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CD transport vs streamer?

I am presently using a squeezebox unmodded and streaming via ethernet (not wi fi) uncompressed files from a Mac. I am feeding this into my Weiss Medea DAC (tried both Toslink and coaxial). However, comparing it to using my Jason transport, the sound is significantly worse. eg in Jazz at the Pawnshop, I can hear the liveness of the recording, on the streamed music it sounds like it was recorded in an anechoic chamber. Same when i stream from my apple TV via toslink.

Has anyone found a way of streaming that actually can outdo a high end CD player?
jglim

Showing 2 responses by rbstehno

rbstehno
1,401 posts
 
i use jitter devices from my mac before going into an external dac. the sound is every bit as good as my classe cdp-10 player, which is an excellent player. the jitter device and dac cost more than the classe did but you can get excellent sound from a mac.
rbstehno
1,401 posts
 
i have been using a mac as a music server for quite some time now. hooking up a mac or apple tv or an AE straight to a dac does not do justice to the sound. it is much better than not using a dac but if you insert a jitter device between the mac and the dac, the signal will clear up and you will get a big improvement. even if you go with a cheap audio alchemy device, you will hear an improvement, and when you go to the better units, the improvement will be bigger. the jitter device allows the signal to get cleaned up before reaching the dac (garbage in, garbage out) plus it allows the use of coax cable going into the dac which is a better link than toslink or usb. if people think there system sounds good now going straight into a dac, give a jitter device a try.
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