, cd rips long ago defeated my Mark Levinson #37 transport, used Phillips Pro mechanism, long considered one of the best. It took a couple years more of network upgrades for streams to challenge rips as best. These days I couldn't reliably tell the difference. While I still have room for improvement in cd rip playback, much more room for streaming improvement. Streaming will soon become de facto means for optimal digital playback, if not already there.

ericgeer
10 posts
 

Try listening to SACDs and Blu-ray Audio discs with a GeerFab Audio D.BOB extracting DSD64 and up to 24/192 PCM, then out over coax/Toslink (DoP for DSD) to an external DAC, and then compare that to streaming.

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