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Combination streamer and music server…without DAC

Re. Combination streamer and music server without DAC:  There don’t seem to be too many of these out there and when I do see them, they tend to be quite pricey (Aurender N20).  I would like to use the DAC on my CD player.  I’m looking for something used, between $3K and $4K.  I suppose Lumin is an option by purchasing an L1 storage unit but I’m trying to avoid having another box.  I have about 300 to 400 cd’s.  Any suggestions?  Thanks.

 

 

russellrcncom

Showing 2 responses by 8th-note

8th-note
345 posts
 

Before you spend a few grand on a streamer/server I have a suggestion. For reference, I'm using an ASUS gaming laptop, PSA PerfectWave MkII DAC, PSA PerfectWave transport, Krell preamp and amp, and Thiel CS6 speakers. I have hooked up my laptop to my DAC using an average quality 15' USB cable. I ripped my CDs (over 4,000) to uncompressed FLAC using dBPoweramp.

If you have a laptop handy you can do a little test that may be enlightening. I'm assuming that you have Tidal or Qobuz and you also have a CD player. Hopefully your CD Player/DAC has a USB input.
 - Rip a favorite CD to uncompressed FLAC on your laptop.
 - Install a music playback program on your laptop such as foobar2000 (it's free).
 - Hook up your laptop to your DAC with a USB cable.
 - Compare the ripped CD to the same CD played in your player.
 - If you have a high res music service compare the same version of the album with the rip and the actual CD.

On my system I can't hear a significant difference between the ripped file and the actual CD. I'm pretty sure that in a blind test I couldn't tell them apart. Same thing when I play the same version of the CD through Qobuz. I've tried this with several CDs (using one song to do the test) on several different days and I'm comfortable that if there are audible differences they are not significant to me.

I'm not adverse to spending good money on a streamer/server but so far I can't justify it. I wouldn't expect a ripped file or the Qobuz version to sound better than my CD player but I'm really surprised that they don't sound worse. If you follow the conventional wisdom, my setup should lead to horrible sound. I'm using a supposedly noisy PC and I'm hooking it up with an inexpensive long USB cable.

One possible explanation for this homogenization is that my DAC has a "Digital Lens" that buffers and reclocks all incoming data. All I can say is that I'm glad that I spent an evening geeking out on my system so that I wasn't blindly spending significant money on an alternative setup. I am probably going to go with a Roon Nucleus at some point but more for convenience than sound quality. 
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8th-note
345 posts
 

@antigrunge2 

In my case I'm not sure what good it would do to upgrade the power supply for my computer because a song streamed from Qobuz sounds the same as a CD played through my PSA transport and DAC. I would not expect a Qobuz stream to sound better than a CD played through the same DAC. Have you tried comparing a CD of the same version found on Qobuz (or Tidal)? Does the streamed version actually sound better than the CD through the same DAC? That would really surprise me if that was the case.

@russellrcncom I have ripped my entire CD collection (over 4000) and can make some recommendations about how to do this most efficiently. You are welcome to message me if you would like to know what I learned in this process.

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