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 1 response by kairosman

Upgrade advice gleaned from my personal experience in no particular order...

Fiber optic either all the way from the router or as a breaker

LPS when possible 

Ethernet switches with OXCO clock

DDC if front end is under $20K 

Avoid ROON, apps from dCS, Lumin, Aurender, Auralic and Innuos sound better

Good but not crazy expensive cables of higher gauge

Power conditioning usually passive or battery are best but some active can be good and reasonable like Puritan 

Finally I want to share a totally biased opinion of the DAC manufacturer Lampizator, I just bought and installed a Lampizator Baltic 3 in my system and it is the most discernible upgrade to my system ever, particularly with respect to timbre, harmonics and soundstage dimensions. If you are serious about getting your streaming to match or beat pure analog playback, a good tube DAC with tube rectification is in my opinion a must buy alongside the list of things above.