2. amps-preamps
  3. 182613-14281

streaming and audiophile stereo

I have heard it said that an audio system is only as good as its weakest link. I want to complete a system that will give me access to lots of music by Tidal and Roon, and I want the music played through some true audiophile components.  I am used to tube preamps, and will probably go that way again, though ss remains a possibility.  The speakers I intend to use are very efficient - 20 watts of amplification would be ample.  Here's my question:  in such a system, how important, and how variable, are the audio qualities of the digital source component - the streamer - at the front end?  If it does MQA does that alone mean it is the highest quality audio possible at this end of the system?  Or do some that accommodate MQA provide better sound than others that also accommodate MQA?  I see lots of reviews of features of these components, but not much about their individual sonic qualities.  Leaving aside features and convenience, are some better sounding than others and would this depend entirely on the DAC used?

twilightround

Showing 1 response by 8th-note

8th-note
423 posts
 

You probably have a laptop PC laying around and I assume that you have a CD player with a decent DAC or a separate DAC. I would suggest that the first thing you try is to get a trial Qobuz account and use your PC as the streamer. Hook the PC up to your DAC with a USB cable and get a sense of the sound quality. Pick a few tracks that you have on CD and compare them to the streamed version - making sure that the versions are the same (not remastered). An original unremastered version on the streaming service will always be 44.1/16.

You may find, as I did, that the sound quality using a PC as your streamer is about as good as playing a CD. I don't expect a streamed file to sound better than a CD played through the same DAC so if they are equal then the streamer must be doing its job reasonably well without harming the digital file. If the streamed file sounds a lot worse than the CD then it's a good indication that you will gain sound quality with a better streamer.

This is a good exercise to set your expectations. If you go ahead and spend a lot of money on a streamer it will be a good idea to compare it to a few CDs to see if the money spent bought you additional sound quality. I do the best I can to suppress expectation and confirmation bias by comparing components against a control. Using your CD rig as a control to compare streamed file performance will help keep you grounded.

BTW, I mentioned Qobuz instead of Tidal because you don't have to worry about MQA with Qobuz. Some people buy into the MQA story and some don't (I'm in the latter category) but if you decide to go with MQA you will need to understand the unfolding process and how it relates to different components in the stream, particularly the streamer and the DAC.

Lastly, if you try streaming and you really like it you may decide to venture into Roon. Before you spend significant bucks on a streamer I suggest that you research Roon and get a sense of whether or not you might use it in the future. Roon has it's own ecosystem and how it operates will affect the streaming and file management system you put together. 

More to discover