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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
jafant
18,801 posts
 

soix

 

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

 

Happy Listening!

soix OP
8,644 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
21,835 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. 

chorus
976 posts
 

Not long ago someone reported his ratings as follows:

11=R2R

10= LP 

9.0= Downloaded files

8.5= CD rebook

7.0=Streamed Hi-res.

Streamed music is getting better every year.

The insane advantages of streaming make it an 

unavoidable destination. 

Go Stream Go!!

PS: Roon is said to actually degrade the SQ as compared to

some proprietary software provided by individual manufacturers.

This makes sense to me as a homogenization must result in a step 

down in SQ. Not to say I don't use Roon as i do.

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