Streaming vs Physical Media

@bkeske

I understand where you are coming from, so here's my whole, long story:

I started with records in the 1970's and had maybe 400-500 of them. I would use the Allman Brothers double album to pick the seeds out of my stash while it played...the good old '70's. Anyway, I recorded cassettes for bootlegs (I had a Nak also, there was never a better sounding tape deck) and copying my friends albums.

When my rather nice CD player died about two years ago, my audio guy said to drop the CD player and get yourself a Bluesound vault/streamer. I was very unsure, but he had always given me good advice, so I got the Bluesound vault/streamer and I have never looked back. The convenance of every CD just a click away, finding that special single song in seconds, making your own playlists on the fly, being able to schedule a whole evening of music, was much better then separate CD's and since then I have only brought CD's to burn into the Bluseound. I still play albums, but I cut back my albums to just about 100, and I only buy a few special albums a year.

I have now upgraded to an Aurender with Streaming and I never miss the CD's at all. The quality is better with the Aurender, but that's also due to having a high-end DAC now rather then the built-in DAC chips in the old CD player. 

Again, I still have and love the physical media also, just not as much. From your picture I think you're about the same age, maybe younger then me! So you're not  too old yet to change. And yeah, that Jerry album is great, but right now I am hooked on the Pizza Tapes. It's like you are in the room with Jerry and friends. 

All the best to you! 

I recently had someone over to buy my old Timbernation stereo rack. He was quite an avid audiophile who's friend with one of the guys at Sony who invented SACD  (the person still makes custom equipment for those who can afford it).  

He took an interest in my Technics set up (SU-G700M2 & SL-G700 SACD/steamer/network/WiFi player) so I played him some Black Acid Soul by Lady Blackbird and not 5 seconds into it, he said, "wow...that's fast". The only other comment he made was "this just sounds great" a few times, as we listened to practically the whole CD. 

I mentioned how I have to use Pure Disk Playback on the SACD's settings to get the best sound. Doing that shuts down all other features (networking, WiFi, streaming, etc.) including the display. I don't have anything else set up with the SACD player but defeating PDP results in a noticeable downgrading of the sound.

My friend said it's most likely due to the power now being shared with the other system features even though nothing is hooked up to it. I think there's something else at work that even with the most careful R&D that Technics used, CD playback sounds the best, by a noticeable margin.

The reviews out there are mixed as some of them only streamed and used WiFi and were mightily impressed but at least one reviewer was so enamored of the disc playback that he asked Technics if they were going to make a dedicated player using the exact same CD drive as the one in the unit but they said, no. I wish they would as I'd have saved maybe a third off the price and gotten a SACD player with all the attention dedicated to just that. 

Some day I may try some of the other features but I'm in no hurry to do so.

All the best,
Nonoise

@bkeske 

Great great album!!

My limited experience with streaming and CD’s has taught me one thing, if you run your CD transport and your streamer through the same DAC, they are going to sound a lot alike. That includes CD’s that have been ripped to a hard drive.

All the best.

JD

@soix

Sorry for late reply. When I tried TP Link Fiber Media Converters in my previous setup between my router and Aurender N20, adding fiber yielded to a dry and thin presentation. I used standard fiber optic cable between the converter boxes and a pair of Supra CAT 8 LAN before and after Fiber converter boxes. In comparison, ENO streaming system with their high-purity UP-OCC LAN Ag cables on both ends yielded to a much natural and engaging presentation. With ENO, the music flows effortlessly and there is this sense of righteousness across the spectrum.

IMO, until we get devices that are optimized for Optical Network on both ends i.e. routers and more streaming devices like Lumin, we won’t probably realize the true potential of fiber optic in our homes. I also believe most of these mass produced cheap converter and Ethernet switch boxes are not designed or optimized for audio :-)