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Newbie Looking for Advice on Streaming Music

Hello Audiogon world.

I am new to this hobby but I think it will suit me well as it looks like it is an endless pursuit of perfection of sound without ever really getting there.  I love the endless possibilities, difference in thought, technology driven aspect mixed with old school art.

I am in the process of building my first 2 channel set up and recently picked up a Primaluna Dialogue HP and a pair of Sonus Faber Chameleons for starters.

Im looking to stream music from Tidal to the new equipment as simple as possible without compromising sound as much as I possibly can (budget permitting of course)

I have been doing some research and I must say this part of the equation is rather confusing with a lot of technical speak that gets brought into the discussion which is a bit overwhelming for a newbie trying to soak it all in.

Do I need to purchase a high quality DAC?
Can I just buy a streaming box like the Paradigm PW Link or Def Tech W Adapt and hook it into the Primaluna?
Do I go with the Halide Design DAC HD D/A Converter from computer straight into Primaluna?
I also read about the wyred4sound modified Sonos Connect.  Does that plus into a DAC or straight into Amp?

Apologies for all the newbie questions.  I did try searching and doing some research but found myself getting confused.  If someone could help me clear up what I will need that will set me on the path to researching the best value for my budget for each component I will need to accomplish my goals of streaming my music from Tidal.

Thanks in advance.  I think this will be a fun hobby!

Don

donblackie

Showing 2 responses by shadorne

shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
@audioengr

Just looking at your oscilloscope plots, I would say you have plenty of triggering issues - this would explain why you get bimodal distributions and distributions that look a mirror image of each other.

You would be much better served by analysis of the final analog output of the DAC - any jitter will show up as distortion of the known digital input signal.

The APx555 by Audio Precision is designed to robustly test for jitter by injecting known signals.

https://youtu.be/2ac1bJih05k
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
@audioengr

Great that you are measuring jitter, however, you are just using your ears to judge if a DAC rejects jitter and sounds right - in fact you claim that no DACs successfully reject jitter which is counter to several manufacturers claims as well as independent test results ? How do you reconcile your conflicting approach when there already exists a jitter J test which is used by Stereophile and which is part of the measurement suite offered with Audio Precision test equipment(the world leader in audio test gear)?

Also I am curious that a jitter expert does not use AP test equipment? Is there a problem with AP equipment also? Just curious because you make many claims but your approach is let’s say - rather unorthodox.




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