Got out of the format. Do I want to get back in??

[John Jordan]

Originally Posted by Audiophilehi

So my question is if I take all my downloaded flac files and rip to CD should they sound better?

Paul-

You have a great system. My guess is no difference. IF there is a difference, the effort would not be worth the rewards.

Why not rip one and listen?

[The Lost Bears]

Originally Posted by bodiezaffa

-25 below zero day here in Toronto, Canada. Even Simba, my husky/lab x dog isn't interested in going outside.

This is when a nice pair of tube mono blocks comes in real handy.

I have all three formats available in my system. I have all my CD's and more ripped to a hard drive. I listen to vinyl maybe 40% and CD about 40%. The rest of the time I listen to computer audio files. I don't stream off the internet. The computer audio I listen to is mostly high resolution stuff or albums friends have given me that they want me to hear. If I like it I will buy the CD or vinyl album or both.

My Ref CD7 easily bests my computer audio setup. If I had something more dedicated it would probably be closer. But after ripping all my CDs I have found that I still preferred listening to them instead of with a computer. I like thumbing through CDs or albums for that mater far more than browsing computer files. I actually find the computer more of a distraction in the listening room. I end up checking email and other stuff instead of just listening to music.

[Audiophilehi]

Originally Posted by John Jordan

Paul-

You have a great system. My guess is no difference. IF there is a difference, the effort would not be worth the rewards.

Why not rip one and listen?

Thanks John....that’s a great idea. I’ll burn one tomorrow and report back. My Oppo UDP-205 should be an even match with my Aurender N100H.

[JMD]

Paul

I expect what you are going to hear is the difference between the ESS chips in the OPPO as opposed to the AKM chipset in the Bryston.

[Audiophilehi]

Originally Posted by JMD

Paul

I expect what you are going to hear is the difference between the ESS chips in the OPPO as opposed to the AKM chipset in the Bryston.

Hi Jack.... I currently have the Oppo using the Bryston DAC.

[doggiehowser]

For me, CD playback from a good transport like an Esoteric based EMM Labs, Playback Designs or a Philips CDPRO2 based Bel Canto CD2, Ayon CD5S sounded better than computer audio when I first started.

Then I learnt about optimizing computer transports - CAPS based fanless computers with linear power supplies and dedicated OS/playback software. And to my ears, computer audio was a better choice especially with hires audio and DSD playback (when I often couldn’t find out of print SACDs).

Things got significantly better when DACs moved away from USB or SPDIF connections from computers but via a network bridge (the PS Audio DS DAC sounded to me better than most computer transports)

Then PS Audio launched the memory transport. And I went back to spinning discs again.

[bart]

I have just been dipping my toes into streaming seriously since a couple of months.
I have a collection of almost 3000 silver discs (many of them are SACDs).
Through the same DAC, the well remastered hi-res albums from Qobuz sound at least the equal of my CDs.
Mind you, this is with a dirty cheap streamer from Yamaha!
A reliable audiophile friend told me this device was punching way above its price and he's so right.
As entry point into streaming I thought 299€ wouldn't hurt too much if streaming proved to be not my thing after all.

(My DAC is not MQA-compatible, so I can't say anything about the pros of MQA).

I used to listen to (SA)CDs 80% of the time (the other 20% was tuner and 5.0).
Now streaming is 80%. The rest is tuner, CDs (the ones not on Tidal or Qobuz), and surround SACDs.
I'm seriously thinking about streaming/downloading multichannel recordings also, as I can see the format of 5.0 SACDs gradually disappear.

[Poppyhome]

For the life of me, I can't see how a motorized device (CD player) with some type of conversion system that takes that physical disc and transfers that into a digital file — can possibly sound better than that digital file by itself.

If one wants a new toy, likes variety, and you become more emotionally involved with the music — then go for it.

Ron

[crwilli]

Originally Posted by Poppyhome

For the life of me, I can't see how a motorized device (CD player) with some type of conversion system that takes that physical disc and transfers that into a digital file — can possibly sound better than that digital file by itself.



If one wants a new toy, likes variety, and you become more emotionally involved with the music — then go for it.



Ron

Ron, I agree with the premise of your question but while the ‘file’ on a hard drive and on the CD are the same, the process they go through to get to your PreAmp is not. More/less cables, different conversion processes, etc. Perhaps that explains any differences people hear? Craig

[clpetersen]

Originally Posted by Poppyhome

For the life of me, I can't see how a motorized device (CD player) with some type of conversion system that takes that physical disc and transfers that into a digital file — can possibly sound better than that digital file by itself.

Ron

Yes, interesting thread. Many of the posters here have highly resolving systems and have done some careful listening.

It seems 3 different things are being compared here:

1) Digitized, physical media playback on a dedicated transport (CD, SACD)
2) Digital playback from a locally stored file
3) Streaming

1 and 2 can be equipment dependent. 3 can throw variables outside most people's control.