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Can Streamed Music Sound Better than any other source?

I am about to make the leap. Jumping into a Server or is it a Streamer? To use existing DAC-Oppo 203- or upgrade? I love the concept of access to all the music on line. So I don't actually own any of it-thats fine. Buying downloads adds up quickly. $20/month sounds like a bargain.  Roon's system looks appealing. I can add Tidal and be done, right? I get a lot of great counsel from my old school expert at the HiFi store I support locally but he can't even spell stream.
I was born in the 50's and want to use this listening option now. As this technology is still evolving, I am not inclined to overspend on gear that may be as valuable as a VCR in a year or two.
In the end I want to know if I can have this new source sounding better than CDs and LPs. I am not going back to reel-to-reel so if that is best source, please ignore it as it regards my purposes.
Thank you. I look forward to learning from the responses!!
128x128firstnot
firstnot's avatar
firstnot OP
248 posts
 
Thanks to everyone who had an opinion and was willing to share it.
I am at the crossroads of choosing which source to upgrade. For now
my downloaded thumb drives are by far the best source I have.
This is why I lean toward trying streaming. I don't think I want to start
building a great Phono system when it can cost $50 to buy one quality
LP. I will read up on past threads but it seems this is a somewhat evolving technology so going back too far may be less useful.
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 
Just be sure to consider streaming from your files as separate from streaming from online services. It's w shame that common vocabulary doesn't have two different verbs to distinguish between these. Driving your Lamborghini is quite different from "driving" a skateboard! Cheers, 
Spencer 
gawdbless's avatar
gawdbless
1,235 posts
 
Not sure if it is better than vinyl or CD, but when the BBC stream live classical concerts, the sound even through a cheap as chips Bluesound Node streamer sounds rather good to me.

jim204
881 posts
 
Yes I would heartily agree about the quality of the BBC broadcasts as being beautifully clean and dynamic and most probably the best radio recording and broadcasts going. In I think 2016 they broadcast the Proms in 16/48khz flac and also binaural sound which was absolutely stunning but they said it was a one off but I really hope enough people e-mail them so they will relent and maybe start doing limited concerts again.
1extreme's avatar
1extreme
161 posts
 
The Oppo 203 has a couple of USB ports. Put your digital music on a solid state drive and connect it to the USB on your Oppo. Connect a small monitor to the HDMI output. Bingo! You now have a decent "server" with a large LCD display to navigate your music and see what you are playing. Yes, you can use a usb thumb drive to test it out.

The Oppo won’t "stream" music from Tidal so you need another device for that. I use a Bluesound Node 2 to as a streamer for Tidal HiFi. The Node 2 dac ain’t shabby (Burr Brown) but I connect its digital out directly to the Oppo input to bypass the Node 2 dac and use the Oppo’s dac instead which I like better. If you already have an external dac you could connect it to your dac's digital input instead.

Bluesound just released the new Node 2i so if you are buying a new Node 2 get the latest version.
The above will get you "streaming" and "serving" for under $700 including the Node 2i and USB drive for you to be able to answer your title's question for yourself using the type of music and whatever music source you want to compare to.

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