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Post by peterthebutcher on Oct 19, 2022 9:28:03 GMT
Just purchased one of these www.analogueseduction.net/dacs/MATRIXX.html so something to look forward to next week (and got it at a very good price too). I have used this dealer a lot over the last few years. So my upgrades are done... trouble is I said we would go and pick it up, so may hear something that is very good (speakers)  |
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Post by jandl100 on Oct 19, 2022 9:37:49 GMT
That looks good.
It's a year or two since I was using USB, but I invariably found that the USB inputs on DACs weren't as good as a decent offboard converter.
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Post by antonio on Oct 19, 2022 9:46:39 GMT
Matrix are one of the better known Chinese manufacturers so I hope it works for you. I would have been tempted to buy a dedicated streamer instead of using a pc though.
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Post by peterthebutcher on Oct 19, 2022 13:32:06 GMT
Matrix are one of the better known Chinese manufacturers so I hope it works for you. I would have been tempted to buy a dedicated streamer instead of using a pc though. I do not subscribe to any streaming services, just listen to what I have , and if I see something, I can always check it out on Spotify Free. As far as the device goes, I just want to try and squeeze the last bit of goodness out of my system, as it will be a while before I can afford to change anything substantial |
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optical
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Post by optical on Oct 19, 2022 13:53:59 GMT
I'm sure you probably know this but a "streamer" is not just for "streaming", at least not just from various services etc. The good ones house a hard drive (just like your PC) or connect to an external NAS/HDD drive with all your music on and you then stream it directly from there. It just cuts out all the unnecessary electronics housed within a PC that are detrimental to audio (noise both electrical and mechanical).
The premiss of not being able to play music if the internet down, is a huge technological backwards step in my opinion. Fine in theory, but in reality, internet connections are still dodgy.
The jump in sound quality I got going from a PC to a streamer (effectively a stripped back music PC) was enormous.
My streamer is rarely connected to the internet (except for transfers to the hard drive and to listen to the odd bit of internet radio) as the protocols for wireless and to a lesser extent, a wired connection, do supposedly have a slightly detrimental effect on sound quality . . . . but that's probably just me taking things a bit too far . . .
Having said all that a PC is still fine but in my opinion a £300 streamer will upgrade your SQ more than a USB/spdif converter.
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Post by antonio on Oct 19, 2022 14:18:42 GMT
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Post by peterthebutcher on Oct 19, 2022 15:22:26 GMT
I'm sure you probably know this but a "streamer" is not just for "streaming", at least not just from various services etc. The good ones house a hard drive (just like your PC) or connect to an external NAS/HDD drive with all your music on and you then stream it directly from there. It just cuts out all the unnecessary electronics housed within a PC that are detrimental to audio (noise both electrical and mechanical). The premiss of not being able to play music if the internet down, is a huge technological backwards step in my opinion. Fine in theory, but in reality, internet connections are still dodgy. The jump in sound quality I got going from a PC to a streamer (effectively a stripped back music PC) was enormous. My streamer is rarely connected to the internet (except for transfers to the hard drive and to listen to the odd bit of internet radio) as the protocols for wireless and to a lesser extent, a wired connection, do supposedly have a slightly detrimental effect on sound quality . . . . but that's probably just me taking things a bit too far . . . Having said all that a PC is still fine but in my opinion a £300 streamer will upgrade your SQ more than a USB/spdif converter. Was thinking about it for a while, but decided against (was looking into the PS DirectSteam Dac (am a fan of PS ) a friend has one and thinks it ace (he has quite a high end system with big Wilson Speakers that cost more than our car) |
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Post by macca on Oct 19, 2022 17:46:24 GMT
I'm sure you probably know this but a "streamer" is not just for "streaming", at least not just from various services etc. The good ones house a hard drive (just like your PC) or connect to an external NAS/HDD drive with all your music on and you then stream it directly from there. It just cuts out all the unnecessary electronics housed within a PC that are detrimental to audio (noise both electrical and mechanical). The premiss of not being able to play music if the internet down, is a huge technological backwards step in my opinion. Fine in theory, but in reality, internet connections are still dodgy. The jump in sound quality I got going from a PC to a streamer (effectively a stripped back music PC) was enormous. My streamer is rarely connected to the internet (except for transfers to the hard drive and to listen to the odd bit of internet radio) as the protocols for wireless and to a lesser extent, a wired connection, do supposedly have a slightly detrimental effect on sound quality . . . . but that's probably just me taking things a bit too far . . . Having said all that a PC is still fine but in my opinion a £300 streamer will upgrade your SQ more than a USB/spdif converter. Was thinking about it for a while, but decided against (was looking into the PS DirectSteam Dac (am a fan of PS ) a friend has one and thinks it ace (he has quite a high end system with big Wilson Speakers that cost more than our car) you dodged a bullet there, it's not only pointlessly expensive it has so much noise from the power supply it doesn't even manage 16 bit resolution. |
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