Please help with setting up a streaming system

@ghdprentice : Hello. In a variety of threads related to streaming, I’ve taken note of your comments revealing that your music streaming has caught up with/surpassed your LP playback. This interests me. With due respect to this thread, which is streaming related, I’d like to ask about your journey to achieve this end. I’m very knowledgeable about stereo equipment in general, but in the category of computer based generation of audio, I am not! I believe you have gone into some details in the past, but I wasn’t fully paying attention because I love the sound of my LPs, and considered streaming background music. I have made the decision to put some more effort into improving the sound of the music I’m streaming. You are one of the few here, who appears to have initially been committed to vinyl, who has written that their streaming has become as good as their vinyl playback system. We all have our own preferences, but I’m ready to explore streaming a bit more seriously… as others may be too.. if for no other reason than convenience. I hope this fits within the context of this thread… since I am, also, looking for some direction on how to get to a higher ground with streaming my music!

@justinm : Let me understand what you’re doing… You plugged a wifi extender in somewhere close to the streamer, then you plugged the streamer into the extender to provide a wired signal from your network (presumably with an Ethernet cable?). What’s the process to link the extender to your network? I just switched from cable internet, with a modem and router, to a Verizon 5G gateway. It’s been working well for providing internet access, but I’m not sure how to incorporate that to use for streaming. Sorry if this is basic, I’m not a computer guy 🤷🏻‍♂️

@soix @justinm : I was going to ask the same thing (about fully hardwired vs using an extender)! Someone mentioned using a “mesh router” which I looked up, but I can’t tell if it will work with my equipment. I can get an extender, no problem, but I’m not sure I’d be able to run a cable all the way from the gateway to the streamer (at least not easily). Right now my streaming equipment consists of a Bluesound node (N130) into a Cambridge DacMagic Plus. My music sources are Spotify and Apple Music Lossless via Bluetooth, and Radio Paradise (which is preloaded onto the Node). Radio Paradise sounds much better to me, but as I’m learning more, I believe that may be due to the fact that the Bluetooth is limiting the quality of the other sources I’m using. I tried Qobuz for the free trial period and didn’t like it (sound quality was just Ok, and the app wasn’t user friendly - to me), so I cancelled. But now I’m thinking it was dumbed down by being transmitted over Bluetooth. I’m planning to give it another try when I get this streaming system sorted out. 

@soix : I believe that! I didn’t realize it was such a big deal until I tried the Radio Paradise. I was like.. what the hell! I’m definitely going to try Qobuz again. I’ll get used to the OS. If the sound quality is good, I’ll make it work. Lol. I’m willing to get a better streamer and DAC, but I want to optimize what I have first. My LPs sound A LOT better, but I want to give streaming a chance, because it really opens up a whole world of music discovery!