A different world

@lalitk That's the area where I am least knowledgeable. I am running a 35' Bluejeans Cable Co Cat 6 from my router directly to the Bluesound. What do you suggest?

@dadork,

You have a pretty awesome DAC, one of my favorites. The Node 2i is decent but you are going to appreciate your La Voce S2 even more with a player like LinQ. I know there are other inexpensive options but nothing else will sound anything like a pairing of LinQ and La Voce especially through its I2S digital interface. There is go, one and done instead of monkeying around with anything else :-)

Also, what have you done to isolate noise on your Ethernet (between your router and Node 2i)?

I am all in on streaming as well for this very reason. I made a significant leap by adding a stand alone DAC in the chain. I bought a used Aqua La Voce S2 that does PCM only as I have no DSD nor feel the need to. It is a lovely sounding bit of kit that has certainly bridged the divide between digital and analog.

Currently streaming via Bluesound Node 2i. I am using a Geistnote digital coax from there to my DAC. What other suggestions or things I need to do to make it top notch?

@ghdprentice

It’s a new world indeed. My digital streaming playback has transcended both CD and Vinyl playback so I’m now 100% digital. It sure took bit of work but it was well worth it. The tweaks made to my home network is now paying back in spades. And then there is so much music to explore, I think we have barely scratched the surface. I love the Roon radio feature, it has introduced me to so many artists and music that I couldn’t possibly explored on my own.

There is always going to be those who have not warmed up to digital streaming or prefer CD / Vinyl for whatever reason and that’s quite ok. But I’m not buying the argument anymore that Streaming is not par with CD or Vinyl playback. Bad or compressed recordings equally exists on CD and Vinyl. You don’t have to have provenance info (though it will be a nice feature) to recognize you’re listening to a compressed or bad recording :-)

Enjoy the music!

So, we have one example of alleged compression, so of course everything compressed on steams, brilliant inductive reasoning.

I had similar path to streaming excellence, only cd rips superior to playing cd's on transport, over time and with continuing network upgrades, streams equal to cd rips.

And both superior to present vinyl setup. Streaming is for music lovers, I have at least 3K vinyl and 2.5k cds, not even close to all the music available to me from streams.

Further network upgrades coming soon which should make streaming experience that much better.

Unfortunately the streaming services use compressed versions of music.  Here is one example.  Dynamic range is smaller on the streaming service.  You never know what you are getting with Tital or Qobuz.

Yup.