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Digital Dilemma

I purchased an inexpensive Onkyo C-7030 CD Player more as just a transport, but also to use as a benchmark to compare to streaming music on-line. With intentions to get the streamed content to sound as good, if not better, than the CD player could muster.

After sitting my wife down for a listen (she has better ears than me) and playing Tidal, Quboz and then the same tracks on a CD, the CD was the clear winner every time. It also seems the CD playing without using the Gustard R26 DAC didn’t even sound all that much better than when played through the CD Player only, bypassing the R26. That doesn’t say too much for the R26 DAC or alternatively, it says a lot for the DAC in the CD Player!

I am using the R26 as the renderer via a LAN connection that is optically isolated. There are a few filters and adjustments on the DAC, but tweaking those still didn’t get the sound quality up to that of the CD Player.

A lot of you say you have achieved streaming that sounds as good as your analogue systems. What do you think, do I need a betted DAC?

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Showing 1 response by maurice89

maurice89
31 posts
 

1 year ago I went through the same experience comparing a CD Player ( Nirvana Electronic Works) to my Lampizator DAC( fed by a long wireworld usb cable and macbookpro running Audirvana).

 

I was shocked, the streaming setup sounded nowhere as good as the cd player, despite costing 6x the price.

 

I trusted a friend of mine who exposed to me the importance of the source of the source!
 

It took a dedicated switch with LPSU through a Muon System to a Digital Wattson Streamer with LPSU to the DAC, while everything including the router plugged in a PLIXIR, to sound the way it should. BUT OH BOY! It put the cd player to shame, now the cd player sounded blurry and way smaller in scale, less air, compared to the Streamer-Dac setup...

 

So was it worth it? The streaming setup cost 4K when put all together... 

For me it was worth it, my biggest pleasure is to explore new music on the fly and only streaming gives me the experience while not sacrificing sound quality.

 

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