Playing CDs sounds better than Qobuz — dammit

@kletter1mann I’d be interested in your findings in the performance differences between the Lumin and Node.  Lumin is on my radar too. 

Ok.  Let’s cut to the chase here.  Who’s used their i devices as WiFi streamers and upgraded to something wired or otherwise that was significantly better than using their iDevices. 

I used to use a dongle and when I switched to a hard wired streamer the sound quality drastically improved. 

So, @vanson1 you seem to have a similar experience to mine.  What streamer did you find was a big improvement over streaming through iDevices?

Well, weeding through all this good info — and thank you so much for sharing your experience — I’ve gotta get a hard-wired streamer and also upgrade my switch.  How would something like an Optical Rendu factor into this equation?   As a long-time audiophile I know that EVERYTHING matters to some degree, but I don’t have an unlimited budget so just looking to where to best draw the line.  Let’s call it a budget of $1500 give or take to up my streaming game.  Thanks again and much appreciated for those who’ve already fought this battle!

So, let’s drill down a bit here.  I realize I need to go hard-wired to a good streamer, and it also makes sense I should upgrade my switch.  Can’t do both right now, so I’m guessing I should go with hardwired streamer first and then upgrade switch?  Or Optical Rendu?  Thoughts?

Uh, CDs are digital.  

Getting all kinds of specific advice on streamers, routers etc is, IMHO, pointless without knowing the rest of the chain.

@kletter1mann Yeah, good point. My bad. Audience AR1p, Musician Pegasus, Singxer SA1, Hifiman Arya Stealth, LavriCable balanced silver cables for headphones and balanced between DAC and amp as well as Lightening cable and dual USB cable, Cullen power cables.

So, what I’m thinking is Optical Rendu, iFi Zen Stream, ProJect Streambox, or a used Innuos Zen. Thoughts?

@yage No, no AirPlay. 

@kletter1mann Well, I upgraded the Lightening cable from the Apple Camera Adapter and it improved the sound significantly so thought I was ok until I brought my CD transport up from my big rig.  I think it’s pretty clear from you and others I need to go with a hardwired, dedicated streamer so now just need to decide which one.  I’m happy with my DAC so I’m just looking for a pure streamer.  Thanks for the feedback. 

@dilatante Thanks for asking.  I ended up getting an iFi Zen Stream with their iPowerX power supply and it provided a huge improvement.  If I upgrade from the Zen it’ll likely be to an Innuos Zen so I can load my CDs that aren’t available to stream into it, and I like their Sense app that gets great reviews for both sound quality and usability. 

Is the iFi Zen Stream going to the same DAC as when you were using your iPad to stream Qobuz to? Did you use the same USB cable with the iFi and the iPad to the same DAC?

@dilatante Yes and yes.  

If you upgrade your streamer to something like Innuos, Lumin, Aurender, etc. you’ll get a big improvement in performance.  I’d start there.  Just my $0.02 FWIW. 

@maynardewm Your computer is significantly compromising your streaming performance due to noise, etc.  I’d highly recommend at some point you at least try a dedicated streamer to see how much better Qobuz can sound.  Just my $0.02 FWIW.