A different world

@ghdprentice

It’s a new world indeed. My digital streaming playback has transcended both CD and Vinyl playback so I’m now 100% digital. It sure took bit of work but it was well worth it. The tweaks made to my home network is now paying back in spades. And then there is so much music to explore, I think we have barely scratched the surface. I love the Roon radio feature, it has introduced me to so many artists and music that I couldn’t possibly explored on my own.

There is always going to be those who have not warmed up to digital streaming or prefer CD / Vinyl for whatever reason and that’s quite ok. But I’m not buying the argument anymore that Streaming is not par with CD or Vinyl playback. Bad or compressed recordings equally exists on CD and Vinyl. You don’t have to have provenance info (though it will be a nice feature) to recognize you’re listening to a compressed or bad recording :-)

Enjoy the music!

@dadork,

You have a pretty awesome DAC, one of my favorites. The Node 2i is decent but you are going to appreciate your La Voce S2 even more with a player like LinQ. I know there are other inexpensive options but nothing else will sound anything like a pairing of LinQ and La Voce especially through its I2S digital interface. There is go, one and done instead of monkeying around with anything else :-)

Also, what have you done to isolate noise on your Ethernet (between your router and Node 2i)?

@dadork

That’s great that you’re using a direct ‘wired’ connection between router and Node 2i. I would recommend adding a passive filter like upcoming Muon Streaming Filter from Network Acoustics. I have not heard it yet, but as per my conversation with Rich at Network Acoustics it’s a definite improvement upon already excellent ENO Filter. So I would wait to buy anything else until Muon is available. And then there are additional benefits of adding a Ethernet switch but I defer this upgrade until you get a high quality player like LinQ. The Ethernet switch improvements are mixed bag, some hear positive results and others do not.

I have upgraded from ENO filter to Telegartner M12 switch (you can read further about it in my virtual system) but a straight forward passive filter like Muon should be your next step until you’re ready to upgrade your Streaming player. Then we can talk about adding a high quality Ethernet switch in your ethernet signal path. Hope this helps!

“A good CD player with a high quality DAC is difficult to beat. My CD player is best described as a 32 bit dual differential DAC with a transport connected to it. It rivals my LP playback system.”

@sandthemall

I am curious to learn about your system. Would you tell us about your CD player, DAC and LP system. Can you elaborate on coming away unimpressed with listening room experiences with streaming services? What kind of system you’ve heard and where?

I used to spin CD’s and Vinyl :-)

@sandthemall 

Thank you for your kind words and no worries. I do applaud you for keeping an open mind. I have been streaming long time and started my journey into streaming with N100H. If you want to take a leap of faith, you can score a great deal on N100 on used market. While the older generation players like N100 or N10 offers high performance, the newer generation models are superior across the board. My impressions below based on head to head comparison between N10, N20, ACS100 and W20SE through EMM Labs DA2 DAC. 

The older generation of Aurender players has a softer, laid back and less dynamic presentation compare to the newer models like ACS100, N150, N200 and N20 and N30SA. They have a livelier presentation excelling in terms of low frequency extension and slam. I also heard slight edge in terms of perceived detail. 
 

Hope this helps in your decision making. Good luck!

@sandthemall

You have a very nice system. I see no reason why you can’t enjoy high quality streaming from existing system. If I may suggest, reach out to Upscale Audio to audition Aurender N100H or N150 with your Audiolab’s DAC. The Aurender conductor app is excellent and very easy to follow. Sign up for Qobuz 30 days free trial. If you love Audiolab’s internal DAC, the streaming experience by pairing with N100 or N150 should be just as good as CD playback if not better.

If you like what you hear, I will then suggest next steps to further improve your streaming experience by filtering noise on Ethernet line (very important and critical step in bringing out nuances you spoke in your reply).