Getting my head around this streaming thing

That is exactly how I feel, wondering  about staying with a CDP alone and improve it with a stand alone DAC or the SQ improvements of streaming from a file ripped from the CD.

You don't say what your budget is Pete, but you might want to try one or two dac's first if your cd player has a coax output. I'll disagree with Bigman, you can buy a decent streamer for less than £1k, I purchased my Auralic Aries for £500 and I know of a Aries mini going for £450 including a LPS. I also know of an Antipodes going for £2.4k if you want to go big. Also, surprised Bigman didn't mention this since he has owned one www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403677484386?hash=item5dfd0d9562:g:MeMAAOSw6ONijKGg&amdata

This could be what you're looking for: www.audiophonics.fr/en/dac-with-volume/gustard-dac-r26-discrete-r2r-dac-i2s-bluetooth-lan-airplay-roon-dlna-32bit-768khz-dsd512-black-p-16596.html

I own one of these. I owned a Novafidelity/Cocktail Audio X12 prior to that and they are both superb units.

This X30 has AES out (along with all the other digital outputs and inputs so you can take inputs from other sources) but AES does sound a bit better in my opinion, then if you do get a Mutec or anything else in the chain for that matter you will be fully covered.

Another advantage of this unit is that it has an on-board DAC and even a Class D amplifier with speaker outputs (it is effectively an all in one streamer). Although I only use the streaming part of the machine if I wanted to I could just run my speakers directly off it, giving you all the option going forward. For example if you wanted to save for a better DAC you could still play music in the meantime. If for some reason you had an amplifier go down or wanted to save for a better one, you'd still be able to play music with this.

Another MAJOR advantage (in my opinion) is the fact it has internal storage. This one comes with a 2TB internal drive (you can upgrade to SSD) for storing music on and streaming directly from the unit rather than streaming from any particular service, Tidal/Spotify etc etc.

Personally I do not stream from sites or subscriptions. It's just my opinion only but having the media on an internal storage drive does sound superior. Be that becasue there is not direct connection to the internet or that the digital files are being read more quickly/easily, whatever the reason I've always found it to sound just a little bit better.

Also I hate the idea that if your internet drops out for whatever reason (as frequently happens in a lot of places due to maintenance/bugs etc), you can't listen to music, I mean I don't know how people possibly put up with that, but that's a personal choice anyway . . . but this machine will have you covered in all instances, whatewver you decide.

It also has a half decent screen with album art on display, a good remote, various EQ settings, control of sample rate output etc.

Also it rips CD's directly to the internal storage and if conected to the internet will download and complete metadata for your CD's.

Obviously it plays CD's also and you can choose to use the internal DAC or have the output of the digital signal going to an outboard DAC.

It also has an analogue input so you can record/rip vinyl in a similar way you would a CD.


It's basically a swiss army knife of streamers and allows you all the flexibility you could need but can also just be used as a drive to deliver files to your chosen DAC (and everything in between).


You can also output the display to a larger screen or TV for scrolling through files or looking at album art etc.


I wouldn't be without mine now.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284943455582?hash=item4257f4155e:g:3tcAAOSwMThjBzeO&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoNdNwPqGwNt1i5fo1ib647pqfBwrsQbb%2BFtgiYsMXdVF%2BPR1xb248dQI8pYyLASrc6knCivWT1RsK5yDJVrOom1dps32a4fQyLLl%2FxS0ZU%2BbVHEXisLP0ECUfwVPs06neWwRctaY5oGoXrn0xMaaInfspechXloVSF%2FVcmX59SNkIGqRqSrUsvaMHrRwQaTOLQk0XPQhCL2pzGm6HtR%2B4rw%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5rB0dPhYA

Same circuit slightly different case here too:


www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004662961734.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.7a6e53493FmD1Z&algo_pvid=d19ddf7e-b70a-4696-9e70-77b11130c3e1&algo_exp_id=d19ddf7e-b70a-4696-9e70-77b11130c3e1-0&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22sku_id%22%3A%2212000030023835827%22%7D&pdp_npi=2%40dis%21GBP%21141.69%21127.52%21%21%21%21%21%400b0a01f816623871315574159ea4ef%2112000030023835827%21sea&curPageLogUid=isFxEg00gEkP





It's not always the case that 'this' sounds better than 'that' though Dave, as Oli said digital is a minefield and you have to consider galvanic isolation and various USB implementations etc, some are better than they were (and probably compete with IS2/AES connections now) maybe even better them in some instances. Old USB implementation was fairly dire.



Then you can run separate LPSU's for your HDD's if you have them on the network, then there's the SSD vs HD argument . . . might make a difference but might not. Some people pay serious money for LAN cables etc. Some people argue that noise can affect the performance of digital files (while they're still in the digital domain) from mains leakage or mechanical noise (from a spinning drive etc). I can't give you a difinitive answer either way but I'm not leaving anything to chance.



It can drive you to distraction trying to work out what makes a difference and what doesn't. It's also dependant on other parts of the system as spending in one area won't yield benefits in others necessarily but that doesn't mean it's a con or snake oil etc.



So many potential bottle necks that can stifle the performance of a digital system. Hence why it's probably easier to go for an all in one and upgrade (if need be) from there, at least then you know you're at a good starting place.

Not sure about 'golden ears' Dave . . . 'gullible' ones maybe 

Exactly my point Dave.

Just highlighting that an all in one box solution (which can support nearly all potential future upgrades) is ready and available for similar outlay to the most basic of streamers by comparison.

Enough to get started (and a whole lot more!).

copying your CDs to a hard drive and playing them back won't give any intrinsic SQ improvement over just playing the CD. It's the exact same file no matter what format or device the computer reads the data from.

Sadly there is far too much nonsense talked about this subject. There is an obvious practical advantage if you have a massive CD collection though, once you're over the hump of copying them all in that is. The beauty of digital is that you don't need to spend serious money to get perfect output from the source. Some seem to think that's a drawback or that it can't be true, but the numbers don't lie.

expensive digital cables, external power supplies, solid state drives - none of that will make any difference either. I wouldn't spend more than a couple of hundred - buy a refurbished laptop computer with a CD drive for the copying, and just use that as a dedicated streamer.

Disclaimer: everything I have said here is my own opinion (and experience) and is presented for entertainment purposes only.

I can't find where anyone stated that copying CD's to a drive would sound better? But playing it via a different medium (no laser reading the disk as they are just played directly from files) and via a different DAC (different to the CD player's one) will yield different results I would say.



Having tried a lot of different storage and streaming setups myself, ranging from laptops to dedicated streamers playing/ripping CD's as well as reading original (non ripped) files from HDD's and SSD's, I have to say your assumptions on these things are just that. Unless meticulously setup and properly isolated (including the power supply/charger) a laptop will be noisy as hell, both in the room audibly and audibly in the degraded playback of files. Probably better off just sticking with the CD player actually.



The numbers thing is irrelevant if you've never tried any of this stuff for yourself. Yes I know you can say "I've never tried jumping of a bridge etc etc" (as you are using the numbers to assume what will happen) but it aint that simple, (Trust me, I wish it was actually!).

Pete here, not Steve!

Interesting points. Yes, I was thinking, maybe wrongly, that ripping a CD and playing it back from HDD could improve the SQ agains a CD player, for 2 reasons:
1. Playing direct from CD the player is doing all types of error correction and other 'stuff' while also producing the sound output from the DAC - (Excuse my phraseology, I am not as technically knowledgable as most on here! I thought that this would impact on the SQ from the player. Direct from HDD all this other 'stuff' would not be happening and impacting on SQ
2. It would give me the chance of having a better DAC than the one built into my CD player. I do not have output options for an external DAC.

I enjoy playing CDs, so an alternative could be to replace the CDX with a decent dedicated CD drive and a decent DAC.

Sorry Pete I don't know why I typed Steve.

No, error correction doesn't affect SQ. it either works or it doesn't.

How old is your CD player that it does not have digital out? 

All I can say is that I use an Audiolab transport and a Topping E30 DAC, total cost less than £600, I have not heard anything at any price - Cd, streaming, whatever - that does anything that doesn't. And that includes all the usual high end suspects like Chord, Audionote, DCS, CAD, Levinson, and so on. 

Not to say they all sounded identical but although presentations might be slightly different in quality terms there's no difference. Everything is there with no mush, you can hear the acoustic around instruments even in dense mixes, you can hear tape hiss, the lot. And it's never hard or harsh.

You'll know when I hear something better because I'll buy it.