Why buy high end streaming equipment?

As signal reconstruction is always a pragmatic compromise - (one cant have an infinitely narrow point of time with infinite energy when performing digital reconstruction for example) - then I would argue real world reconstruction is also transformational - i.e. with which ever technique you wish to use to reconstruct the signal you will be  always transforming the recreated signal in some way.

Consciousmess posted:

.

(Mind you who listens in mono by the way??!)

 

 

One George Fredrick Fiske, one time (actually several time) forum member.

Consciousmess posted:

This begs the question I started this thread off with. Streaming means using the Internet and in the very long term, when one can stream at 24 bit 196kHz or whatever that is (2880Mb/s?) then a high end streamer doesn’t justify itself!!

 

Ah, now that is a more specific question, because to many of us streaming means, instead or as well, from a local store.

Maybe one day, when connections are reliable and dropouts extremely rare, lossy compression like MQa not needed for highe resolutions, subscription cost zero apart from first access to any given album, libraries adequate and with assurance of permanent availability. But now, the service has no interest for me whatsoever, so there would be no point buying equipment specifically for it. 

Sorry Simon, it looks as though I was still editing / extending my post (with the bracketed caveat) when you replied (yes absolutely agree with you).

I'm a bit tired and addled as I was out last night with friends (unlike George Bernard Shaw's view of Winston Churchill, I do have some ), and the dyslexia / aphasia got in the way, so I couldn't mange my post in one hit (staring to get back OK again now).

Huge - my posts usually take a half a dozen or so attempts 

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?

Naim headphone outs Are not up to any headphone amp or decent dap

and 846 is the easiest iem to drive...

An interesting thread and one I believe I finally have my head around (although I’m open to suggestions ) This is my interpretation:

Digital audio is like food.....there are ingredients (files) and there are cooks (hardware, firmware and interfaces). 

Give a good cook bad ingredients and you’ll get a halfway decent meal but give a bad cook bad ingredients and you’ll get something inedible. Give a bad cook good ingredients and you’ll still not get anything really worth eating...but give a good cook good ingredients and you’ll get something wonderful

“Bad ingredients”.....MP3, <320Mbs data rates, local or internet based lossy files

”Bad cook”......Bandwidth limited Wi-Fi, I-Pod, AirPlay, Bluetooth, poor quality DACs etc.

”Good ingredients”......Local and Internet Lossless, HiRes or 16/44.1K files

”Good cooks”.....HiEnd DACs, Servers, Renderers etc., Ethernet, short USB links, AES/EBU, S/PDIF

So, is there a place for high end audio equipment?  There is when you pair it with the finest digital ingredients...and you could argue that its the only way to make digital intended for mass consumption sound halfway decent. 

we are a lot think that digital streaming is more than mass consumption sound with decent sound:  we had before high end cd players like 10k cdx2/xps2 or 20k cd555 or esoteric k01 ( a friend).....

Innocent Bystander posted:

Dungassin posted:

I think I'll find it useful for knowing when my cartridge needs replacing - obviously that will be when my digital copy starts sounding better than the vinyl.

Interesting angle re determining when cartridge needs replacing!

this is an amazing idea. 

 lots of very good streamers/nas on the market . the cost is falling and the quality improved ,access to all music is excellent. we can apply this to dacs too. iam not sure there is a increasing market for high end stand alone streamers any more.My  ndx compared aries mini digital out to the dac produces the same result.  Tidal is very good  but I see that these service costs are bound to increase.............spoke to a guy who owns a 2nd hand  music shop yesterday ..the increase in customers selling their compete c.d collections in the last year has drastically increased.   The market is changing   that's why naim direction is now all in one multi functional units

Let me expand this out further, even though my query was on high end streamers. A lot of us probably agree that after one upgrades, be it the preamp, poweramp, power supply or source - with high end streaming being the latest incantation - the “wow” factor normalises and the sound is the sound.

(In a way that supports the benefit of relistening to the bare source removing the power supply, then maxing out again ones electronics!)

Because the sound normalises, picture active 3x Statements into say Sonus Faber Aidas, with a Statement Streamer not  yet released from Naim. Perfectly set up, with its own generator for electricity in the garden. (Solar powered if you want, or wave powered if you’re on the beach!)

Would that sound normalise?