Using a MacBook with Audirvana and Tidal as server...

[bruno2009]

...

[bruno2009]

Decided to quit on the Subject - streaming doesn‘t do it for me.

[4N6]

Originally Posted by bruno2009

Decided to quit on the Subject - streaming doesn‘t do it for me.

Sorry to hear that. I have loved streaming so far. Via Roon and my DirectStream DAC with the network bridge, streaming has shown great convenience, fingertip access to my whole library + Tidal’s, and terrific sound quality. Great sounding music made easy.

[bruno2009]

Originally Posted by 4N6

Sorry to hear that. I have loved streaming so far. Via Roon and my DirectStream DAC with the network bridge, streaming has shown great convenience, fingertip access to my whole library + Tidal’s, and terrific sound quality. Great sounding music made easy.

I`ve actually come to find the exact opposite (and I did find it to be a little frustrating, as I was really hoping for more and actually dived deeper into the issue than I had originally planned). I still have the Auralic Aries Femto which I will probably keep - so I will do some more comparing.

I`ll copy my post from the other thread so not to repeat:

... decided to give up on streaming. Went from A/V Receiver to MacBook with Audirvana to an Auralic Aries Femto and a Tidal HiFi Abo (through McIntosh C52 DAC)… while I could clearly tell the higher quality each step brought it never came even close to my analog playback and it is still far from the quality my CD-Transport brings… now I have heard numerous explanations for this - the most reasonable being that Tidal uses different masters (which would also explain why the gap in SQ differs from album to album - few actually came close).

Final verdict - too little to live with, too much to die for. Yes - it sounds better than Apple and it certainly is better than expected - but still a long way from being good enough for a decent nights listening session. Thus it will always be an interesting extra which is useful for mobile use (iPhone/car/vacation) and for listening into/getting to know new stuff. But for this a simple Apple Music Abo will do the job just fine. When the music is good enough to own - just buy it on physical media add it to a decent physical music collection and play the music in adequate quality.

No need to spend thousands on streaming devices and 20€/Month on streaming service... just imagine how much great music can be bought for this…

[Dr Tone]

I have the same DAC in my C47.

That was the first thing I fixed. IMO, no amount of streamers and changes in front of it will make it more like your analog rig.

[bruno2009]

Originally Posted by Dr Tone

I have the same DAC in my C47.

That was the first thing I fixed. IMO, no amount of streamers and changes in front of it will make it more like your analog rig.

This would explain the clear gap in SQ when compared to analog/vinyl - but still not why there are differences in SQ when compared to playback from the CD-Transport - as both digital sources are fed to the same DAC.

[Dr Tone]

Originally Posted by bruno2009

This would explain the clear gap in SQ when compared to analog/vinyl - but still not why there are differences in SQ when compared to playback from the CD-Transport - as both digital sources are fed to the same DAC.

I assume both were connected to the C52 the same way? Toslink or Coax? The USB implementation in McIntosh DACs is brutal.

[bruno2009]

Originally Posted by Dr Tone

I assume both were connected to the C52 the same way? Toslink or Coax? The USB implementation in McIntosh DACs is brutal.

Actually no - this is the only difference - I use coax for the Moon CD-Transport and USB for the Auralic Aries Femto... can‘t imagine this would make such a difference in SQ though...

[Dr Tone]

Originally Posted by bruno2009

Actually no - this is the only difference - I use coax for the Moon CD-Transport and USB for the Auralic Aries Femto... can‘t imagine this would make such a difference in SQ though...

The AES and the USB inputs on my Yggdrasil sound rather different both being driven from my Aries G2. So you never know, at the least it might even the playing field a bit with your better sounding transport.

[bruno2009]

Thanx for the input - I‘ll give it a try.