My audio system and streaming service are not yet on speaking terms. Help needed.


For 15 years I have enjoyed my primary home audio system to play a large CD collection that consists of jazz, rock, pop and classical, including some SACDs, using an OPPO BDP-95 as my player, Anthem electronic (AVM 20 and MCA 50), Paradigm Signature S2s on custom stands adjusted to my listening height and a Velodyne DD-15 in a room that allows for proper placement of the speakers and subwoofer along with decor that doubles as room treatment. It is hardly high end compared to some of the great systems some of you have assembled, but it has worked well for me, creating an immersive listening experience with a wide soundstage, clarity of placement of instruments and a balanced and naturally sounding output that is detailed but not harsh.

It's only been more recently that I turned to streaming services, first to stream in my vehicles, than through a pair of powered speakers set up in my home gym so I can more easily listen to music while I work out. I chose Tidal, enjoyed the quality of the sound and the ability to create playlists and explore deeper tracks or related artists, but I have not compared it yet to other streaming services. I have the Todal app on both my iPhone and iMac.

Then my Oppo conked out. While I do plan to try what might be a simple fix, with some emailed instructions from Oppo, I'd like to integrate my two systems, and am truly a newbie in that task. 

I currently use an Eero Mesh server and will soon have the option to upgrade my home Internet to Fiberoptic as that infrastructure was just added to my neighborhood this past couple of weeks, with the connection to my home coming sometime later this month. My listening room is on the first floor, as is the room with my modem and router. 

As for budget, while I don't have any real cap, I prefer to consider options in multiple price ranges, weighing marginal gains versus costs, before deciding. I would prefer to have the flexibility to transfer my disks to an external hard drive for ease of use. I have two 8 TB G-Technology external drives that I have long used to backup computer files, and store video that would consume too much space on my iMac drive, but lack the hardware to burn my CDs to those drives. So I have need for a music server or NAS drive in addition to a music streamer. My CD/SACD selection has been carefully acquired and curated by is hardly massive, no more than a thousand or so. 

As I mentioned, I do enjoy creating and tweaking playlists, so would be open to trying ROON to compare its use to using Tidal directly. I'd also like the ability to share playlists, including with people who use a different streaming service than I do, as I get as much delight sharing music as listening to it, a byproduct of being in a band a long time ago.

So please do fire away with suggestions, issues to consider and your own experiences -- most of you have vastly more experience than I do, so I appreciate whatever you can share.

 

 

jonsher

Did the OP ever define a budget?  Also in his lengthy first post I’m trying to figure out the essential issue.  Was he using the Oppo as a streamer, and wondering what to replace it with?  Or is he looking for a different service?

There are a couple of ways to add streaming to your Anthem / Paradigm setup. Unfortunately, the Anthem pre/pro doesn't have a USB input so you'll need a streamer or PC that has optical or coax digital outputs unless you want to buy a separate DAC. (Macs these days don't usually have built-in digital outputs.) Alternatively, you could connect the headphone output of the iMac directly to an input on the AVM 20, if that's convenient, although it could be suboptimal from a noise perspective.

 

Here's an example from my system. In the basement, I have a Benchmark HPA4 as the preamp with the AHB2 as the power amp. I use a Benchmark DAC 3B as the digital source. A Raspberry Pi functions as a streamer and is connected to the DAC via USB. My Oppo UDP-203 is connected to the DAC using coax SPDIF. The TV is connected to the DAC using optical SPDIF. I use a remote control to switch digital inputs on the DAC and use my phone to control the streaming software on the Raspberry Pi. I can choose to playback files stored on a shared drive on my Mac mini or stream from Qobuz using an Android app called BubbleUPnP.

 

Hopefully this gives you some ideas. Good luck on getting the Oppo fixed.

I went from playing files through my OPPO to a Vault 2i and then to an Aurender N200.   

The Vault 2i is a great box for the money , no doubt.    So good that you need to spend some $$$ to better it

I never thought I would spend on a streamer like the N200, but I did and 100% no regrets.  It is an awesome machine that sounds great.   Moving files is super easy too, I had some drives along with a back up of my Vault and just copied them over through my PC.    

 

OP didn’t really say anything about budget but based on the rest of the equipment listed it sounds to me like the Vault would be a good place to start (unless going wholesale on new everything of course!)

"Burn to drives"?

Can’t get past that. Sounds like you need Tidal Connect. Qobuz sounds better.

Integrate with CDs? I suggest Hifi Rose with their optional disc drive.

Dump the spinners for SSDs. You can mount one on board.

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