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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
6,335 posts
 

I would recommend an Aurender N100… used if too expensive new. It took my headphone system out of the restrictions posed by iPods, iPads… etc. while there is no question that streaming can equal or best CD players it will always depend on the player / streamer comparison.

soix OP
8,569 posts
 

Well, weeding through all this good info — and thank you so much for sharing your experience — I’ve gotta get a hard-wired streamer and also upgrade my switch.  How would something like an Optical Rendu factor into this equation?   As a long-time audiophile I know that EVERYTHING matters to some degree, but I don’t have an unlimited budget so just looking to where to best draw the line.  Let’s call it a budget of $1500 give or take to up my streaming game.  Thanks again and much appreciated for those who’ve already fought this battle!

henry201
144 posts
 

Nothing digital sounds as good as CD, unfortunately. 

soix OP
8,569 posts
 

Uh, CDs are digital.  

soix OP
8,569 posts
 

So, let’s drill down a bit here.  I realize I need to go hard-wired to a good streamer, and it also makes sense I should upgrade my switch.  Can’t do both right now, so I’m guessing I should go with hardwired streamer first and then upgrade switch?  Or Optical Rendu?  Thoughts?

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