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CD transport vs streamer?

I am presently using a squeezebox unmodded and streaming via ethernet (not wi fi) uncompressed files from a Mac. I am feeding this into my Weiss Medea DAC (tried both Toslink and coaxial). However, comparing it to using my Jason transport, the sound is significantly worse. eg in Jazz at the Pawnshop, I can hear the liveness of the recording, on the streamed music it sounds like it was recorded in an anechoic chamber. Same when i stream from my apple TV via toslink.

Has anyone found a way of streaming that actually can outdo a high end CD player?
jglim
mlsstl
1,444 posts
 
I have not heard the Weiss Medea DAC you're using so can't comment directly on it though it does have a good reputation.

However, I run my Squeezebox through a Lavry DA-10 DAC and am very pleased with my system. I settled on this combo 2 1/2 years ago after going through quite a bit of equipment (including a Transporter) for several years preceding that. I've had no urge to change anything at the source end since.

Also, double-check your settings in the Squeezecenter. There are a bunch of possible configurations and some (such as streaming and decoding formats and volume normalization, for example) can adversely affect the sound quality.
jglim OP
16 posts
 
Hi Perrew

I tried running SB3 into the Medea DAC. Jason is purely a transport and I run that also into the Medea. I have also set the SB as bare as possible and still the failure of the SB3 to retrieve the finer details and the failure to potray the ambience/acoustics of the place in which the recording is made is disappointing.
mlsstl
1,444 posts
 
Just out of curiosity, what file format are you using to store the files for the Squeezebox?
timbrepitch
21 posts
 
Streamer all the way!!!! What is a CD Player?
richlane
167 posts
 
Hi Misstl,

I'm curious, did you ever compare the Transporter as a stand-alone front-end hooked up with the Lavry as the external DAC ($3000 combo), to the Squeeezbox front-end/ Lavry DAC Combo ($1400 combo).

Or did you just compare the Transporter with built-in DAC ($2000) to the Squeezebox/ Lavry combo ($1400) and decide that it wasn't worth an extra $600 to go with the built-in Transporter's DAC, because it was deemed not as good as the Lavry DAC for less money?

Because I'm prepared to suggest that if you're happy with your Squeezebox/Lavry setup, than you will be ecstatic with the Transporter/Lavry Combo (however $3000 is double the price of your current setup), but since you already own the great Lavry DAC, then you should consider picking up a used Transporter to use as your front-end for around $1400.

The following link and concurrent thread goes into some further detail if you're interested:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1246278090

The title of the thread is "How good of a Dac is the Logitech Transporter, but I'm suggesting that the title of the thread could very well be, " How good of a Transport is the Logitech Transporter."

I hope you enjoy it,

Rich
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