Computer Audio..Stream or download?


Fellow Audiophiles,

Until now, i never cared for music streaming or downloads, simply because of compression. I owned fairly large selection of CD's, SACD's, DTS and DVD audio discs. DTS and DVD audio are long gone and SACD's are now pretty much limited to classical titles. I have been watching the digital trend pretty closely..it seems that we have evolved from digital downloads to now streaming. For sake of convenience, i have installed Sonos in couple of rooms. In my HT setup, Sonos just couldn't live up to high standards set by Krell and Raysonic. The streaming from Spotify, Amazon and Rhapsody is just average (flat and dull most times).

I am looking for ideas and feedback based on your experiences with high-res downloads. I am only interested in listening to high-rez / DSD64 or DSD128 files.

Please respond with your recommendations on DSD software and DAC's/Players.

MY Equipments:
Classe SSP-800 / CA-2200 / CA-5200
Krell Cipher
Raysonic CD-128
B&W 803s/804s/HTM2s/SCMS
Audience Au24 SE - IC's, Speaker, Power and Digital Cables
Audience AR6-TSSD/AR2-TSSD
128x128lalitk

Showing 1 response by hgeifman

I also like listening to Tidal Streaming music because it is easy to use and I love the variety. Of course, the best part is their excellent uncompressed sound quality. In addition, I can change my mind on an album and quickly find a different album to listen to. The flexibility and sound quality of Tidal is a big listening plus for me.

Tidal also offers various play lists you can select or you select your own album. Another advantage with Tidal is that you can select an album and then page down to see additional albums by that artist. Tidal Streaming is ONLY available on the Chrome browser so I installed it on my MAC Book Pro computer. I highly recommend Tidal Streaming.

My MAC Book Pro computer is connected (Wireworld Cable Technology's Platinum Starlight 7 USB cable) to my Ayre QB-9 DSD DAC. As suggested above, I also recommend you demo the Ayre QB-9 DSD DAC. It is excellent and highly recommended.