2. digital
  3. 179322-96

Anyone else feel like it’s the Wild Wild West?

I’ve been following the streaming threads here for a while now, and I find it both exhilarating and intimidating.  I mean, we all know everything in high-end audio matters to some degree or another, right (Ok, maybe except for the flat earth contingent)?  From what I’m reading and from my own experience the process of optimizing steaming has near unlimited potential, and some even say it rivals or even surpasses vinyl if taken to the max.  Cables, routers, optical, filters, extenders, power supplies, switches, etc., they all seem to make a significant difference despite the naysayers who say bits are just bits.  I’m all in on this steaming renaissance, but most of the jewels of useful info are buried in other posts, so I’d like to have this be a consolidator post of your best streaming experiences and recommendations for others who could benefit greatly from your hard-won victories and maybe save a lot of people the agony you went through to get to streaming nirvana.  So have at it — let’s empower this community in this noble task and help everyone realize the amazing potential of this magic gift to audiophiles.  What say you?

soix

Showing 3 responses by attila7

attila7
23 posts
 

I am hardwired in, so much faster and morecrelisblecthan wifi. I also have a dac in my amp thru the optical or digital plugs. Is a standalone sac significantly better than the built in ones?

attila7
23 posts
 

Wild west for sure, and so much ambiguity. This is best, no this is better, so confusing. The reality is everything changes constantly. I have streamed for awhile using a roku box and spotify. I have considered upgrading but I would need a dac, a ddc, a streamer, a manager app and god knows what else? Up until now it was always the fewer things between the source and the speaker was best, with streaming it's  the most is best? 

attila7
23 posts
 

Good point Ron, I didn't think of it from that point. I was looking from the "junk" perspective. As I can't remove a built in dac the the current flows thru it, if I add on an outboard unit the current flows thru 2 dacs, everything in the signal path has an effect on the signal. Seems like additional "clutter"? It would seem that the best way would be individual standalone single function devices but that would require a wall of components, an end to end row of plug ins and miles of cable. So much for plugging a cd player into an amp to minimize signal degradation 🤣?

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