CD Player vs. music streaming

I’ll throw my $.02 in here.  First - I agree w/ Duckworp in that Classical music streaming leaves something to be desired from a search standpoint.  However, this is easily enough overcome.  I listen to a lot of classical music and the ability to listen to many different recordings is really nice via streaming.  I’m discovering lots of recordings I wouldn’t have otherwise purchased.  You can easily search by composer or orchestra (artist).  And, you can rip your library to a hard drive to make it easily accessible (and searchable via the software). 

I would also suggest that streaming can be as good as CD/SACD played on a good player - if you have that goal.  I have a good streamer (Auralic Aries G2 - not the best, but well above the mid range) going into a good (but not great) DAC and it’s better than my CD/SACD player (also mid range).  I also have an Aurender server/streamer in another system - It’s also very, very good and better than my CD player.  Both are significant upgrades sound wise over the Bluesound Node 2 (a killer streamer for the price which I have in yet another system) from a streaming sound quality standpoint.  I actually like the Bluesound app the best out of all interestingly enough.  In any case, convenience, a nearly unlimited library and no physical media to store or search through are pretty compelling.  

To the OP, you can get a very good player/DAC if you want.  T+A, Simaudio, Esoteric, Marantz, etc.  all make such units which are very good.  

For me, I no longer play discs (despite a decent library of SACDs).  I have subscriptions to Qobuz (better sounding than Tidal at full resolution, but no MQA - hopefully soon), Tidal and Spotify premium.  Yes, I spend a fair amount monthly, but if it’s been recorded, I probably have access to it.  And, those services all have curated playlists for casual listening as well.  Spotify is much, much better than the other two in this regard. Tidal is frustratingly oriented toward hip hop/R&B in this regard - a reflection of the owners).  

So, for me - I spent up on streamer/servers and really have no need/desire to search through my disc collection again.  And, I’m discovering a lot of new music. My adult children all enjoy sharing new music with me too.  It’s been a wonderful development.

Best,

Rbstehno: the reason to use a dedicated music server is because they offer significantly better sound quality than a PC or Mac. I used to run an optimized Mac mini - solid state hard drive, 16 GB ram - only running as a music server. I never used it for anything else.  The music server I bought smoked it - not even close.  This was true even after I converted the Mac’s USB output to SPDIF w/ a nice converter.  Further, I always had to update the Mac.  Updates to the servers/streamers I have are far less frequent. I have 3 different servers and/or streamers.  None have ever crashed. 

I would also say that I now believe the music server and/or streamer is actually more important than the DAC.  I experienced a bigger improvement in sound quality from this upgrade than from the DAC upgrade.  And, I upgraded from a decent streamer (Node 2) to a higher end streamer and again experienced a leap in sound quality.

Lastly, I would note that my better streamer has greatly improved the sound quality of Spotify premium.  I have subscriptions to Tidal and Qobuz.  Both are very good and sound better than Spotify.  But, I noticed a leap in sound quality from Spotify w/ the upgraded streamer.

Regarding the backup issues you note - fair points.  However, in my one system, I use that Mac Mini as my Roon core and file storage.  Guess what just failed.  Fortunately, the Mac is backed up. 

Perhaps the way to manage all this is to use streamers instead of servers - the difference being no onboard storage to lose.  Then, you’d keep the backup ease of your solution but have the improved sound quality and ease of use from the streamer and app.


My $.02
Best,

Have to generally agree with Audiotroy here.  I have a Node 2.  It’s an incredible unit for the price, but it’s not a high end streamer. It sounds great, but is easily bested by better units. In my experience, the streamer quality is as or more important than the DAC.  While I don’t have experience with Innuos server/streamers, I do with Aurender and Auralic as I own units from both companies and have been able to do A/B comparisons against the Node 2.  No contest.

And, if you pay attention to the details, a better streamer playing Tidal or Qoboz will easily equal a high quality CD player.  And, if you have files stored on a NAS, even better yet.  

Big_Greg,

do you have a dealer where you can demo some units at home?  My experience suggests that there are very large gains in going upstream from the Node 2. Indeed, I think the streamer might be more important than the DAC.  I’m getting pretty remarkable results from an Aries G2 streamer and from an Aurender N100.  They’re much better than the Node 2 I still have.

Ketchup,

I did the comparisons in my system(s) using the same DAC - in my case, the DACs built into the NAD M12 DAC/preamp and in a PS Audio Stellar pre/DAC (a killer unit for the price).  So, I’d say mid level DACs as the comparison (not great, but not budget).  I haven’t tried it with a high end DAC but I have some anecdotal evidence (based on auditioning several other mid level DACs that the streamer and/or server is the more critical component than the DAC.  My suspicion is that a high end streamer/server with a mid level DAC will outperform a high end DAC w/ a mid level streamer/server.  I can’t support that theory as I haven’t done direct comparisons, but I heard greater differences in streamers than in DACs. 

The differences I noticed between streamers were also supported by my local dealer. I took my Aurender to their store (they’re not a dealer) and we directly compared it to the Lumin U1 mini and the Node 2i (for which they are a dealer).. All were run into the same DAC (Marantz’ top of the line reference SACD/DAC).  While tonally, all were the same, the Node 2 (and to a lessor extent, the Lumin mini) sounded “flat” or 2 dimensional in comparison while the Aurender offered more spatial information.  It just sounded more open.  This was confirmed by the dealer.  I also compared my Aurender N100H (admittedly, their low end) to my new Auralic Aries G2 (about 2x the price) and noted it offered a similar increase in performance over the Aurender.  Again, same tonality, but more open spatially, and better revealing of details. Hope this helps.

Audiotroy - a quick note - offered with charitable intent.  I’m a fan - I appreciate your contributions and knowledge and believe you operate an honest business.  Have  you noticed that many of the threads you contribute to also lead to you taking an argumentative or defensive position of some sort?  Perhaps you should check your inpulses before responding. Not everyone is challenging you.  It’s my belief that other participants in these forums are unlikely to change their mind when on the receiving end of a lengthy and/or argumentative post.  Please continue to post to these forums.  But, please also appreciate that others who have a different view should be allowed to state as much freely without getting into an argument.  Again - this is offered as constructive criticism.  We absolutely need good dealers who have knowledge to share.  However, more will be receptive to your offerings if is comes from a friendly place.  

Mgrif