Wanting to upgrade my streaming sound quality.
I would really like to get my streaming sq up to my analog sq. My equipment is a McIntosh MC 452, C47, TD 124 with an AT 150 SA on a SME M2-9 tone arm, a Rega P8 with an Alpheta 3, a restored MR 74 tuner, driving Aerial 7t speakers. My streaming now is an iPad with a usb cable into my preamp with Tidal. I would be willing to spend around $2500 . A one box solution would be preferable for a steamer/dac combo although two boxes could also work. I’m not interested in multiple clocks and separate power supplies etc. Also I don’t use CD’s for a source. I do have AT&T fiber internet with up to 1000 mb speed and my modem is only around 5 feet from my audio rack. Balanced inputs is preferable but not a deal breaker. I’ve looked at the HiFi Rose 250 and the 150 although the latter is more money than I want to spend. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’m an Analog guy in a digital world.
Greg
Ah yes, the HiFi Rose gear is a great place to start.... I’m evaluating a Cambridge evo 150 currently. Getting a feel for what it can do and what it might replace here:
Sound Chaser | Virtual Listening Room (audiogon.com)
Off to a pretty good start.... |
I’d consider a modern integrated streaming solution to start and go from there. Many vendors have good return policies so no harm in trying. Let the experts do the optimized integration for you if not up to have to dabble over time to find the right thing. It may be right out there just waiting for you to enjoy streaming right away and not have to figure it all out from scratch. |
I'm looking to update my streaming which has been in place for over 10 years. Still sounds great but lots new in streaming since. Would like to try consolidating with an upgradeable all in 1 unit. Need a lot of power and current though to replace what I have. Close to pulling the trigger on a nad m33. Hifi Rose streamers have appeal. Old Logitech Squeezebox Touch streamers are being replaced. Still nothing with form and function like those that I see but tied to old Logitech MEdia Server which is very reliable and does a lot but is compute resource intensive and pretty old. Been leveraging Plex more as well for now. |
You have what looks like a good pre-amp with DAC (Mc) to start with, ie a pretty good digital setup, so you really have to be careful about knowing what specifically it is with the sound and/or streaming features you want to change or improve or you could be chasing (expensive) ghosts.
Are you comparing to your vinyl? Are you comparing apples/apples in terms of same release of an album on vinyl and available on Tidal? Things like MQA with the streaming service alone could make a big difference in how things sound. Could be better or worse...that's a highly subjective determination. Not familiar with Tidal and MQA specifically so hard to say with confidence.
Often streaming services use more recent releases of albums than the original vinyl releases and newer digital releases tend to be way different at the source generally louder overall with a totally different mix. So the release you have on vinyl could be much different than the one provided by the streaming service at the source and nothing you do with changing gear alone will make them sound the same or even close. So my advice is be careful and be sure you are comparing apples/apples before making changes. BTW I am going through some similar exercises at present looking to maybe update my streaming to newer gear and my findings are you really have to be careful to avoid spinning your wheels both feature and sound wise. |
