My Experience with Music Players and Music Servers... So far

[W9TR]

Short answer - yes! I use a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 as my digital source and it works perfectly with multiple DAC's.


The rest of the story......

I've been using computers to render digital audio since 2002, when I purchased my first D/A converter, a Benchmark DAC1. From the beginning it blew away the DAC's in my Rega Planet CD player via that player's S/PDIF connection. At that time I was using a desktop computer running iTunes and,an M-Audio pro sound card. I found that my rips sounded the same or better than CD's played on the Rega. I ripped my entire CD collection to FLAC and stored the discs. Dealing the vagaries of Windows XP and its successors wasn't always clear or easy, and I know more than I really care to about audio rendering in Windows.

I have gone through a number of disc spinners in the meantime; McIntosh MCD 500, OppO BDP-95, and a McIntosh MCD 1100. All had decent DAC's and so were used as D/A converters, along with a W4S modified Sonos Connect. In every case I found that they sounded the same or better when rendering files from my PC vs. spinning discs.

Fast forward to the present, I am using a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 i7 running Win 10 and JRiver Media Center 23 into Benchmark's latest DAC3 HGC via asynchronous isochronous USB 2.0. I use a fancy cable between the PC and the DAC, because I found that it matters. USB is not straightforward at all. In my case there is only one device on the PC's USB hub and that's the DAC. All my music is stored on HDD's in computers elsewhere in the house.

This has been a great solution for me.

[bruno2009]

So basically that means a good service that offers CD Quality like Qoboz or Tidal streamed to the DAC (I use the McIntosh C 52s integrated DAC) via Notebook (suggestions? Apple?) should do just as fine as an external CD transport (the MCT 450 in my case) as transport/source?

Suppose I‘ll give it a try.

Reason being that I play Vinyl 90% of the time and only use digital if vinyl is not available...

[PeterMusic]

I use a SSD Mac Mini with Amarra HiFi. Both the SSD and Amarra HiFi have been significant improvements over a standard HD and iTunes, so I do not subscribe to the "as long as it's bit-perfect" camp.

Amarra HiFi has been replaced by the company with a bug plagued "upgrade", so I would recommend Audirvarna or Roon.

Good luck!

[FloridaBoy]

Originally Posted by bruno2009

So basically that means a good service that offers CD Quality like Qoboz or Tidal streamed to the DAC (I use the McIntosh C 52s integrated DAC) via Notebook (suggestions? Apple?) should do just as fine as an external CD transport (the MCT 450 in my case) as transport/source?

Suppose I‘ll give it a try.

Reason being that I play Vinyl 90% of the time and only use digital if vinyl is not available...

https://www.audioaficionado.org/showthread.php?t=42480

I'm using the TASCAM with an iphone 4s to a DAC for streaming. The signal goes unaltered to the DAC. You can use Tidal, Spotify, Tunein radio etc. Sounds very good. IMHO, the unit is a bargain. No computer needed.

[bruno2009]

Are there any A/V Receivers with integrated streamers that anyone can recommend?How do they compare to pure streamers like Linn & the likes?

[nicoff]

Originally Posted by bruno2009

Are there any A/V Receivers with integrated streamers that anyone can recommend?How do they compare to pure streamers like Linn & the likes?

This article gives several reasons why you should avoid using A/V Receivers for streaming. Even though the article is from 2011, I believe that the reasons are still valid today (except that I presume that video streaming is now available).

https://www.cnet.com/news/six-reason...dia-streamers/

[nicoff]

It has over a year since I started this thread. Here is an update: I have built all my music streaming around Roon.

The Sony Hap is gone (it did not work with Roon and had no access to CD-quality audio services).

I still have a Logitech Transporter but moved it to another location. (It is a Roon-Ready device).

Recently bought an Oppo 205 which is a Roon End-Point.

Regardless of how many pieces of equipment I change or replace, the common denominator is Roon. That means that there is no need to learn a new app or a need to rebuild an existing library when equipment is upgraded. Imagine Roon as a $500 investment that can last a lifetime.

[runnin17]

I tried Roon. It wasn't something I wanted to invest in at this time. I am currently pretty happy with J. River (probably because I have been using it forever).

Maybe in the future when I have time to tinker with my setup more I will take another serious look at Roon. It was a nice front end, but for me it seemed lacking in sorting options for the music library. I may not have given it enough of a test though.

Part of it may be the size of my library (around 4TB lossless and some DSD).

[bruno2009]

I actually just hooked up my Marantz A/V Receiver using the Pre out and the Passthrough function of the McIntosh C 52 - so it basically goes straight into the McIntosh MC 452... I only have an Apple Music Abo... so it‘s streaming low quality Apple Music via iPad to the Marantz... works fine for a start... most Streaming Platforms that offer lossless audio don‘t have enough music on offer for my taste anyway... Platforms with more music on the other hand don’t offer lossless audio... so as long as the situation doesn’t change... no need for expensive high end streamers for me...

[bruno2009]

... further I now added a test abo with (lossless?) Tidal. First there is no noticable difference between Apple Music and Tidal to me - sometimes I even prefer the Apple Music playback (which I find strange as from what I understand Apple Music has lower quality than Tidal?)… More important though - none came close to Vinyl. CD was also superior. Of course the quality of my hardware is way higher with my analoge setup - so its really not a fair or serious compare - just thought I‘d share my impressions though...