For some time now, I have not been enjoying streaming, particularly of local files. Only vinyl really satisfied me. With streaming, I found the sound grew tiresome during prolonged sessions. I put this down to it being left behind after some turntable upgrades a little over a year ago.
Recently, I heard streaming on a friend’s system. It is not dissimilar to mine but sounded better. I thought about what made his different. He has a mains conditioning unit and audiophile mains cables, but I couldn’t imagine that would explain it. Maybe, Roon was to blame for my disappointing sound quality. At the weekend, I pondered replacing my Roon Optimized Core Kit NUC and SSD storage with a Melco Music Library.
It occurred to me that I could simplify the path from router to streamer. This involved moving the NUC and switch from a cabinet under the streamer to a shelf on the other side of the room near the internet wall socket. That eliminated a fibre media convertor from the path on the router side, as the switch has SFP ports. There didn’t seem anyway that could have been the problem, so I wasn’t really expecting much to change.
At first, I couldn’t hear much of a difference. However, as I listened more, I found myself getting more into the music just like I can with vinyl. I guess it took things a little while to settle down after I’d disturbed the components. There was no denying that sound quality has substantially improved. It was a lot cleaner and more musical, for want of a better word.
Then the penny dropped, there had been a Sky Q Satellite TV Box in the cabinet with the NUC and switch. It seems likely that this box kicks out electromagnetic pollution that may interfere with the ROCK NUC or the switch. This afternoon, I moved the satellite TV box to the bottom shelf of the cabinet as far away from the streamer as possible, just to be on the safe side.
I am delighted to be able to crank up the volume without getting a headache. Yet, I feel foolish for not thinking of this earlier. I knew the Sky Q Box was trouble and had long since separated its ethernet path from that of the audio side. Yet it never occurred to me that just it being on the next shelf from the ROCK NUC and switch could be so detrimental to sound quality.
No doubt there’ll be some who think this is impossible. Even if it’s all psychosomatic, I don’t care. I am loving my digital music library again. Yes’s Key Studio has never sounded so good on my system – I don’t yearn for a vinyl release of it anymore. It’ll be interesting to compare the improved sound of streaming with vinyl. My money is still on vinyl having the edge.
