Tidal WiFi not as good as cd


Hi all,

Trying out tidal hifi and noticed that the same music airplayed to my dac is not as good as my CD ripped to the computer and airplayed to the same dac. Almost sounds like a lossy file. Am I doing something wrong or is this what is to be expected because of streaming. Not exactly sure what Roon is but heard it should make tidal streams better. If so, would it still be worse than ripped CDs?  


jaferd

Showing 1 response by ajnackman

If any of you have extra time on your hands I suggest you read though some of this thread. Search for the posts by "romaz" he is very well informed.

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/30376-a-novel-way-to-massively-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/#comments

The sound quality of tidal streamed over the internet will sound different from person to person based on your internet front end. There aren't any audiophile modems, however as this thread suggests, using a linear power supply on your modem will improve the sound quality of streamed content. The thread I linked suggests using a series of switches with quality ethernet clocks and cables to a renderer to improve the performance of streamed content.

I haven't tried any of this myself but its high on my list of future upgrades. I've gone down the research rabbit hole between TCXO vs OCXO clocks - these things get expensive. A popular manufacturer for some of this stuff is SoTM if anyone is interested.