Anyone else feel like it’s the Wild Wild West?
I’ve been following the streaming threads here for a while now, and I find it both exhilarating and intimidating. I mean, we all know everything in high-end audio matters to some degree or another, right (Ok, maybe except for the flat earth contingent)? From what I’m reading and from my own experience the process of optimizing steaming has near unlimited potential, and some even say it rivals or even surpasses vinyl if taken to the max. Cables, routers, optical, filters, extenders, power supplies, switches, etc., they all seem to make a significant difference despite the naysayers who say bits are just bits. I’m all in on this steaming renaissance, but most of the jewels of useful info are buried in other posts, so I’d like to have this be a consolidator post of your best streaming experiences and recommendations for others who could benefit greatly from your hard-won victories and maybe save a lot of people the agony you went through to get to streaming nirvana. So have at it — let’s empower this community in this noble task and help everyone realize the amazing potential of this magic gift to audiophiles. What say you?
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- 115 posts total
+1, @fastfreight ….great post! |
+2 @fastfreight Great perspective on how/why to get started with streaming and highlighting how you can start cheap/simple and upgrade piece by piece and get to your nirvana at your own pace and also in emphasizing that EVERYTHING matters. |
I wanted to try streaming but not spend a lot of money before deciding to really invest in the top tier gear. I had purchased a Marantz SA-10 SACD player with a unique DAC that only accepts either coax or optical from a streamer, but not USB. So I thought why buy a DAC when I only need a streamer. So I backed into the ifi Zen Stream because it was the cheapest streamer-only with a coax output that had good reviews, and I even snagged one for less on ebay from a dealer. I also invested a little in a decent Canare coax cable. I, too, had to send a service request when I couldn't get it hooked up, which was never answered, but it turned out it was my ineptness anyway. I got it up and running wirelessly but not wired, which turned out to be incorrect ethernet terminations in my home. I guess my prior experience streaming was from my Mac to KEF X300A powered speakers with their own dac that sounded pretty good used as nearfield desktop speakers. After playing the ifi through my Marantz and Luxman integrated Class A and Yamaha NS-5000's and comparing it to my cd's, it sounded pretty good with the free stuff from Spotify. After visiting forums, I invested in ifi's better Elite power supply and that made a big difference I could hear in my "compact reference system", making me realize it is one of the reasons ifi can make such an inexpensive streamer is that the included power supply is noisy. The better power supply I purchased was basically the same price as I paid for the Zen Stream, but I'm glad I could upgrade it and it wasn't built into the streamer. Now I'm about to compare wireless to wired and experiment with a streaming service and continue comparing to my cd's. I guess the whole point is streaming is experimentation. If you've been in this hobby for 55 years since you were a teen, the tech today is amazing regardless of what the format or equipment is. And the stuff that sounds best is always going to be the artists and songs that are your favorites and when recorded technically in a way that you immediately can hear as superior. |
I hear you. Some People like to over complicate things. It’s a hard habit to break. Streaming is not so hard. Only when one becomes obsessed with always trying to find something better. So I guess in some cases it is made out to be like the wild Wild West. Conquering new frontiers is a thing. Even Star Trek was conceived as Wagon Train to the stars. Shatner is famous for his overacting. It’s all good . To each their own
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- 115 posts total