Anyone else feel like it’s the Wild Wild West?

No, bits are not just bits, however, the OPs premise is flawed.

Digital is much easier, more productive, and more affordable to do well these days than vinyl. Digital done right/well (readily available out of the can these days)is the bees knees. Vinyl has some unique benefits, mostly due to the beefed up physical packaging often provided for a cost these days, but is a flawed though enduring century old technology at its core. Also, regardless of how physically delivered, digital mastering of recordings rules.

This is bad news for some who traditionally bank on selling costly esoteric tweaks to home consumers for a living. Not a business I would want to be in these days.

It’s not hard to buy very good digital gear out of the can that will thrill most people including most audio enthusiasts (save perhaps a few hardcore "audiophiles" who can never take a break from trying to forge ahead) for reasonable cost. You just have to make educated and practical purchase decisions, then still get the setup right (as always). No need to over-think or over-complicate things..which is good news for all!

Those digital related tweaks mentioned are not slam dunks as indicated.....some may help in some cases but the overall value for most is minimal, although some always seeking to try and do one better may still feel inclined to dabble and strike gold....but only if they really know what they are doing......not if they have to rely on sellers to tell them what they should buy.

@mapman bees knees! Copacetic daddy-oh. Made me smile.

You are right that many of the tweaks can be expensive and have incremental gains or ersatz ones. Non the less, I’ve found that taken all toughener it’s audible (how can blacker be audible?) for me. And many many many audiophiles love to tinker. I do. This forum is a gateway to getting equipment. N’est-ce pas, mes amis? Every thing counds better in french. The word for digital is numérique. Numérique. Oh lah lah.

Noise isn’t your systems friend be it from power or signal. Nothing wrong with going after it. For me the EtherREGEN was a stunner. Did I need the linear power, clock and fancy cables for it? Do cell phones need signal bars?

@wsrrsw 

Hey tinkering can be fun. I’m an engineer so I tinker all the time if there is a problem.   Even if not sometimes,  just for fun or to try something different.  No end to the variety of good sounds out there for one to experience. 

Regarding the “wild Wild West” digital is the exact opposite to me. Very diversified yet with a natural order to things that provides many safe shelters

Now if the topic were modern day gun violence in the US, the wild Wild West would be an appropriate analogy. But that’s something to discuss and take a stand on elsewhere. If hifi were in fact like that, I would probably find a new hobby.

When a iFi Zen Stream has far more issues with operation and glitches than a $79 WiiM Mini streamer I think it is incumbent upon iFi to FIX their product or stop selling it to unsuspecting customers and wait until they can come out with a "MK. 2" version that works as it should.

@moonwatcher I tend to agree, but I will say I think I’m finally on to a fix and if it works I’ll be a pretty happy camper given the sound quality I’m getting for $399. And although I’m forced to use Wi-Fi now due to traveling, when I get home I’m plugging into a Wi-Fi extender via Ethernet cable, and from what I hear there’s no problem with that connection. I’m not sure this problem is unique to iFi, but that’s not much comfort and there’s absolutely no excuse for them not having phone support, which to my mind is inexcusable for a company of that size and I’m sure that’s losing them business. BTW, when I finally get this fixed I’ll do a separate post detailing the solution(s) that will hopefully help other unsuspecting victims of this nightmare.

@drbay You’ve got a really nice system, but I think the Node is a significant bottleneck to better performance. Many people here have experienced very significant improvements moving up the chain from the Node and I think it would be a good idea to at least try a better streamer — you could buy through Amazon and just return it if you don’t find meaningfully better sound. In your case I’d highly recommend looking at the Innuos Zen or Zenith (depending on budget) as they’re not only excellent streamers, but their Sense software is widely reported to sound fantastic. And as a huge bonus they have a built-in server and disc drive so you can load all your CDs into it, ditch the CD player altogether (although you would need to add a DAC), and have access to all your music from your chair — plus your CDs may even sound better than through your CD player as well. Anyway, just my $0.02 FWIW.