Dipping my toes in computer audio...

Posted by: Andrew Porter on 26 December 2011

Firstly I would like to say that I am absolutely delighted with my present system and after a few years everything has come together brilliantly,most lately due to a move to a different listening room and the addition of a Grahams Hydra and Isoblue furniture. Having said that I don't want to be left behind in streaming and computer audio. I have spent a good deal of time of late reading everything possible from the search function on this forum and it seams the more I read the more complicated it gets! I wish there was a Streaming for Idiots Guide. Also I have found a lot of info through google but most of it seems to be for convenience rather than sound quality.

Anyway as a starter I have decided that a possible way forward without spending huge amounts as a basically "suck it and see" trial I am plan to buy a new Special Edition gatorised and further modified Caiman dac from Stan at Beresford, first run of which will be ready in a couple of weeks,price of which will be about £250. I have a new Macbook pro,and a pretty healthy iTunes library all of which have been ripped from my own cds,no downloads from apple. These are all in apple lossless files. I am also going to purchase an airport express and maybe either a Chord optichord mini jack to toslink cable £45ish or VDH optocoupler mini to toslink £65 ish. For connection from dac to 102 amp I already have a Chord crimson rca to din.

I figure I can connect to the dac with the toslink either direct from mac to dac or AE to dac and see what sounds best but obviously for convenience wireless would be better.

Finally my question,this route will cost me under £400,is this a sensible way to go as a starting point or am I missing out on a more obvious path? If the SQ is going to be miles away from my cd5x and fc2x then it is a pretty pointless exercise and unfortunately I can't afford an ndac. As I said I am very happy with my system and in no way want to change it with any of naims streaming amps that are available. I am also not too interested in streaming internet radio although occasionally it would be nice.

Thank you all for your time and a Happy and Prosperous New Year to everyone!

Posted on: 30 December 2011 by Andrew Porter

Damon,thanks for your input,to simplify,my plan was to try macbook to AE wirelessly ,AE to dac with mini toslink to toslink and dac to amp with phono to din. If this didn't sound good I would then have the option to hardwire the macbook to dac via either the same toslink cable or via usb.

My real question originally was....would a £250 dac e.g. Beresford caiman SE be far off the sound quality of my CD5X/FC2X combo? In which case what sort of outlay do i need to spend to bring the two closer together and what dac would anyone recommend.

I thought that an outlay of a few hundred quid wasn't going to break the bank,although I accept that it may be churlish to expect such small amount spent to be equal to my cdp. In time I could obviously start upgrading to a Naim dac etc but with limited funds I want a fairly cheap starting point.

I would still do any serious listening with cdp or LP12,so this is more for convenience and "dipping my toe"!.

Posted on: 30 December 2011 by HuwJ

Hi Andrew

I had a CD5x & HiCap2, which I really enjoyed listening to. It was connected to a SuperNait with HiCap2 and Focal 1027be speakers. I can't see what your CDP is connected to but that will probably have an Impact on what you hear. Like you, I wanted to move to file based music on the PC.

I don't think you will be able to match your current sound without spending a fair amount of cash. I have used a Squeezebox Classic, iPad, MacBook Pro with optical connection and used various bits of software to enhance output. All these in to an nDac. All sounded soft and had a lack of detail. Having said that, if I knew no better, I would have enjoyed every one of those inputs. The only thing that came close to my CD5x was a USB stick directly in to the nDac, but that is a pig to control.

I now have an NDX in to the nDac with a few other cable upgrades, that sounds great, better than my CDP by some distance but it has cost me the best part of £6k to get there and I probably need a pre/power to really get the best out of it.....

Unless you have money to spend or are a bit stupid (like me), then I would keep your CD for really listening to music. Then get a Squeezebox Touch (probably with an upgraded PSU) and use that for every day listening. You could also get a DAC for a couple of hundred quid, though the SBT has a reasonable DAC and leave it at that for day to day listening.

If you do decide to go the whole hog, then I would say go for the new Naim Streamer or NDX and use the DAC in that, rather than buy a stand alone DAC for other stuff.

Good luck
Huw

Posted on: 30 December 2011 by likesmusic

Andrew, you're evidently an apple kinda guy, apple will let you return stuff no hassles within 28 days, so why not just stick your toe in and get an airport express, or possibly an apple tv, and mess about. If the results appeal, you could easily get any number of modestly priced DACs - again if you use the internet you get 7 days to return them - so you've nothing to lose.

Posted on: 30 December 2011 by Damon

Andrew,

I'm chiming in again, as I am speaking as one who has only been doing digital/ computer-sourced music for about a month.

I don't have any experience with any of the DAC's mentioned, so I can't offer any opinion, except that it really seems to make a difference in sound quality. My impression is that good quality music files, stored on you MacBook Pro should, with appropriate equipment downstream, be able to equal the same music files accessed from a CDP. We have a few very good hi-fi shops here, and they are embracing digital streaming as a valid system of getting high quality sound.

I only know, from my experience, that the airport express is not likely to give you what you are looking for. I would say that the simplest start is MacBook to DAC to Nait 5, however the cabling would work. Then see if a wireless system starts to temp you.

My greatest frustrations have been the wireless components; UPnP, n-Stream, and odd behaviours with networks coming and going. I have entered at the bottom of the Naim food chain, and I am now spending more energy on the music than the reproduction. Obviously, I notice the reproduction, but I'm hearing what I want to hear. At least until I start shopping again....

I was also going to add that, the reasons I started into this system is to allow us get easy access to our music, and to be able to continue to buy new music. We don't just amble down to a record store (oops- showing my age) and browse discs or vinyl. Well, not in very many places. So, my feel is that if you want to be able to get more music, then a digital system that does it for you is kind of essential.

Posted on: 31 December 2011 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Danon, good post. BTW your comment on record shops made me smile. I find the best antidote to that now is subscribe to a magazine like Mojo where every month there is a CD of various artists on a theme. I find that is a great way to listen as a taster to more diverse artists and this has probably been the largest influence to my CD purchasing over the last 36 months.(about 400 discs) IME the download music just is not as diverse as this, even if you can get over its sub standard quality.
BTW I rip all my Mojo discs as well as they are a great source of content over a period of time.
Simon