High end CDP to streaming FLAC

[da2222]

Hi

Looking to hear from those of you who have gone from what I'll loosely call a 'high end CDP' to streaming flac files via the various devices. In terms of sound alone, what pros and cons have you found? I'm considering the Innous zen mini mk2/3 + DAC route but am concerned it will fail to reach the heights and delights of my Lector CD7 MKIII. My fear is joining the streaming bandwagon too early, before it has reached true sonic capability. What are your experiences?

[da2222]

Apologies, this should probably be moved to "Digital"...

[struth]

Moved

[Rob1969]

It will depend to a certain extent what DAC you are thinking of using with the Innuos Zen Mini. Some will argue all DAC's sound the same or similar. This has not been my experience and have owned a few until I got the right one for me.

What I will say is I didn't make the leap to ditching my CD Player and going the streaming route for sound quality reasons albeit I have now reached a stage where I am content with my digital source. What streaming has brought me personally is convenience and the ability to discover a huge range of new music.

The thing is I think that a CD Player like the Lector will be extremely hard to beat sound quality wise (I used to own one and adored it) - I would suggest that you look for a DAC from Lector or go NOS to get a similar sound if you go the Innuos route (which I would highly recommend).

I have the Zen Mini with a Schiit Gungnir DAC and SoTM SMS 200 Ultra Neo Streamer and SoTM Power Supply. With USB cables that lot is knocking on the door of £4,000. I suspect your Lector would give it a good run for it's money.

Hope this helps a little.

[da2222]

That's great info Robert, thanks very much!

[wee tee cee]

I run a zen mini mk2 into tq claymore usb dac or seg with dorado psu.

the zen benefited from being run on battery

they havent resolved streaming with spotify premium just yet.

with all my disks ripped to flac it has been an excellent upgrade over a laptop

[Macca]

. My fear is joining the streaming bandwagon too early, before it has reached true sonic capability. What are your experiences?

Streaming is a pretty mature technology now I'd be surprised if there was any big revelations just around the corner so I wouldn't worry about that. And the music doesn't care whether it is stored on a polycarbonate disc or in 'the cloud'. The tricky bit is getting it off the storage medium and out through the speakers without ruining it too much but that's not a new problem.

[simon g]

Yours is a really good CD player. It will be difficult to equal that with a streaming system, IMO. And by streaming do you actually mean network player? The former is streaming via the internet (from Tidal, or wherever), the latter is playing files on your network. There's loads of contentious opinions on the 'net as to whether a FLAC file sounds the same as a CD. In my experience, the CD always comes out top (for whatever reasons; this is not an objective argument I'm making, merely expressing a subjective opinion.

I have recently made some comparisons, with all playing through the (extremely good) DAC in my Audionet DNA1. Best is CD transport via coaxial, 2nd is Bluesound FLAC locally followed by FLAC from Tidal via Bluesound (Bluesound connected via optical, so might be some difference is a result of optical vs coaxial interface? Shouldn't be though, as they're both SPDIF). Same tracks and mastering, as far as i can tell.

The DNA1 is such a good amplifier that these differences are now much more noticeable to me. To the extent that I may just go out and buy a really good CD player to play through the analogue inputs!

Don't get me wrong, I love Tidal and the likes. Very convenient, enormous amount of music to choose from, great way of discovering new music, etc. But when it comes down to the optimum SQ, then CD every time. Incidentally, I've seen some suggesting that a 320kbps MP3 stream is a high end source file. It isn't and never will be. It is very good and may well be good enough for many, but a FLAC file, or even a full fat CD, just sounds so much better.

[da2222]

Hi Simon, a very interesting, honest appraisal and very much as I 'feared'. Yes, I meant a network player, the quality of online streaming just doesn't convince me yet at all... Another CD player looms I think, and that's an entirely different kettle of ball games ;-)

Yours is a really good CD player. It will be difficult to equal that with a streaming system, IMO. And by streaming do you actually mean network player? The former is streaming via the internet (from Tidal, or wherever), the latter is playing files on your network. There's loads of contentious opinions on the 'net as to whether a FLAC file sounds the same as a CD. In my experience, the CD always comes out top (for whatever reasons; this is not an objective argument I'm making, merely expressing a subjective opinion.

I have recently made some comparisons, with all playing through the (extremely good) DAC in my Audionet DNA1. Best is CD transport via coaxial, 2nd is Bluesound FLAC locally followed by FLAC from Tidal via Bluesound (Bluesound connected via optical, so might be some difference is a result of optical vs coaxial interface? Shouldn't be though, as they're both SPDIF). Same tracks and mastering, as far as i can tell.

The DNA1 is such a good amplifier that these differences are now much more noticeable to me. To the extent that I may just go out and buy a really good CD player to play through the analogue inputs!

Don't get me wrong, I love Tidal and the likes. Very convenient, enormous amount of music to choose from, great way of discovering new music, etc. But when it comes down to the optimum SQ, then CD every time. Incidentally, I've seen some suggesting that a 320kbps MP3 stream is a high end source file. It isn't and never will be. It is very good and may well be good enough for many, but a FLAC file, or even a full fat CD, just sounds so much better.

[struth]

Inclined to disagree. Get streaming networked files and tidal etc right and it's damn good. More convenient too. Probably a lot cheaper too