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Why does my old CD player sound so much better than my new streamer?

Earlier this year I upgraded my system. Briefly, new Prima Luna Dialogue Premium HP integrated, new Lumin D2 streamer/DAC, kept my Tekton speakers, bought a 10 year old Muse Erato CD player, new Nordost Red Dawn cables all around.  After plenty of break in, the Lumin D2 streaming Tidal, even 24/96, does not sound close to as good as the Muse Erato.  I understand the Muse was about $10k new years ago, I paid $650 for it on Audiogon, is that the difference? It replaced my Naim I had for 20+ years and I bought it on the chance I want to listen to something not on Tidal, but now I'm going to CDs when I want to sit and listen instead of streaming. I considered upgrading to the Lumin T2, but will that be more of the same Lumin sound, which is accurate but thin and a little cold compared to the Muse.  I like the Lumin when just letting Tidal shuffle music as I move around the house, but from the opening note in an A/B test the Muse just sounds so much warmer, live and simply more enjoyable. Any thoughts or suggestions?
fsgattuso

Showing 2 responses by wsrrsw

wsrrsw's avatar
wsrrsw
1,127 posts
 
With out of the box settings I found the opposite.

Granted my gear isn’t yours but my T2 with upgraded power supply (with a good ethernet and power cables but not stratospheric ones) sounds better than my PrimaLuna tube CD player.

Also using WiFi into one of these...TP-Link Wireless N300 2T2R Access Point, 2.4Ghz 300Mbps, 802.11b/g/n, AP/Client/Bridge/Repeater, 2x 4dBi, Passive POE all of $23.

Apples to apples tests at 44k of the same tracks by three of us (nerds?) were done. At 96K to me sound was that of tip top vinyl.

I now now have ripped all cd’s to flacks and run those via the Lumen T2. Happy.

Every thing that’s any sort of cable/cord/power/power supply on my gear has been tweaked and what an audible difference. Your mileage may vary but better connects made a difference over stock. I don’t have anything that’s at the highest tear.
wsrrsw's avatar
wsrrsw
1,127 posts
 
f917025

“streamer users are fashion victims just like the first transistor users.”

Respectfully disagree, that’s a polite way of saying it....it’s all so subjective (room, system, etc.)...a few of us did a blind test where we listened to the same tunes from a CD and a streamer. We all picked the steamer.  Files were the same size. The high res files to me are Nirvana..  The tube system used was excellent stuff but not the penultimate. 

I have been giving away Cd’s after ripping then. I now listen to music files from what was on CDs on a fashionable Streamer in my uber fashionable cloths.

We can all love our music any way it’s piped in. 
 




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