advertisement


Streamer vs cd player

I sometimes stream stuff I have on CD/ripped to my local music storage, at least the artist is getting a little extra income on top of my previously buying the CD or download ;)
 
The quality of Streaming has come along way in the last couple of years, whereas previously I used to listen to all the formats, I now stream all the time from Tidal which offers me (Although Limited) MA, Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 all of which to me are far more involving in multi-channel than stereo or mono.
Still have my quite extensive CD and Vinyl collection, which is all gathering dust.
 
I don't know what you mean by 'streaming', if only a network device connected wirelessly or wired to some Nas, or just streaming service, but if a pc connected to a dac can also qualify as a streaming device, then to my ears cd players are superior, not by much, maybe just for the tactile experience of still using a physical media, but of course never had a fancy Linn streaming device..
 
Comparing streaming with disk spinning makes no sense. All depends of players/dacs involved.
With NDX2 and CDX2 there is a lot of common, só the differences are subtle.
If you compare different platfirms/solutions/dacs ...
 
the caretaker said:
What struck me in the review..was how the transport got better with better dacs? I'll see if I can get a home trial..my cyrus can be problematic with cds being ejected!! Lol..
Click to expand...

I bought one off here, £250 posted. It’s nice enough but the slot mech needs a nudge occasionally and it will, more often than not, play a cd continuously rather than stop at the end. It replaced an ancient Avondaled Arcam5+ so I can play with my dacs:) I think the review upthread is a bit overhyped. Just my take of course.
 
This connected to my DAC performs very well. It bettered an Arcam CDP (I forget the model) and also a Denon Professional DN680, by quite a margin. I do not wish to try any further spinners as it has now equalled my streaming which is my main source and used most of the time.

I've not had any issues with my slot loading and my one performs faultlessly. For the cash I have to say I think it's great value.

If it breaks, I'll buy another. I can't give a better nod to it than that.

My D33 is decent enough (RRP £2k) but I do wonder if I stuck a monster DAC on the end of it, would it make the performance jump the review guy praises. Thankfully, I'm happy enough with my bundle and overall SQ and don't feel the need to change anything.

I have to agree, I too think the reviewer was a bit over-keen...

It is a great piece of kit imo though.
 
I think I have decided (to the OP) that what matters most is the quality of the recording. Given that you had a CD and the way to stream that same recording, then you need to worry a little about the Node2i since it is very very good but not excellent. On just such a comparison, my CD player wins in outright sound quality. However it was 5 x the price when new, so not a level playing field.
On streaming, Spotify is very good, but out-resolved by higher resolution streams from Apple music, Tidal, Qobuz and etc.
In the end it's what you can hear in your room with your ears that matters most. In general now, if i enjoy it, then it stays.

I was playing Spotify to listen to the remastered Beatles Mono CD box set. That is such a good recording that even on Spotify it was hugely enjoyable. I couldn't see any point for me in wanting more info off that recording, and in some ways, too much detail thrown at you actually spoils musical enjoyment for me.
 
Streaming you get used to, at first is a bit weird, it is a technology where you have the acess but not the propriety.
 
hifi-dog said:
Because sense is not yet over Ethernet to my streamer.. as soon as it is then Roon will be gone but I do use Roon radio a lot and have found lots of new music this way
Click to expand...
I have it on good authority that the ether net connection and the use of Sense with the likes of a Linn streamer will be along shortly so be patient and soon it will be goodbye to Roon. Sorry but I dont know the time frame only that it will be not too distant future.
 
Amormusic said:
Audiolab 6000CDT.

https://theaudiophileman.com/6000cdt-cd-transport-from-audiolab/

It's hooked up to an Arcam D33 DAC.
Click to expand...

This find is very important to me! Very important indeed.

I have just purchased this dedicated CD transport on the strength of the review and your findings. I hardly have any CDs nowadays - all I do is stream from Qobuz - but this transport will hopefully serve as a reference (if it is that good - I have a 14 day cooling off period) - a reference to find a streamer transport that can match an excellent dedicated CD transport.

Time and time again I have read that a good CD transport is still well ahead of a good streaming transport - but at this price I don't have much too lose in finding out for myself.

This reference CD transport will also help me sort out the men from the boys regarding my DAC collection. You never know how good your DAC is until you find a good enough upstream partner.
 
beammeup said:
This find is very important to me! Very important indeed.

I have just purchased this dedicated CD transport on the strength of the review and your findings. I hardly have any CDs nowadays - all I do is stream from Qobuz - but this transport will hopefully serve as a reference (if it is that good - I have a 14 day cooling off period) - a reference to find a streamer transport that can match an excellent dedicated CD transport.

Time and time again I have read that a good CD transport is still well ahead of a good streaming transport - but at this price I don't have much too lose in finding out for myself.

This reference CD transport will also help me sort out the men from the boys regarding my DAC collection. You never know how good your DAC is until you find a good enough upstream partner.
Click to expand...
No risk with a 14 day return option. But I think you'll like it as it's a great bit of kit. Interested to know what you think and how it compares to your streaming setup.
 
Streamer all the way!

I initially went to streaming around 2009 as I was moving house and wanted to ‘declutter’ my living room - no more CD’s lying around. I ripped all my CD’s to FLAC and set up a Logitech Media Server / Squeezebox system with a small server put away in a storage cabinet (I put wired ethernet everywhere in my new apartment).
First I used a Squeezebox Classic / 3 with my TAG AV32R processor. I felt the TAG CDT20R transport with T2L slightly bested it in sound quality, but I’ll be the first to admit that this might have been a placebo effect due to interacting with what felt like a more higher end player, and the ‘effort’ of looking for a CD, putting it in the drawer.

But the conveniences of streaming, such as having all your CD’s a few clicks away, being able to listen to your music collection easily in different rooms (I added a few Squeezebox Radios) completely won me over - as well the original goal of a cleaner living room. This was all with local stored music (no Tidal Quboz etc yet), although I added a Spotify premium account mainly to discover new music.
The Squeezebox Classic was replaced with a Squeezebox Touch which I found was virtually as good as the TAG transport which I sold shortly after.

Then I was out of the music / audio hobby for a few years due to a more vagabonding existence up to early 2020 - you can guess the timelines here!

I unpacked my system and enjoyed my local stored music collection again. And now with the added benefit of the lossless streaming services such as Tidal / Quboz / Deezer. I think these services are amazing value - I used to spend 25 - 50 eur a month on buying CD’s - now with a 10 eur subscription I get access to a virtually unlimited collection of music. I also like it to discover new music with the recommend albums / playlists etc. Otherwise you tend to pick the well known favorites. And the social aspect, now friends are sharing or recommending music and playlists. All in all it completely transforms the way you enjoy music!

In terms of sound quality I’m a firm believer that a CD, an online stream, USB stick or a local hard drive are all interchangeable digital transport media. There can be no way that bits should sound different depending on the way they are delivered to your playback device. That different playback devices (CD, streamer) might sound different, yeah that can be the case. But different CD players can also sound different to each other - it the playback device, not the data file that causes the difference.

I’m still using the Logitech Media Server (LMS) as my streaming platform. I like the way it integrates local music, streaming services, internet radio and a wide variety of supported playback devices (such as Airplay and uPnP). Although Logitech stopped the Squeezebox devices, they still have somebody maintaining LMS, and with it being open source now the functionality has only increased. It is a very good (and free!) alternative to Roon in my view.

No way I’m going back to CD’s!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top