Newbie Looking for Advice on Streaming Music


Hello Audiogon world.

I am new to this hobby but I think it will suit me well as it looks like it is an endless pursuit of perfection of sound without ever really getting there.  I love the endless possibilities, difference in thought, technology driven aspect mixed with old school art.

I am in the process of building my first 2 channel set up and recently picked up a Primaluna Dialogue HP and a pair of Sonus Faber Chameleons for starters.

Im looking to stream music from Tidal to the new equipment as simple as possible without compromising sound as much as I possibly can (budget permitting of course)

I have been doing some research and I must say this part of the equation is rather confusing with a lot of technical speak that gets brought into the discussion which is a bit overwhelming for a newbie trying to soak it all in.

Do I need to purchase a high quality DAC?
Can I just buy a streaming box like the Paradigm PW Link or Def Tech W Adapt and hook it into the Primaluna?
Do I go with the Halide Design DAC HD D/A Converter from computer straight into Primaluna?
I also read about the wyred4sound modified Sonos Connect.  Does that plus into a DAC or straight into Amp?

Apologies for all the newbie questions.  I did try searching and doing some research but found myself getting confused.  If someone could help me clear up what I will need that will set me on the path to researching the best value for my budget for each component I will need to accomplish my goals of streaming my music from Tidal.

Thanks in advance.  I think this will be a fun hobby!

Don

donblackie
True, i forgot to mention that my ps Audio bridge is connected via Ethernet Cable to router and then to computer.  I use an older Mac mini, used for Audio only.  Love the setup. Control it with my iPhone.
@marktomaras 
I just purchased another beacon with a ethernet port for my mesh wireless network and will plug that into the power near my rack and run a short cat run to the DSJ.
@audioengr, for those of us who don't have an Ethernet-enabled DAC and use a Windows-based PC to stream our song library (JRiver) / TIDAL to a USB DAC using Wi-Fi, is there an Ethernet-based solution - other than buying a different DAC - to reducing jitter in the digital signal prior to it arriving at the DAC?

Steve, I know you believe ethernet delivers the highest quality signal, but I'm not able to run a cable from where my router sits to my audio-based PC.

Gary
My integrated, a hegel h360 has an onboard dac but i'm new to streaming and currently run a usb from a laptop to the unit and with tidal's highest res option many songs sound very good but am I getting the most from both formats? 1 being tidal and the other being the onboard dac? a dealer recommends the blue sound into my analog outs which makes no sense to me?
Just looking at your oscilloscope plots, I would say you have plenty of triggering issues - this would explain why you get bimodal distributions and distributions that look a mirror image of each other.

You would be much better served by analysis of the final analog output of the DAC - any jitter will show up as distortion of the known digital input signal.


I don’t believe they are triggering issues. The trigger error is something like 1-2 psec.  All of my products don’t have the bimodal shape. Even the bimodal is only maybe 10 psec between peaks. Insignificant.

I don’t want the DAC in the picture when I’m testing my various interfaces. I want to measure the digital jitter directly.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio