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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
ghdprentice
6,362 posts
 

Red book CDs sound exactly the same as streamed equivalents on my system and Qobuz typically sounds better because of the higher resolution. So, it is simply a matter of equipment.

I have used iPods, iPhones, iPads, PCs, MacBooks as streamers. If you want really good sound you need to move beyond those. You need to use a dedicated streamer to get excellent streaming sound quality. The level of streamer you need depends on the level of the rest of your components. If you have a $10K system, maybe a $1.5K streamer might do it. I have a $17K CD player and a my $22K streamer sounds exactly the same with red book CDs… but is usually bested because of Qobuz’s greater resolution on many recordings. What ever your level, it depends on your equipment.

 

I recommend you look at Aurender streamers… I have owned Auralic as well and settled on Aurender, and own two, one for my headphone system (N100) and a W20SE for my main system.

 

You can click on my user ID to see my systems. 

jafant
18,802 posts
 

soix

 

Agreed - CD/SACD best any server or streamer. Now, spin a few shiny discs.

 

Happy Listening!

soix OP
8,651 posts
 

Ok.  Let’s cut to the chase here.  Who’s used their i devices as WiFi streamers and upgraded to something wired or otherwise that was significantly better than using their iDevices. 

edcyn
1,876 posts
 

Say what you will, dudes & dudettes, but right now via Qobuz I'm listening to an absolutely excellent, excellently recorded performance of Beethoven's 8th Symphony. Vienna Philharmonic on DGG, conducted by Andris Nelsons. I'm listenin' happy. Would it be better if I had a CD or download? I just don't care...

mapman's avatar
mapman
21,837 posts
 

Make sure you are comparing apples/apples ie the same cd release. Many popular CDs have various remastered releases over the years and streaming services tend to lean towards newer releases which also tend to be mastered louder. Also possible the streaming service does other processing that changes the sound But I cannot cite specific known examples. I would not assume it’s something on your end making the difference necessarily. Do you rip and stream your own CDs? Try that and compare for something more controlled to compare. 

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