Playing CDs sounds better than Qobuz — dammit


I’ve built a decent HeadFi rig over the past few months and am quite happy with it streaming Qobuz as a source via my iPad/iPhone.  I recently brought my CD player into the rig as there are some reference CDs I need that aren’t available on Qobuz.  Well, I made the mistake of playing some CDs and compared them to Qobuz, and in every case the CD sounds better — specifically a quieter background and more transparency overall.  I’ve got good cables from the dongle out of my iPad to the USB cable that runs to my DAC for streaming, so let’s leave cables out of the discussion for now because I think this goes deeper than that.  Needless to say I’m pretty disappointed right now because I’ve enjoyed not spinning discs over the past year or so and certainly don’t wanna go back to buying CDs again.  Ugh.

So, what I’m thinking is that streaming over WiFi through my iDevices may be the bottleneck.  IF that’s the case and I need to up my streaming game, what would be the cheapest way to go to overcome the bottleneck?  My thought is going hardwired (which I can do) to something like an iFi Stream or maybe a ProJect Streambox, but just wondering if that’d get it done?  Something else?  I need something pre-made and won’t wrestle with doing a Raspberry Pi with hats, etc. as I have no patience for configuring/troubleshooting tech.  Thanks for any advice/thoughts. 

soix

@soix

 

+1

Noise in audio is something you have to learn to hear. Decades ago it ceased to be hiss or anything you point to, but it is the noise floor. It is obvious indirectly in not having a dead quiet background that you can fall into. It can be very bad and cause fatigue while listening. Your eardrums are bombarded by it, but without practice you will not hear it.

@Maynardewm Both my Node 2i and cd player run through the same J2 Geshelli dac which has many good reviews putting up againest dacs 3 x its price $250.00.

I do like analog sound so Ill probably go with R2R dac down the road. 

Ive read many do big upgrades to dacs while still using their Nodes.

Yes, Im sure a streamer 3x cost of Node would be an improvement.

3x the cost of the node is still not a terribly expensive piece of gear in this hobby. But well worth the cost. I went from a Node to a Lumin and was delighted.

As above, another +vote for Pioneer Elite BDP-09. And playing CD/SACD discs.

 

Happy Listening!