Why buy high end streaming equipment?

For me the beauty of Streaming is in its accessibility and in its convenience but it is in its infancy and there are limits on the sound quality it can deliver although of course this will change as it has from its beginnings until today.  If you are very serious about getting the best from a sound recording then IMO as it stands today you need to own either a very good record player or a way of playing a high res digital recording that is hard wired i.e. not streamed.

Although I personally have limited funds to spend on such things the funds I do have get spent primarily on my vinyl source rather than my digital,  I have an LP12 and a Chord 2Qute with a Chromecast and this is not because I'm strictly a vinyl only kind of person it is because I think vinyl is best at the moment if I could find and could afford a digital source that sounded better I would buy it.  I am at the moment looking at a way to play my few digital files the best way I can which to my mind must be wired so perhaps my macbook >> spdif converter >> Dac or maybe a USB drive somehow but I'm not convinced that streaming is the best way at the moment.

I am however not someone who is swayed by box counts or physical media storage problems if I have to have 3, 4 or even 5 boxes and a living room full of 12" plastic discs to get the sound I want then so be it but if you are concerened with box count etc and you wish your house to look like a show home or in some cases a Dentists then of a couse a single box Uniti product is for you (and my wife if she had her way)but at this moment in time it is not the best way to play music ...

Bart posted:

Blackmorec posted:

My point...digital is a can of worms, due to all the formats, interfaces, operating systems etc. that simply sound awful.  When you get into digital there's no recipe to follow, just hundreds of different alternatives and combinations. Finding those that really work together to provide beautiful music is a hobby in itself, so it seems.

 

Not really.  You're WAY over-generalizing.

If you want hi fi, you need lossless.  All lossless formats pretty much sound the same, and you can convert one to the other if you prefer without any loss of quality.  Most stick to flac, or wav.  So that is TWO choices as to format.

Lossless files in flac or wav, and a $300 nas server, and a Naim player, and you've got true hi fi.  It couldn't be much simpler when I think about it.

Of course you’re right. But what you say in no way contradicts what I’m saying. If you are just starting out in digital hi-if  you are faced with a huge number of combinations of digital sources, file types, interfaces, boxes, operating systems, applications, storage devices, transmission strategies etc. etc. 

Pick the wrong one and all you get is harsh, compressed music that will never trigger that emotional response which is the reason most of us listen to and spend our money on h-fi equipment.

 You’ve picked lossless, a NAS and Naim. In those 3 choices you’ve ruled out the majority of  Spotify, Quboz and Tidal subscriptions, WiFi in general (including Airplay and Bluetooth), PCs and iOS devices,  USB devices, about 50 different operating systems and the same number of apps. 

With the advent of cheaper storage and faster broadband, digital music is evolving into something interesting for audiophiles (people mainly interested in sound quality) . Unfortunately, to a newbie, this is like a few roses growing amongst a field full of weeds. In naiming your system, you are focussing on a rose...what I’m talking about (and I guess what the OPs question focused on) is the field full of noxious weeds you need to hack your way through in order to find it. 

You mean it's different from the old vinyl days when all you needed a turntable:

Maybe direct drive or perhaps belt drive
Maybe a high, medium or low mass arm
Maybe a moving magnet or moving coil cartridge
Maybe a high, medium or low mass cartridge
Maybe a high compliance or low compliance cartridge
Maybe a high tracking force or low tracking force
Maybe a suspended sub-chassis or a rigid chassis
Maybe an elliptical stylus or a hyper-elliptical stylus
Maybe magnetic anti-skate bias, or spring bias, or even a weight bias
Maybe a felt mat or a rubber mat
Maybe an anti-vibration platter or a rigid wall shelf
Maybe an integrated phono stage or a separate phono stage (and then think about all the complexity of the cables need to connect that to your preamp!).

Yes it was much simpler then.

[@mention:71399038679995297] - I was reading your response and I actually don't understand your concerns. What is causing this anxiety?

Until recently when listening to my music after going to bed I simply connected my earphones (Shure 846) to headphone socket of my UnitiQute2 in bedroom, which is hard wired to switch in study and fed by UnitiServe. Since buying an A & K KANN I have switched to accessing all my WAV files stored on the US via AK Connect, wireless streaming software built into the KANN.

The quality is absolutely fantastic, far better than that provided by the UnitiQute's headphone socket. 

So, despite comments made above, I am successfully receiving CD quality music streamed via wifi. Can anyone with more knowledge (not difficult!) of streaming explain this?

Technical reason why it CAN be done:

WiFi easily has enough bandwidth to stream CD quality.

If you have a halfway decent wireless router, then the WAP will support all the necessary protocols and have sufficiently low latency as well.  Finally it depends on your neighbours and other family members not using up too much of the available airtime and causing too much contention.

Sound quality:

Exactly as James N says below - quality of the A&K headphone output.

Huge posted:

You mean it's different from the old vinyl days when all you needed a turntable:

Maybe direct drive or perhaps belt drive
Maybe a high, medium or low mass arm
Maybe a moving magnet or moving coil cartridge
Maybe a high, medium or low mass cartridge
Maybe a high compliance or low compliance cartridge
Maybe a high tracking force or low tracking force
Maybe a suspended sub-chassis or a rigid chassis
Maybe an elliptical stylus or a hyper-elliptical stylus
Maybe magnetic anti-skate bias, or spring bias, or even a weight bias
Maybe a felt mat or a rubber mat
Maybe an anti-vibration platter or a rigid wall shelf
Maybe an integrated phono stage or a separate phono stage (and then think about all the complexity of the cables need to connect that to your preamp!).

Yes it was much simpler then.

Precisely why I dumped Linn and Naim. Far too complicated and far too may ways it could sound bad. My most recent system comprised a pre-amp, amp, CDP and speakers. Sounded amazing. Before that I had..... TT, arm, cartridge, phono-amp, TT power supply, pre-amp, pre-amp PS, 4 power amps, cross over, XO PS,  CDP, CD-PS, Phase 4 mana stands and rack...all wired together with what for all the World appeared to be 2.5A mains cable. It occasionally sounded great.

Tim - I'd be more inclined to think it's down to the quality of the A&K design rather than anything related to streaming.  I would think the A&K has a better headphone amp than the UQ2 and as you know, the 846s are very revealing of what is driving them.  

Blackmorec posted:

Huge posted:

You mean it's different from the old vinyl days when all you needed a turntable:

Maybe direct drive or perhaps belt drive
Maybe a high, medium or low mass arm
Maybe a moving magnet or moving coil cartridge
Maybe a high, medium or low mass cartridge
Maybe a high compliance or low compliance cartridge
Maybe a high tracking force or low tracking force
Maybe a suspended sub-chassis or a rigid chassis
Maybe an elliptical stylus or a hyper-elliptical stylus
Maybe magnetic anti-skate bias, or spring bias, or even a weight bias
Maybe a felt mat or a rubber mat
Maybe an anti-vibration platter or a rigid wall shelf
Maybe an integrated phono stage or a separate phono stage (and then think about all the complexity of the cables need to connect that to your preamp!).

Yes it was much simpler then.

Precisely why I dumped Linn and Naim. Far too complicated and far too may ways it could sound bad. My most recent system comprised a pre-amp, amp, CDP and speakers. Sounded amazing. Before that I had..... TT, arm, cartridge, phono-amp, TT power supply, pre-amp, pre-amp PS, 4 power amps, cross over, XO PS,  CDP, CD-PS, Phase 4 mana stands and rack...all wired together with what for all the World appeared to be 2.5A mains cable. It occasionally sounded great.

I now have a NAS (loaded with WAVE files), a Streamer/Preamp(+a PSU), a power amp and speakers.  Simple and It sounds amazing - all the time.

Yes, simple.

I assume that, in addition to the replay equipment, you also had some way to store and organise all your CDs?

Streaming can be very simple if  you don't make it any more complicated than that.

Timmo1341 posted:

Until recently when listening to my music after going to bed I simply connected my earphones (Shure 846) to headphone socket of my UnitiQute2 in bedroom, which is hard wired to switch in study and fed by UnitiServe. Since buying an A & K KANN I have switched to accessing all my WAV files stored on the US via AK Connect, wireless streaming software built into the KANN.

The quality is absolutely fantastic, far better than that provided by the UnitiQute's headphone socket. 

So, despite comments made above, I am successfully receiving CD quality music streamed via wifi. Can anyone with more knowledge (not difficult!) of streaming explain this?

I don’t generally use headphones at home, but I tried this with my Sony ZX2 from Unitiserve, and it sounds great. I also use Shure 846, but if I was serious about home headphone listening, I suspect I’d want on/over ear headphones which would really benefit from a separate headphone amp. 

Adam Zielinski posted:

[@mention:71399038679995297] - I was reading your response and I actually don't understand your concerns. What is causing this anxiety?

What causes me anxiety is the amount of money you can spend on this whole digital streaming without getting anything like really great results.  I want the very best I can get for my money...not a series of compromises because I've used a sub optimal file type, the wrong interface strategy,  a less than perfect dac, streamer or whatever.

When I sit and listen to music I want to hear musicians playing with heart and soul, beautifully positioned in 3 dimensional space, with instrument tone and timbre to die for.  I want to understand why they are World renowned...I want to appreciate their exquisite note shaping, timing and the emotional content of their music.  Occasionally I want to be moved to tears....but for the right reasons.

I've tried Apple Music and Tidal Premier and they're both rubbish. You need at least CD quality to sound good. So I switched to Quboz, which has a lot more CD and High Res content of the type of music I listen to. Except my MuSo doesn't have a native interface for Quboz like it does for Spotify and Tidal, so I  tried streaming it with Airplay (garbage) and Bluetooth (dire). So now I've run an Ethernet cable between my modem and Mu-So and as soon as I've figured out of its actually possible to play Quboz files this way... I'll presumably start to find out what the Mu-So can really do.  (I actually know what it can do based on an analog signal and its really not bad for what it is.....certainly quite acceptable for finding new music)

Getting back to the OP's question; is it worth spending big bucks on high-end equipment for digital, the answer has got to be yes, but only if you take a lot of care to find the optimum combination of the boggling number of variables that have the capacity to significantly degrade sound quality.

Blackmorec posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

[@mention:71399038679995297] - I was reading your response and I actually don't understand your concerns. What is causing this anxiety?

What causes me anxiety is the amount of money you can spend on this whole digital streaming without getting anything like really great results.  I want the very best I can get for my money...not a series of compromises because I've used a sub optimal file type, the wrong interface strategy,  a less than perfect dac, streamer or whatever.

When I sit and listen to music I want to hear musicians playing with heart and soul, beautifully positioned in 3 dimensional space, with instrument tone and timbre to die for.  I want to understand why they are World renowned...I want to appreciate their exquisite note shaping, timing and the emotional content of their music.  Occasionally I want to be moved to tears....but for the right reasons.

I've tried Apple Music and Tidal Premier and they're both rubbish. You need at least CD quality to sound good. So I switched to Quboz, which has a lot more CD and High Res content of the type of music I listen to. Except my MuSo doesn't have a native interface for Quboz like it does for Spotify and Tidal, so I  tried streaming it with Airplay (garbage) and Bluetooth (dire). So now I've run an Ethernet cable between my modem and Mu-So and as soon as I've figured out of its actually possible to play Quboz files this way... I'll presumably start to find out what the Mu-So can really do.  (I actually know what it can do based on an analog signal and its really not bad for what it is.....certainly quite acceptable for finding new music)

Getting back to the OP's question; is it worth spending big bucks on high-end equipment for digital, the answer has got to be yes, but only if you take a lot of care to find the optimum combination of the boggling number of variables that have the capacity to significantly degrade sound quality.

I think the argument is different.

The high-end streaming equipment is actually easy to setup: a NAS, streamer and some wires. That's it. It's not more complicated than that.

The functionality you have described are ADDITIONAL ones to the primary functionality (which is streaming from a local storage).

So... buying high-end streaming equipment just to play from on-line sources is superfluous. You don't need a Ferrari to go shopping to Tesco.

Or differently - you don't buy a high-end CD player, just because it has a good DAC (and an input) and intend to use a DAC section only. Just buy a DAC instead.

Blackmorec posted:

I"'ve tried Apple Music and Tidal Premier and they're both rubbish. You need at least CD quality to sound good.......So now I've run an Ethernet cable between my modem and Mu-So and as soon as I've figured out of its actually possible to play Quboz files this way... I'll presumably start to find out what the Mu-So can really do"

A couple of observations. The Tidal Premium service is "CD quality" and far from being rubbish, in my opinion. I stream CD quality from Tidal on two of my systems and it generally sounds rather good indeed. Irrespective of whether or not you run an Ethernet cable to your Mu-So, the Mu-So itself (good though it is) will be by some way the limiting factor in respect of sound quality when you stream either Tidal Premium or Qobuz to it.   

"Getting back to the OP's question; is it worth spending big bucks on high-end equipment for digital, the answer has got to be yes, but only if you take a lot of care to find the optimum combination of the boggling number of variables that have the capacity to significantly degrade sound quality".

Again, my experience tells me that this is not the case. Provided you use a decent NAS (say, from QNAP or Synology) with a decent uPnP server (say minimServer), or alternatively a decent streaming service such as Qobuz or Tidal Premium), a decent network switch and router and standard (cat 6) Ethernet cable, and possess a device that is capable of hosting the appropriate control app for your streaming device, then all you have to do is add a decent streamer (anything from Naim, Linn or a number of other manufacturers will do) and you will end up with a system that is relatively simple to set up and will sound pretty good straight off the bat. There isn't much here that will influence sound quality other than the DAC (internal or external) you select for your system that will significantly affect (for better or for worse) the sound quality of your system. I might also add that the DAC you selected played an equally important role in the CD player based system that you liked so much!  

Adam Zielinski posted:

Blackmorec posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

[@mention:71399038679995297] - I was reading your response and I actually don't understand your concerns. What is causing this anxiety?

What causes me anxiety is the amount of money you can spend on this whole digital streaming without getting anything like really great results.  I want the very best I can get for my money...not a series of compromises because I've used a sub optimal file type, the wrong interface strategy,  a less than perfect dac, streamer or whatever.

When I sit and listen to music I want to hear musicians playing with heart and soul, beautifully positioned in 3 dimensional space, with instrument tone and timbre to die for.  I want to understand why they are World renowned...I want to appreciate their exquisite note shaping, timing and the emotional content of their music.  Occasionally I want to be moved to tears....but for the right reasons.

I've tried Apple Music and Tidal Premier and they're both rubbish. You need at least CD quality to sound good. So I switched to Quboz, which has a lot more CD and High Res content of the type of music I listen to. Except my MuSo doesn't have a native interface for Quboz like it does for Spotify and Tidal, so I  tried streaming it with Airplay (garbage) and Bluetooth (dire). So now I've run an Ethernet cable between my modem and Mu-So and as soon as I've figured out of its actually possible to play Quboz files this way... I'll presumably start to find out what the Mu-So can really do.  (I actually know what it can do based on an analog signal and its really not bad for what it is.....certainly quite acceptable for finding new music)

Getting back to the OP's question; is it worth spending big bucks on high-end equipment for digital, the answer has got to be yes, but only if you take a lot of care to find the optimum combination of the boggling number of variables that have the capacity to significantly degrade sound quality.

I think the argument is different.

The high-end streaming equipment is actually easy to setup: a NAS, streamer and some wires. That's it. It's not more complicated than that.

The functionality you have described are ADDITIONAL ones to the primary functionality (which is streaming from a local storage).

So... buying high-end streaming equipment just to play from on-line sources is superfluous. You don't need a Ferrari to go shopping to Tesco.

Or differently - you don't buy a high-end CD player, just because it has a good DAC (and an input) and intend to use a DAC section only. Just buy a DAC instead.

 

 

With respect, why on earth would I want to do that when I can buy the CDs, whack ‘em into something like a Esoteric K03X and play music to my heart’s content?  I have a LG 4K UHDTV so I can stream content from Netflix and Amazon.....why would I want to buy the DVDs or store the files locally?

Is there a difference between downloading a file from say HD tracks, storing it on a NAS then streaming it  through a DAC and amp vs directly streaming it from say Quboz?  I’d really like to understand the difference in terms of both utility and sound quality because as far as I’m personally aware, as long as we’re talking the same file attributes and the same care in streaming and conversion, the results should be the same, should they not? I’m trying to learn here so this is not intended to be at all confrontational BTW. 

Blackmorec posted:

"With respect, why on earth would I want to do that when I can buy the CDs, whack em into something like a Esoteric K03X and play music to my heart's content?"

Because many of us who have made the move away from high quality CD players to high quality streaming devices have done so primarily because of the many benefits that streaming local network stored files provides over the use of CD players. These benefits are not necessarily related to sound quality (as long as the streamed sound quality is as good as that of CD replay). Rather, they relate to the ease of use and the whole 'User experience'. It is so much easier to browse your potentially very large music collection and have every single album or track available more or less immediately at the touch of an icon. No more searching for that CD that you cannot find, no more CDs that sit in the corner of a huge rack and forgotten, and no more need to store hundreds or thousands of CDs in your living room for easy access.   

Of course there is nothing to stop you from also subscribing to Tidal Premium or Qobuz. Then you will have the best of both worlds. Your existing CDs will be available from your NAS, and the need to purchase additional CDs or files will be mitigated by your subscription to your chosen Internet based streaming service.  

Blackmorec posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Blackmorec posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

[@mention:71399038679995297] - I was reading your response and I actually don't understand your concerns. What is causing this anxiety?

What causes me anxiety is the amount of money you can spend on this whole digital streaming without getting anything like really great results.  I want the very best I can get for my money...not a series of compromises because I've used a sub optimal file type, the wrong interface strategy,  a less than perfect dac, streamer or whatever.

When I sit and listen to music I want to hear musicians playing with heart and soul, beautifully positioned in 3 dimensional space, with instrument tone and timbre to die for.  I want to understand why they are World renowned...I want to appreciate their exquisite note shaping, timing and the emotional content of their music.  Occasionally I want to be moved to tears....but for the right reasons.

I've tried Apple Music and Tidal Premier and they're both rubbish. You need at least CD quality to sound good. So I switched to Quboz, which has a lot more CD and High Res content of the type of music I listen to. Except my MuSo doesn't have a native interface for Quboz like it does for Spotify and Tidal, so I  tried streaming it with Airplay (garbage) and Bluetooth (dire). So now I've run an Ethernet cable between my modem and Mu-So and as soon as I've figured out of its actually possible to play Quboz files this way... I'll presumably start to find out what the Mu-So can really do.  (I actually know what it can do based on an analog signal and its really not bad for what it is.....certainly quite acceptable for finding new music)

Getting back to the OP's question; is it worth spending big bucks on high-end equipment for digital, the answer has got to be yes, but only if you take a lot of care to find the optimum combination of the boggling number of variables that have the capacity to significantly degrade sound quality.

I think the argument is different.

The high-end streaming equipment is actually easy to setup: a NAS, streamer and some wires. That's it. It's not more complicated than that.

The functionality you have described are ADDITIONAL ones to the primary functionality (which is streaming from a local storage).

So... buying high-end streaming equipment just to play from on-line sources is superfluous. You don't need a Ferrari to go shopping to Tesco.

Or differently - you don't buy a high-end CD player, just because it has a good DAC (and an input) and intend to use a DAC section only. Just buy a DAC instead.

 

 

With respect, why on earth would I want to do that when I can buy the CDs, whack ‘em into something like a Esoteric K03X and play music to my heart’s content?  I have a LG 4K UHDTV so I can stream content from Netflix and Amazon.....why would I want to buy the DVDs or store the files locally?

Is there a difference between downloading a file from say HD tracks, storing it on a NAS then streaming it  through a DAC and amp vs directly streaming it from say Quboz?  I’d really like to understand the difference in terms of both utility and sound quality because as far as I’m personally aware, as long as we’re talking the same file attributes and the same care in streaming and conversion, the results should be the same, should they not? I’m trying to learn here so this is not intended to be at all confrontational BTW. 

 

Oddly tge two parts of your first para seems juxtaposed - it reads as if you suggest the argument for not buying DVDs is an argument for buying CDs. One significant factor is how you play music, a logic I don't understand.

However, I don't disagree that there is more reason to buy CDs than DVDs if downloading wasn't an option only online streaming, given that for many people, a big differnce between music and film Is that they play the same music quite frequently, but play the same film only infrequently. So buying the music makes more sense than renting, whereas the opposite holds for films, therefore people buy  far more music CDs or  music files than folm dvds, and stream folms from the likes of Netfiix. (Yes, I know that is a generalisation - that is the whole point, I believe it is fairly general).

As for CDs vs downloading files and saving to a NAS or other store, advantages of downloads include effectively zero storage space, varied searching and browsing options, which can be done from your music listening position, and potentially better quality as there is no risk CD read errors due to dirt or other imperfections on the disk or player mechanical imperfections, and associated error correction, as take place in Cd players.

I would never buy a CD player anymore. Streaming from tidal, high res audio, listening Iradio etc. it’s so fantastic and gives a lot of pleasure. I simply forgot about cd’s -threw them out

In response to the above posts I didn't claim that vinyl reproduction was simple nor did I claim it was best just the best I could afford , agreed it can be a real pain in the backside getting it even close to set up right and as I stated the beauty of streaming is it's accessibility and yes it's simplicity and when it catches up with SQ of a well set up (pain in the backside) record deck I will be at the head of the cue to buy one but I'm unconvinced that at the moment it sounds better.

Blackmorec posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Blackmorec posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

[@mention:71399038679995297] - I was reading your response and I actually don't understand your concerns. What is causing this anxiety?

What causes me anxiety is the amount of money you can spend on this whole digital streaming without getting anything like really great results.  I want the very best I can get for my money...not a series of compromises because I've used a sub optimal file type, the wrong interface strategy,  a less than perfect dac, streamer or whatever.

When I sit and listen to music I want to hear musicians playing with heart and soul, beautifully positioned in 3 dimensional space, with instrument tone and timbre to die for.  I want to understand why they are World renowned...I want to appreciate their exquisite note shaping, timing and the emotional content of their music.  Occasionally I want to be moved to tears....but for the right reasons.

I've tried Apple Music and Tidal Premier and they're both rubbish. You need at least CD quality to sound good. So I switched to Quboz, which has a lot more CD and High Res content of the type of music I listen to. Except my MuSo doesn't have a native interface for Quboz like it does for Spotify and Tidal, so I  tried streaming it with Airplay (garbage) and Bluetooth (dire). So now I've run an Ethernet cable between my modem and Mu-So and as soon as I've figured out of its actually possible to play Quboz files this way... I'll presumably start to find out what the Mu-So can really do.  (I actually know what it can do based on an analog signal and its really not bad for what it is.....certainly quite acceptable for finding new music)

Getting back to the OP's question; is it worth spending big bucks on high-end equipment for digital, the answer has got to be yes, but only if you take a lot of care to find the optimum combination of the boggling number of variables that have the capacity to significantly degrade sound quality.

I think the argument is different.

The high-end streaming equipment is actually easy to setup: a NAS, streamer and some wires. That's it. It's not more complicated than that.

The functionality you have described are ADDITIONAL ones to the primary functionality (which is streaming from a local storage).

So... buying high-end streaming equipment just to play from on-line sources is superfluous. You don't need a Ferrari to go shopping to Tesco.

Or differently - you don't buy a high-end CD player, just because it has a good DAC (and an input) and intend to use a DAC section only. Just buy a DAC instead.

 

 

With respect, why on earth would I want to do that when I can buy the CDs, whack ‘em into something like a Esoteric K03X and play music to my heart’s content?  I have a LG 4K UHDTV so I can stream content from Netflix and Amazon.....why would I want to buy the DVDs or store the files locally?

Is there a difference between downloading a file from say HD tracks, storing it on a NAS then streaming it  through a DAC and amp vs directly streaming it from say Quboz?  I’d really like to understand the difference in terms of both utility and sound quality because as far as I’m personally aware, as long as we’re talking the same file attributes and the same care in streaming and conversion, the results should be the same, should they not? I’m trying to learn here so this is not intended to be at all confrontational BTW. 

 

to have better sound quality with a streaming/ dac / nas combo vs your esoteric ko3, you will need to spend a minimum 6 or 7 k GBP on something like naim ndx/ xps2, lumin s1, melco/ chord hugo. With an nds/555dr/ nas or linn klimax ds3 or melco / chord dave, you will have better sound quality than your esoteric k03.   But we are not talking about naim muso / kitchen sound..... these dacs are connected to your main hifi equipment ( your preamp) and to ethernet too.  So, with high end streaming ( from music stocked on a nas, not directly from tidal or qobuz) , you can have better convenience and better sound quality.

French Rooster posted:

 

 

to have better sound quality with a streaming/ dac / nas combo vs your esoteric ko3, you will need to spend a minimum 6 or 7 k GBP on something like naim ndx/ xps2, lumin s1, melco/ chord hugo. With an nds/555dr/ nas or linn klimax ds3 or melco / chord dave, you will have better sound quality than your esoteric k03.   But we are not talking about naim muso / kitchen sound..... these dacs are connected to your main hifi equipment ( your preamp) and to ethernet too.  So, with high end streaming ( from music stocked on a nas, not directly from tidal or qobuz) , you can have better convenience and better sound quality.

Actually it's a bit cheaper: Melco/Hugo is under £4k, ditto Naim Uniti CoreHugo . And of course there are cheaper renderer options, but that is where it starts to get fiddly. (This is not knocking your post, just expanding it a bit)

Hmack posted:

Of course there is nothing to stop you from also subscribing to Tidal Premium or Qobuz. Then you will have the best of both worlds. Your existing CDs will be available from your NAS, and the need to purchase additional CDs or files will be mitigated by your subscription to your chosen Internet based streaming service.  

Just to be clear, Tidal Premium is a lossy 320 stream. Tidal HiFi is (usually, but not always) 16/44 CD quality. Most who have tried it on the ‘legacy’ Naim streamers have found that it still doesn’t match the sound quality of locally streamed CD rips into the same streamer. 

Streamed music will not match a very good vinyl or CD set up it just won't one day maybe but at present never. It is however much more convenient and much more accessible and fits in with the instant gratification style of modern living but if you are very serious about SQ it just does not stack up, at present.

Bob the Builder posted:

Streamed music will not match a very good vinyl or CD set up it just won't one day maybe but at present never. It is however much more convenient and much more accessible and fits in with the 

Oh yes it will! Or more correctly, oh yes it can! (Panto time anyone?!)

For sound quality, unquestionably (streaming from own store, that is.) For enjoyment - well it depends what gives one enjoyment, 

Bob the Builder posted:

Streamed music will not match a very good vinyl or CD set up it just won't one day maybe but at present never.

I take it you mean streamed as in internet services such as Tidal rather than music streamed from a music server (Core / NAS etc) ?