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Computer Audio..Stream or download?

Fellow Audiophiles,

Until now, i never cared for music streaming or downloads, simply because of compression. I owned fairly large selection of CD's, SACD's, DTS and DVD audio discs. DTS and DVD audio are long gone and SACD's are now pretty much limited to classical titles. I have been watching the digital trend pretty closely..it seems that we have evolved from digital downloads to now streaming. For sake of convenience, i have installed Sonos in couple of rooms. In my HT setup, Sonos just couldn't live up to high standards set by Krell and Raysonic. The streaming from Spotify, Amazon and Rhapsody is just average (flat and dull most times).

I am looking for ideas and feedback based on your experiences with high-res downloads. I am only interested in listening to high-rez / DSD64 or DSD128 files.

Please respond with your recommendations on DSD software and DAC's/Players.

MY Equipments:
Classe SSP-800 / CA-2200 / CA-5200
Krell Cipher
Raysonic CD-128
B&W 803s/804s/HTM2s/SCMS
Audience Au24 SE - IC's, Speaker, Power and Digital Cables
Audience AR6-TSSD/AR2-TSSD
128x128lalitk
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"Someone also recommended to check out Ayre QB-9 DSD. "

Ayre makes some of the best sounding digital products I've ever heard.

I have a question for you regarding your goals. You say that you have a good collection of music already. Are you looking into something like Tidal to listen to the same music you already own on other formats, or to listen to music that you don't already own?
elevick
2,439 posts
 
I stream all day, every day at work. Going through a 192 Musical Fidelity V Link to my Schiit Bifrost. The quality is usually amazing. Tidal is really clean and detailed. Some radio stations stream in high def as well. Some claim to stream in high def but I always lose the signal. Other stations that are not high def still can sound amazing when compared to Amazon or Spotify.
lalitk's avatar
lalitk OP
1,105 posts
 
"I have a question for you regarding your goals"

I don't plan to stream music I already own. The idea is to explore without shelling out $15-20 for SACD's or CD's.

It seems lot of folks have good experience with Tidal.
lalitk's avatar
lalitk OP
1,105 posts
 
"The Cambridge audio 851N you were asking about is a 851D with a cxn streamer built in"

Sonos provides great functionality and convenience but from what I read so far, the issue lies with it's mediocre Cirrius Logic CODAC and the associated high jitter clocks. I am tempted to try out Wyred 4 Sound mod for $550.00 before I dive into Azur 851N. I don't think any external DAC would help the sound until digital out path is upgrade within Sonos.
jl35
2,244 posts
 
Agree. I just got the Wyred modified Sonos and the sound is superb running through the DAC in Aesthetix Romulus.
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