Computer Audio..Stream or download?

Lalitk

Great Question: Here is why - we really have no clue about how our brains / hearing works and what makes something sound better. We measure jitter and distortion and linearity but we are throwing darts and totally guessing if that is what's actually making it sound better. More so with digital.

We are now making some huge strides. Just a year or ago or maybe a bit longer the pc or mac was the way to go. It was better or as good than a good cd player and way easier and def more convenient but the pc / mac in any modded form is old hat now.

Just like that bamm... Extinct - obsolete... Next please...

We have moved onto streaming and dedicated transports that are realty just specialized / focused computers optimized for sound but are SO MUCH better.

Guys I can not overstate the improvement over a pc / computer.

I am sure a base model Auralic Aries will be great also but def not as good.

I can tell you the type of USB Cable used with this combo still really matters, the type of footers and clamping / damping mods for it REALLY matters.

I think when you really dial your system in to the point where it is very resolving it gives you this sort of microscopic view into your chain and it is this where the weak like is really exposed and all the different tweaking comes into view. I can tell you when I went with just going with batteries powering my external hard drive that was a nice upgrade.

Here it is in nutshell. I love my Bricasti M1 and learning a lot about it and how it can be improved but my opinions are evolving via first hand experience. The transport and its abilities are maybe even more important than the DAC, maybe not but I never fully appreciated how important their role was until not that long ago.

Going with my Bricasti M1 and a computer / mac to my Aries was a bigger improvement than getting the Bricasti itself.

I am still amazed at the level of improvement this $1,599 is I am sure you will love the $999 one also.

I love mine so much that I am having Vinni Rossi from Red Wine audio now of Vinne Rossi audio with his all new LIO line build me a custome battery power supply with duel batteries that can provide pure battery power to replace the linear power supply and drive both the USB cables on the ?Aries for both the music USB and solid state hard drive.

I am hoping this makes it legit compete with the 10k-15k transports because I can't afford one of those but knowing now about how much improvement is to be had from the transport i'm drinking the mod and improve transport koolaid :)

First off, congratulations on putting together an impressive system (WOW!!). Totally dig your dedication and investment. I agree with you that a well built cable is a must to attain overall coherence and transparency.

I am planning to try Auralic aries with Modwright Elyse DAC in very near future.

It seems that we have very limited options on components that can turn your dedicated DAC into a full blown 'audiophile' streamer.

I prefer to control my music through my ipad, so airplay option is a must.

Mind you, i am still learning about digital streaming. From what i have learn, it seems there are only two ways to 'gel' digital music into your rig.... a pc/mac connected to your dedicated dac via USB cable or a component like Auralic aries that turns your dac into streamer via USB cable.

Please keep in mind before you reply, I am only seeking high-end solution to digital streaming through a dedicated outboard DAC in a 2 channel or HT setup without any intervention from pc or mac.

If anyone else have any other suggestion, please feel free to chime in.

Folks,

Just came across Aurender N100H....Network streamer along with 2 TB of SSD drive. Looks like a very nice option for non pc/Mac users.

Hey Lalitk,

The Aurender products are very well liked and are excellent. I have heard the Aurender and it is very nice.

I have a friend that thinks their stuff is the very best. It is quite slick and offers a real hi-end feel and build.

This brand is Prob the best out there for looks and build. Sound wise there are some other good one's out there such as Antipodes and Baetis. Baetis has their special and great coax output that is killer.

If the money was similar these would all be preferable choices choices to the Aries but the price vs performance of the Aries really can't be touched. If you have extra money to roll these are great options and I am sure will sound a bit better.

On the Aries I am going to go with an upgraded Red Wine battery power supply but there is also an interesting company in Europe SBooster that make a great linear power supply upgrade for about $350.00 that is better than the one in the Extreme.

The Auralic Aries with Modwright Elyse DAC will be a great combo. Thanks for the kind words. I have been so impressed with the transport's ability to improve my Bricasti DAC sound quality that I even just took a chance and grabbed a W4S Recycle to use for my Cable Box. My System (2-Channel only and always) is hooked to my Panny Plasma GT60 so hoping maybe the TV sounds nicer. Maybe - maybe not but checking. I have heard good things about it and anything I can do to improve what goes into my DAC is worth IMO based on all the good results I have been getting.

Lalitk, I suspect that soon cds will not be issued, I doubt that streaming will ever amount to much either although it may be very convenient. I have many HD downloads and they are better but PCM is not the way to go either. So what is the answer? I am fortunate to have many old SACD, mainly from Japan and now have them on my SSDs in native DSD and have a music server that plays them now in double DSD and soon in quad DSD. I realize that this is basically pro gear, but it is so much better than what else you can buy. I must say that I also have a Polish Stereo192 DSD dac with I good many modifications within. What you really need is a very low latency computer with built in SSDs.

I know all of this is pie in the sky stuff, but I suspect mainstream companies will soon go this way if someone finally moves to true HD downloads. Reputedly, SONY is transferring all of their master tapes to quad DSD files. Now all we need is for them to be made available. There are also companies recording now in double DSD but what I've heard none are of top musicians or singers.

One thing is certain CD players are a dying component. I should say, however that ripping cds to my hard drives and playing upsampled to double DSD pushes the filter out so far that you can hear the full information on CDs. 44.1 is midfi.