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Digital Dilemma

I purchased an inexpensive Onkyo C-7030 CD Player more as just a transport, but also to use as a benchmark to compare to streaming music on-line. With intentions to get the streamed content to sound as good, if not better, than the CD player could muster.

After sitting my wife down for a listen (she has better ears than me) and playing Tidal, Quboz and then the same tracks on a CD, the CD was the clear winner every time. It also seems the CD playing without using the Gustard R26 DAC didn’t even sound all that much better than when played through the CD Player only, bypassing the R26. That doesn’t say too much for the R26 DAC or alternatively, it says a lot for the DAC in the CD Player!

I am using the R26 as the renderer via a LAN connection that is optically isolated. There are a few filters and adjustments on the DAC, but tweaking those still didn’t get the sound quality up to that of the CD Player.

A lot of you say you have achieved streaming that sounds as good as your analogue systems. What do you think, do I need a betted DAC?

128x128navyachts
kairosman's avatar
kairosman
285 posts
 

@navyachts @soix also IMO if you put an R26 or similarly high performance DAC into a sub $10K system, it is unrealistic to expect it to unilaterally provide a big sonic upgrade. Resolution and soundstage improvements (for example) can only be realized when the rest of the system can help deliver it. Synergy is random i.e. you trial/error gear pairings, and either it happens or it doesn't. Another thing to consider is burn-in - it took 250 hours to get the R26 in my system to deliver its maximum performance. 

 

wsrrsw's avatar
wsrrsw
1,021 posts
 

@navyachts 

No roon on “big rig” (ok sometimes). Roon works on devices aka end points that are on the network. I have two end points. One in the whole house system and the other in joy central. The native Lumin App with the Lumin AMP uses Leedh processing (what ever that is) volume control and clearly bests the sound controlled by Roon. The Roon interface tops the native software.

maurice89
31 posts
 

1 year ago I went through the same experience comparing a CD Player ( Nirvana Electronic Works) to my Lampizator DAC( fed by a long wireworld usb cable and macbookpro running Audirvana).

 

I was shocked, the streaming setup sounded nowhere as good as the cd player, despite costing 6x the price.

 

I trusted a friend of mine who exposed to me the importance of the source of the source!
 

It took a dedicated switch with LPSU through a Muon System to a Digital Wattson Streamer with LPSU to the DAC, while everything including the router plugged in a PLIXIR, to sound the way it should. BUT OH BOY! It put the cd player to shame, now the cd player sounded blurry and way smaller in scale, less air, compared to the Streamer-Dac setup...

 

So was it worth it? The streaming setup cost 4K when put all together... 

For me it was worth it, my biggest pleasure is to explore new music on the fly and only streaming gives me the experience while not sacrificing sound quality.

 

vthokie83
864 posts
 

Navyachts, my 2 cents:

The internal streamer in the R26 gets mixed reviews, but the R2R DAC is thought quite highly of. The C-7030 CD player is very good for the money, if you bypass its internal DAC (I used one for several years). Get a nice streamer with some good cables, and be smart about getting the data into the streamer…..and you should be on your way.

There is some great advice in the previous posts. Best of luck to you!

vthokie83
864 posts
 

Navyachts, my 2 cents:

The internal streamer in the R26 gets mixed reviews, but the R2R DAC is thought quite highly of. The C-7030 CD player is very good for the money, if you bypass its internal DAC (I used one for several years). Get a nice streamer with some good cables, and be smart about getting the data into the streamer…..and you should be on your way.

There is some great advice in the previous posts. Best of luck to you!

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