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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
minorl
1,016 posts
 

I have an Aurender CD/Ripper/music server/Streamer, a very good CD Transport and a Audio Research DAC 9 DAC.

Since I have lots of CD's it made sense for me to rip my Cds to the server's hard drive so I didn't have to pay to hear music streamed that I already owned.  A few days (or pay your kids to do it) ripping and you are done.  Any new CDs get ripped immediately.

So, in every case, when I listen to music on my Analog system, it is always, and I do mean always better.  However, my digital setup is quite nice indeed.  So, I listen to music that I ripped to the server and it is quite nice.

When I listen to Quoboz (spelling?) it sounds the same actually.  However, when I play the actual CD on my transport, it always sound better (not much but better) that the server/streamer.

So, my order of quality (on my system) is 

1. Analog system (really opens up the sound

2.  CD transport to DAC

3.  Streamer/music server, pretty much tied.

I know, I know, people will say that digital is digital and ripping bit perfect should sound the same no matter what.  That is not accurate in my case.

They are all (except for the analog system) going through the same DAC so no variation there.  They are all using the same type and length cable, so no variation there.

enjoy

dilatante
76 posts
 

@soix 

Is the iFi Zen Stream going to the same DAC as when you were using your iPad to stream Qobuz to? Did you use the same USB cable with the iFi and the iPad to the same DAC? I have no doubt the iFi Zen Steeam with their iPower X power supply would sound better than using your iPad going to the same DAC and it should.

dilatante
76 posts
 

@minorl

Did you use FLAC to rip all your CD collections? Depending on the music server you have the CD ripped files stored in, a high quality server and CD ripper should yield identical performance if not better than playing the actual physical CD disc with the CD transport going to the same DAC. And it looks like you have a good quality Aurender music server/streamer/CD transport all-in-one unit, and I’m surprised that playing the actual CD physical disc in the same transport unit as the CD ripper/music server/storage/streamer going to the same DAC delivers better sound.

soix OP
9,456 posts
 

Is the iFi Zen Stream going to the same DAC as when you were using your iPad to stream Qobuz to? Did you use the same USB cable with the iFi and the iPad to the same DAC?

@dilatante Yes and yes.  

minorl
1,016 posts
 

@dilatante 

Yes, I use FLAC to rip all my CDs.  However, I probably wasn't clear.  My Aurender unit does not play CDs, it only rips to the internal hard drive, or to an external NAS, and plays from it or streams.  My CD Transport unit is a very nice Pioneer Elite BDP-09FD unit.   Which I use as a transport only into my Audio Research DAC 9 via optical.

The Aurender goes to the DAC 9 via USB.

The Aurender is suppose to rip bit perfect.  But, people say digital is digital or amps are amps, but.... not really.

Also, by-the-way, Pioneer Elite BDP-09 and DV-09 units are built like tanks.  Seriously overbuilt and I've compared them to many, many other transports, most extremely high end and well known and the BDP-09 and also the DV-09 are right up there as transports go.

People replaced them because they were using them as DVD players or Blue Ray players and although quite nice, they loaded a little slowly and upgrading their home theater units with the latest and greatest.  But, for music only and as a transport only, wow!

enjoy

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