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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

Showing 2 responses by sns

sns
3,003 posts
 

Get your network and streamer optimized, you won't go back to playing cd's. I'm at point where I cannot tell between cd rips and streams.

sns
3,003 posts
 

Optimizing streaming is not easily achieved. I'm discovering the most experienced streamers are going to completely discreet solutions. This entails something like Roon library on stock or modded pc, server running proprietary OS, endpoint/streamer able to run that server OS. This system will also need to have high quality ethernet cable, LPS for all components, fiber conversion.

 

Of course we have streaming at all levels from beginner to the above optimal setup. With almost unlimited streaming solutions and a number of different cd transports available each situation could bring about differing favored digital solution.

 

I can only speak for myself, cd rips long ago defeated my Mark Levinson #37 transport, used Phillips Pro mechanism, long considered one of the best. It took a couple years more of network upgrades for streams to challenge rips as best. These days I couldn't reliably tell the difference. While I still have room for improvement in cd rip playback, much more room for streaming improvement. Streaming will soon become de facto means for optimal digital playback, if not already there.

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