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How to make a streamer (Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra) playing Qobuz & Tidal to sound better than CD

Well duck - thanks for your tips on making a Pro-Ject Streambox sound better.

I tried this little trick to enhance the sound:

I disabled Wi-Fi and connected a Cat.6a cable to the Ethernet port.

Some hardened audiophiles buy expensive hi-end routers and switches, easier and cleaner solution - the router shown connects directly to 4G Internet powered by an internal battery. No need to use a mains powered Cisco here.

In turn, the Netgear 4G router supplies battery re-inforcement to the battery powered Chord Mojo shown.

The Netgear 4G router is also a wireless hub so I can connect my iPad to control the Streamer.

Oh, the Streambox shown is John Westlake's pre-production model - which has the same internals.

Untitled by Raven Jet, on Flickr
 
I've read a few times that turning the wifi function permanently off with various devices helps.
I've searched but can't find a way to do it in my own streaming dac (Moon neo 380d)
 
Has this been overkill do you think or have there been some identifiable benefits. I’ve tried a few things but there were no identifiable improvements at all.i just use a Pi power supply and usb.Even a hat didn’t add anything. it’s on a shelf waiting foe a smaller project. Maybe it’s me.
 
I’ve got the Stream Box S2 Ultra and it sounds fine with either the DAC Box S2+ (£200) I have now or the Topping D10 (£60) I had before. I didn’t notice any difference between the two DACs tbh, so can’t think I’d have the patience to try all these other things, although it does look interesting.
 
Nice to try these things.
I really am tempted to try the Stream Box S2 Ultra or The Lindemann Limetree Bridge but feeding the same dac I wonder whether the sound is going to be any better.
Even if it's slghtly better I'm not convinced that the apps for these two are anywhere near as good as the Bluos which I think is a very important part of the streaming experience.
I've also thought about the Moon Mind 180 but when you read some of the horror stories about how poor the app is it's not encouraging.
 
I really am tempted to try the Stream Box S2 Ultra or The Lindemann Limetree Bridge but feeding the same dac I wonder whether the sound is going to be any better.
Even if it's slghtly better I'm not convinced that the apps for these two are anywhere near as good as the Bluos which I think is a very important part of the streaming experience.
I've also thought about the Moon Mind 180 but when you read some of the horror stories about how poor the app is it's not encouraging.
Always worth a try but I find I am really satisfied with what I have .It merges well with my system and makes nice sounds.
 
Hehe - if a switch and network cable make an audible difference, I can sell you a very special catX cable which magically removes the need for any switch or hub between 2 important devices.

Call it a passive step-through device. Or, if you’re a network engineer, a cross over cable... ;)

Do I need a crossover cable to “daisy chain” switches?
 
I just would like to point out that ethernet (not to mention wifi) is galvanically isolated (at least if you use normal UTP cables, not STP). The interface contains small transformers ("magnetics"). This means that ground noise is not propagated. As to the RPi, the main criticism has been that the ethernet and USB interface share a single I/O interface, so there might be bottlenecks. The new RPi4 fixes this issue.
Replying to an old post I know, but if you have issues with a R.Pi 3B+ sharing bandwidth between Ethernet and USB, then you can force Ethernet to use only 100 MBit/s maximum. See here. That's enough for reasonable audio running over Ethernet, and it leaves enough guaranteed free bandwidth on the shared bus for reasonable audio over USB at the same time.
 
Do I need a crossover cable to “daisy chain” switches?

Depends on the switch (or hub), but why does that matter? My point was that if type of switch and cable can make an audible difference, why not us a crossover cable instead and remove the electronics? Logically that should be better, no?
 
Reviving an old thread here... the S2 Ultra has a new firmware and the UI is improved

I’ve noticed that I don’t get ‘booting up’ noise (high frequency oscillation) into my DAC anymore either
 
Reviving an old thread here... the S2 Ultra has a new firmware and the UI is improved

I’ve noticed that I don’t get ‘booting up’ noise (high frequency oscillation) into my DAC anymore either

Thanks for that news. I am messing around with an old Squeezebox Touch into an Audio Note DAC 0.1x - after that I will put the S2 Ultra back into service. What firmware revision are we at if you don't mind me asking ?
 
Has anyone compared the Pro-Ject Streambox S2 Ultra (£600) to an optimised home-built raspberry pi (£50?)? There doesn't seem to be anyone who has directly compared the two to see if there is a difference in SQ through these music streamers.

I have a laptop which is used as a streamer but was looking to try latest Raspberry Pi 4 + tablet as a remote control for the Raspi4. The Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra may appear to be relatively very good value when compared to costlier streamers but the cost is surely a lot higher than a Raspi4 setup.

If solely on sound quality, will there be a difference between an optimised Raspi4 (music player, output upgrade, power supply etc.) and the Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra? I do not have any experience with the Raspberry Pi.
 
Has anyone compared the Pro-Ject Streambox S2 Ultra (£600) to an optimised home-built raspberry pi (£50?)? There doesn't seem to be anyone who has directly compared the two to see if there is a difference in SQ through these music streamers.

I have a laptop which is used as a streamer but was looking to try latest Raspberry Pi 4 + tablet as a remote control for the Raspi4. The Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra may appear to be relatively very good value when compared to costlier streamers but the cost is surely a lot higher than a Raspi4 setup.

If solely on sound quality, will there be a difference between an optimised Raspi4 (music player, output upgrade, power supply etc.) and the Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra? I do not have any experience with the Raspberry Pi.

I’ve tried a number of streamers without DAC.

I would rank as follows with a mark out of 10 to show how close they are in SQ-

1. SOtM SMS-200 ultra NEO with SOtM sPS-500 power supply and SOtM sCLK-OCX10 (10/10)

2. as above but with no external clock (9.5/10)

3. Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra (9.2/10).
=3. Stack Audio Link 2 (not tested with its separate PS) (9.2/10)
=3. SOtM as above but no clock nor separate power supply. (9.2/10)
=3. Auralic Aries G1 (9.2/10)

4. Chromecast Audio - can be wired via ethernet through adaptor (8/10)
=4. Home made Pi (8/10)

I would always recommend hard wiring with Ethernet.
 


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