@facten I use Bluesound, Denafrips Terminator Plus, Hegel 590, Wilson Sasha DAW. I am very happy. I have CD transport for CDs I owned for 30 years. Sound quality almost the same, very satisfying. Point is, no matter what your budget is, there is digital streaming system that can outperform a vinyl or CD listening experience. It is hard to beat top notch DACs with an invention from early 19th century. If you go to Chord Dave, dCS Vivaldi Apex, dCS Rossini, Weiss 501, presentation will beat any analog alternative.
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?
Showing 5 responses by drbay
Any source other than digital streaming is just nostalgia. A good streamer with a good external DAC would beat any vinyl or CD at any price point. If you are claiming otherwise you are not living in reality, that is just admiration to nostalgia. Collecting CD or Vinyl is sort of useless fool’s errand. When you have access to 30 million songs, what is the point of accumulating physical Vinyl or CD etc. Young generations will not have luxury of having big houses and listening rooms. Speaker technology is advancing very rapidly, bookshelf speakers are becoming extremely good. Devialet for example has great product for younger generation. Our 200 lbs speakers will turn to relics of past or collectible items. Digital is future, adopt and move on. |
@soix @facten Reason I chose Bluesound Node is practicality, from blueOS app you can switch to you TV and streamer seamlessly. This is very important for my family, we do not want to use 3 remotes, 5 buttons to toggle between TV and music. Node has a great HDMI connection which makes life super easy. Also there are some DDS like Denafrips Hermes or Gaia to improve existing digital source output, that is my possible next step. |
@soix @facten Reason I chose Bluesound Node is practicality, from blueOS app you can switch to you TV and streamer seamlessly. This is very important for my family, we do not want to use 3 remotes, 5 buttons to toggle between TV and music. Node has a great HDMI connection which makes life super easy. Also there are some DDS like Denafrips Hermes or Gaia to improve existing digital source output, that is my possible next step. @juanmanuelfangioii I do not own an analog FE, all digital. I only enjoy analog music at HiFi conventions like Axpona. I totally agree with you this is preference thing. I love tube amp sound but I did not buy a tube amp for many reasons. If you own analog FE, absolutely enjoy it. I have CD collection and have CD player connected to my DAC. I try to get most out of what I have. |
@soix I wanted all digital sources including TV output to go through my external DAC. TV digital out comes from HDMI EARC to Node to DAC. I watch a lot of concerts from YouTube, I wanted to improve sound quality of TV output as well. |