Sound Quality
First off, I am pleading ignorance here, so my apologies up front, but I need some help on figuring out what this digital stuff is all about. It was simple, just to pull out a CD and play it, but with streaming and such, it seems to be a whole different ball of wax.
After finally finishing the remodel on my home, I've have had a bit of time to sit down and listen to my system. My Aurender N200 came with an SD card loaded with music. Most of it is ripped from hybrid SACDs or at 16bit- 44.1kHz "Original Mastering Recording" CDs, (some are DSF files some WAV files, but all sound the same to me). The music sounds flat and dull but when I play the equivalent song on Tidal in 16bit-44.1 kHz it sounds much better.
I have a second SD card with some HD Tracks CDs at 24 bit-96 kHz that I which sound really good through the N200. Maybe understandable being hi-res, but some say they can't hear a big difference between the two, but I sure can in this instance.
I understand that up sampling, DSD and HQ Player can even bring better sound to the table, but I'm having enough trouble with just the basics here, that stuff is way over my head.
I'd like to rip a couple of my own CDs to a new SD card and try it to compare with the SD card that came with the N200. What is the best method to do this?
As always, your thought & comments are much appreciated!
I’ve come full circle here and returned to CDs for digital and use Tidal for discovery or if I just want convenience. CD in a high end transport sounds superior to me. That includes DSD which I have also streamed through my DAC. I’m no expert but something is affecting the fidelity when it is uploaded, stored, sent via internet, computer, and finally DAC vs simply read CD and send to DAC. The litmus test says the latter. |
funny, just before I read your post I read this one: you may find it interesting edit: don't know if that link worked- it is the post by @jmeyers on June 1 |
@upstateaudiophile I have run into this before. I thought a CD played via a CD player sounded slightly better as streaming music via the LAN connection on my Gustard R26. I haven't played a CD and compared it to the Aurender N200 and Briscati M1 SEII and probably won't at this point as I don't currently have a CD player and am not planning on purchasing one in the near future, I'm done for now. |
