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Dac/streamer - not as involving as vinyl

One of the many great things about digital is how cheap CDs are. I have an excellent selection of Jazz CDs, mostly bought for around a fiver.

They sound great, I have vinyl from the same era; sometimes it sounds better others not.

I really don’t care about source anymore, only about the music; I suppose my system must be doing something right.
 
Woodface said:
One of the many great things about digital is how cheap CDs are. I have an excellent selection of Jazz CDs, mostly bought for around a fiver.

They sound great, I have vinyl from the same era; sometimes it sounds better others not.

I really don’t care about source anymore, only about the music; I suppose my system must be doing something right.
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Well said.
 
All formats aside, it's the "Vinyl experience" that adds to the listening pleasure for me
My vinyl side of the system does sound better than the digital side (discussed up thread)
But part of the listening pleasure is having something tangible to enjoy and for me nothing comes close to a record sleeve
I even enjoy having to get up off my ar5e and turn records over!
I'm a big believer in the thought process the artist would've have gone through when selecting track orders for A and B sides, some albums when listened to digitally straight through lose this.
 
In all of my systems I prefer the sound of the turntable to the other sources, although I do use and enjoy the others. I have reasonably decent digital sources in all my systems so it's not necessarily the case that vinyl sounds "better", but that it's more enjoyable (even if it's likely that it's less accurate). I've long since realised that for me it's far more important that I enjoy the sound, than whether or not it's truly accurate.
 
fegs said:
All formats aside, it's the "Vinyl experience" that adds to the listening pleasure for me
My vinyl side of the system does sound better than the digital side (discussed up thread)
But part of the listening pleasure is having something tangible to enjoy and for me nothing comes close to a record sleeve
I even enjoy having to get up off my arse and turn records over!
I'm a big believer in the thought process the artist would've have gone through when selecting track orders for A and B sides, some albums when listened to digitally straight through lose this.
Click to expand...
There is a kind of romance to interacting with vinyl. It’s history is very alluring and at its best it provides a sound that really envelopes the listener. Bloom, immediacy, tangibility. It can all be there and it can be very affecting.
 
Although I don't own a TT, I've heard a good one with my system. It's hard to define what makes for an "involving" sound, but I think I know what you mean. For me it's something to do with timing, immediacy and body to the sound.

My Aqua La Voce S3 DAC does the trick for me. Other DACs out there I haven't heard but that would be on my shortlist: Denafrips, SW1x, Holo Audio May, Lampizator Amber 3, Sonnet/Metrum, Chord with upgraded PS (!?!), Audiobyte/Rockna and the one mentioned upthread...

I also have the Allo streamer (USBridge+Digione). For me SPDIF is a tad more involving than USB. Whether that is down to the streamer output, cabling or DAC input or even all of the above, it's hard to say. A good PS also improves the Allo a fair bit.

I now find streaming to sound better than local playback (i.e. file storage device directly attached to the DAC). Probably because I optimised my system for networked audio.
 
My experience is that locally stored ripped cds sound better than streamed services - Tidal in my case - but that Tidal is fine for non critical listening or to check out new releases or to investigate unheard music. I retained my vinyl LP collection through the “cd years” and have only recommenced serious vinyl listening in the past 3 years.
Some of the albums sound fantastic , whereas some don’t- and as others have said the impact of digital mixing and the use of compression can have a huge (bad) influence.
The experience of handling a well packaged vinyl album however is not matched by the cd equivalent - and even more so for rips - as the metadata displayed in the app is not the same as holding the cd booklet in your hand.
 
It’s fun to (over) analyse all this vinyl vs stream vs cd stuff, maybe I’m getting old, but I think it can all sound great, just different flavours.
Do you like a bacon sarni with a sauce? Ketchup or Brown or something different? With an egg, or without?
They can all taste yummy, just comes down to what works for you.
Me?.......Ultimately I still prefer vinyl using my Orbe/Kleos, but happily admit I spend a lot of hours enjoying streaming from Qobuz/Roon.
I don’t pick up on a lot of difference between locally stored stuff on my HD Vs Qobuz, maybe I’m just not that sensitive to them.
 
Woodface said:
One of the many great things about digital is how cheap CDs are. I have an excellent selection of Jazz CDs, mostly bought for around a fiver.
They sound great, I have vinyl from the same era; sometimes it sounds better others not.
I really don’t care about source anymore, only about the music; I suppose my system must be doing something right.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with this to some extent as listening to the music is the main purpose of hi-fi but I have experienced differences between vinyl, CD, blue-ray audio, BBC radio 3 & 320 digital. I got back into vinyl a few years ago as I was "irritated" by CD recording of Handel's Messiah which I found too bright. The first vinyl I bought was the analogue recording of the same performance & it sounded distinctly better. Later I experienced similar variations between radio broadcasts of Verdi Requiem with 320 digital being much better then the Radio 3 "very compressed" version. Other pieces sounded better on Radio 3 depending on the type of music. My main listening/watching is Opera which tends to be too long for vinyl so CD & Blue-ray video/audio are my sources for this. The video element increases my sense of involvement giving me a feeling of being at the performance.

Best thing is to focus on the music - maybe people should try something different to stimulate their enjoyment.
 
manicatel said:
I don’t pick up on a lot of difference between locally stored stuff on my HD Vs Qobuz, maybe I’m just not that sensitive to them.
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Same here for Qobuz vs local CD rips as long as both are streamed over the network (LMS server + PiCorePlayer endpoint). Even Spotify sounds really good!
 
uncl_nigel said:
I have similarly priced (read expensive) digital and vinyl sources. I find they sound different but are equally involving.

It must be said, however, that I think local files sound more involving than the same music via Tidal through the digital front end.
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I’ve heard this before, what do you use for your digital front end and to store files locally?

I use a Lumin D2 for Tidal/Qobuz and have a large FLAC collection on a Drobo. All are wired with Ethernet cable to the router. Can’t say I hear any difference between streaming and local files.
 
The Bish said:
Evening all,

I’m sure this is a hackneyed subject but always worth getting a few up to date opinions! I’m listening to various albums tonight on both streaming and vinyl. Vinyl setup is nothing exotic, a Rega turntable with 2M Black and EAR 834p, and the DAC is the RME ADI-2 with eq settings plumbed in after a few REW sessions streaming with Qobuz via an Allo signature streamer. The streaming setup does sound very good - cleaner and more precise for sure and has no boomy bass thanks to the EQ , but listening to the vinyl is more enjoyable and involving. Anyone else had a similar experience and subsequently found a dac that has given the same satisfaction as their turntable?

Cheers
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Went from a full Linn Akurate streaming system to vinyl. Your assessment on streaming is correct , very clean and enjoyable to listen to. All the detail is there in my vinyl system with big dynamics and sound stage thanks to the turntable and speakers. Also love holding an album admiring the art work and literature. Most albums today come with digital downloads I tend to give them to my daughter for her phone. Both formats are good it comes down to a personal preference.
 
I.D.C. said:
Went from a full Linn Akurate streaming system to vinyl. Your assessment on streaming is correct , very clean and enjoyable to listen to. All the detail is there in my vinyl system with big dynamics and sound stage thanks to the turntable and speakers. Also love holding an album admiring the art work and literature. Most albums today come with digital downloads I tend to give them to my daughter for her phone. Both formats are good it comes down to a personal preference.
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Agree, you and other posters upthread describe well what I mean by involvement, both physical and audible. Not better but different.
 
Del monaco said:
The material and production quality usually determine how involving my music is, regardless of the equipment I play it on.
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I don't agree with this at all. I've heard the same disks sound really exiting and involving on one system and dead and boring on another. Which is just as well. Given most of he music we love is not brilliantly recorded we need all the help we can get.
 
Mr Pig said:
I don't agree with this at all. I've heard the same disks sound really exiting and involving on one system and dead and boring on another. Which is just as well. Given most of he music we love is not brilliantly recorded we need all the help we can get.
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You don’t have to agree! I’ve heard badly produced disks sound bright and unrelenting on some equipment and rounded off and dull on others.
 
Its all down to the mastering and cd largely being mixed for radio play and pushed right up to just below clipping and dynamically squashed as a result.

Digital is capable of higher fidelity to the source recording than analogue is. It has lower noise and lower distortion. You can squeeze nearly -120db snr out of digital, you cant do better than -70db with analogue, ever, due to cartridge noise, tracing distortion, rumble, w and f etc and all the other mechanical shenanigans and inevitable losses in the physical process of making and replaying the discs.

Of course that doesn't mean every digital source delivers that performance just like every cheap 1980s oil crisis vinyl record doesn't sound like a direct to disc half speed master.

And none of which indicates any personal preference either way.

My 500 quid dac sounds better than my TT on some music, and worse on some other pieces, it's all down to what happened in the studio.

I dont do streaming or any lossless replay of digital.
 
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