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Streamer vs cd player

narabdela said:
Try asking R**s An**ews. I attended one of his demos at an audio show a few years ago.

'Nuff said. ;)
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You attended one of his demonstrations? So you are a truth seeker! I used to be a seeker too..then cables showed me the right path! I actually bought some of his cd wipes! Lol..seemed they improved the sound? I wasn't sure they did..t cut works better!
Did you find the Russ way the wrong way? Is this why your here..plenty of fish in the sea but the pink tastes the best!
Stick with me narabdela, hifi happiness is very close...
 
Del monaco said:
I’m no fan of Russ Andrews but I can see the obvious sense in LM. Dacs have varying outputs. So many variables it is quite hard to listen without prejudice.
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Golden ears can help with this....variables, prejudice, line matching! All this vanishes when listening with ears that shine brightly! When you spoke so eloquent about listening to your tuner..I thought you must have ears of goldeness..almost made me turn on my Denon tuner! But the ukulele was calling me..always calling it is.
 
the caretaker said:
Golden ears can help with this....variables, prejudice, line matching! All this vanishes when listening with ears that shine brightly! When you spoke so eloquent about listening to your tuner..I thought you must have ears of goldeness..almost made me turn on my Denon tuner! But the ukulele was calling me..always calling it is.
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Nothing golden about my ears. I can hear when the output is higher or lower. It’s fairly obvious even to a pair of average lugs like mine. I also believe it does affect dynamics. I think some would see this as improvement when it’s just a difference in output. I also actively listen but try not to be too forensic. It just spoils the music for me. If it sounds right as a whole, there’s no need to dig.
 
the caretaker said:
Ripping your cds sounds better than your cd player?
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No - I can't reliably tell the difference through the same external dac but the cd player internal dac sounds rather thin by comparison.
the caretaker said:
Are you listening to Qobuz in hi res or cd quality?
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Both - and both sound excellent.
My preference for a music server is convenience and ease of use.Having my whole music collection at my fingertips without having to get up at the end of every cd or wrestle the booklet out of the case is not something I miss very much.;)
I do still buy a few cd's (mostly 2nd hand) but rip them to the server straight away.
I think we are truly spoilt to have so many great choices of how we enjoy our music - at the end of the day it's all down to personal preferences.
 
I have ripped all my CDs and play the rips. I also buy from Bandcamp and download to play from a local source. I never stream because I think the small amount they pay to artists is totally wrong.
 
I rip all my CD's and I burn Cds for my car CD Audio. I have not got a clue what streaming or Cd's have effect to artist's royalties. The cd quality is good enough for me, I can choose specifically what I want to play in my house and car and I don't pay any direct payments monthly. For exploring artists I have free Spotify, youtube and internet which is enough to keep me occupied...:)
 
Purité Audio said:
It’s not that it’s just our equipment is resolving enough, really we should count ourselves fortunate.
Keith
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I think sometimes you have to get out there and listen - let's all start with two 'extremes' price wise in the market - a Bluesound Node vs a dCS Rossini APEX - the difference in sound quality is huge and so it should be for that price! However the comparison proves the point that digital is different and there is 'better'. Go to a dealer and ask for that comparison - then it should become plainly obvious to anyone not just those with golden ears.
 
beammeup said:
I think sometimes you have to get out there and listen - let's all start with two 'extremes' price wise in the market - a Bluesound Node vs a dCS Rossini APEX - the difference in sound quality is huge and so it should be for that price! However the comparison proves the point that digital is different and there is 'better'. Go to a dealer and ask for that comparison - then it should become plainly obvious to anyone not just those with golden ears.
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Well the Bluesound isn’t a tippedy-top measuring piece of equipment,( see the ASR) review, then again neither was the D S see the Stereophile and Golden Sound reviews, but until you compared unsighted…
Keith
 
beammeup said:
And no way am I going to invest in CD's either. There could be significant improvements in sound quality using CD over streaming - this has been a debate for some time - so on the strength of the review of the Audiolab dedicated CDT I am taking the opportunity to find out for myself if there is much in it or not.

If the CDT sounds much better then I will know where I stand.

This doesn't mean I'm going to invest in CD's if I find the CDT is much better - it just means I am going to try and match the CDT with a streaming tweak or solution of some kind. Basically,

it allows me to find out for myself.

Yes streaming is far more convenient.

I do know that streaming is capable of superb sounds - because regrettably I heard a dCS Rossini Apex yesterday streaming Qobuz - totally gobsmacked!
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Did you head to head the dCS against anything else or take it for a home demo - think you had a Bridge on test?

I’m very happy playing ripped CDs and don’t spin them anymore, I do play SACD/Blu Ray music disks via an Oppo 205, when I get time I’ll rip all my SACDs.
 
I’ll again repeat that I recently got a vintage Wadia X32 DAC, that has made me re-appraise things like TV/Netflix/Prime via toslink, and Radio Paradise and file based movie sound via and rpi4/Digione hat - sounds really good.

Using same rpi4/Digione hat with Kodi to playback FLAC rips of CDs sounds like 2D rubbish in comparison. What am I doing wrong? Do I need to rip to a different format, or use something other than Kodi to play them back?

thanks, Richard
 
Dowser said:
Using same rpi4/Digione hat with Kodi to playback FLAC rips of CDs sounds like 2D rubbish in comparison. What am I doing wrong? Do I need to rip to a different format, or use something other than Kodi to play them back?
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Have you tried Volumio or Roon on your Rpi4 to play your FLAC rips? I'd be curious to hear if you think either make a difference over Kodi.
 
Can anyone recommend a good CD burner?

I am going to further my experiment by downloading key tracks from Qobuz and then burning those tracks onto CDR - this will allow me to test streaming against a good CDT using the same music.

My modern computers here in the home don't even have CD readers in them anymore let alone writers.

I guess you can get good and bad CD writers - same with the quality of CDR's - anyone here got any recommendations?
 
beammeup said:
Can anyone recommend a good CD burner?

I am going to further my experiment by downloading key tracks from Qobuz and then burning those tracks onto CDR - this will allow me to test streaming against a good CDT using the same music.

My modern computers here in the home don't even have CD readers in them anymore let alone writers.

I guess you can get good and bad CD writers - same with the quality of CDR's - anyone here got any recommendations?
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Can't recall last CD-R drive we used but as DVD-R drives do CD-R as well I've always bought LG or Samsung USB usually off Amazon

Back in the day Plextor were my go to and generally rated very highly, cost a few quid

The dB Poweramp forum is worth a trawl, they used to keep a list of Internals and how good they were, maybe they do for USB drives - the thinking if they are good at reading the manufacturer is more likely to pay attention to writing too

https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?48251-Current-best-CD-(DVD)-USB-drives-for-ripping
 
The first reason that streaming is not a complete solution for many people is that there are huge gaps in the library. Often I look at an artists discography, for example on Allmusic website or a book or magazine then go to a streaming service to hear an album I read about and is not online. Of course it depends on how wide a range of music you are interested in. For that matter many albums are no longer in print on cd or LP.
I also use streaming to search for new music. Like back in the day when you could go to a used record store, pick out a stack of album and try them out.

If you have a lot of cds and are buying a Node, you are better off with a Bluesound Vault because it is the same streamer as the Node with an automatic CD burner and 2 T hard disc. So convenient to burn the cds, as many here have suggested.
Even better than Vault is the Innous version of a cd burner/dac/hard disc.
I still keep the cds too for several reasons. Sometimes it is convenient to just play cd and not go online or depend on wifi. Also I don't trust technology or nature and have a catastrophic fail and lose the whole library. I also still have my LP album collection acquired over the last 55 years because many of them are not in print and many are not online.
 
I still use most other formats as it gives me access to a wider range of music. I’m can’t get too hot under the collar about the differences in sound quality. Music is still enjoyable across the formats
 
Amber Audio said:
Can't recall last CD-R drive we used but as DVD-R drives do CD-R as well I've always bought LG or Samsung USB usually off Amazon

Back in the day Plextor were my go to and generally rated very highly, cost a few quid

The dB Poweramp forum is worth a trawl, they used to keep a list of Internals and how good they were, maybe they do for USB drives - the thinking if they are good at reading the manufacturer is more likely to pay attention to writing too

https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?48251-Current-best-CD-(DVD)-USB-drives-for-ripping
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Thanks - I got myself a small Dell CD/DVD RW which plugs into the back of my Pro-Ject Streambox Ultra via USB - this device has a CD ripping feature - works well!
 
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