Tidal streaming

Posted by: MrT on 02 September 2018

I wanted to get a bit of advice / information regarding my observations with tidal streaming through my Superuniti. My current set up is Superuniti / PMC 25.21 / REL T7i / Rega Planar 6 / Ania mc / Nac 5. Small to medium size room and spent a long time getting the speaker positioning and other items as best I can.

Bedroom set up is Auralic Aries Mini with linear psu upgrade / ifi micro idsd black label dac - headphone amp (£1300 combo) with a selection of headphones!

When I purchased the SU I had no intention on adding a turntable. However I got the bug and to start with just bought a cheap AT turntable before upgrading to Rega which is superb. Sound is a lot better compared to Tidal (Hi-Fi) through SU. 

I recently connected my Aries/ifi combo to SU analogue input and a massive improvement streaming tidal. I then used digi coax and improvement but not anywhere near as much. Conclusion that dac/streamer in SU not as strong as Aries/ifi. Whilst the SU has many input / output options I originally bought it for the “one box” option.

I then used the ifi as preamp and used AV bypass mode on SU, again quality better than tidal through SU and as good just different sound than using the SU preamp.

Unhappy I visit my local Audio T and I have since tried the following. Rega Elicit R, Naim Atom, Rega Brio at home with my system. I was interested in comparing “lower priced” gear to SU as cost doesn’t always = better. Conclusion best sound (for me) was Aries/ifi into SU very closely followed by £600 Brio. Planar 6 again best sound was into SU followed closely by Brio. 

The Atom perhaps didn’t have enough power for the PMC,s although PMC recommend 30-150 Watts. The detail on the Atom was very good and a lot better than tidal on SU but when I plugged the Aries/ifi into analogue input of Atom again big improvement. Better defined bass, more realistic sounding instruments just seemed more power behind it.

I was wondering if anyone else has used external dac/streamer with SU and had similar results. My issue is that it defeats the point of the SU but does confirm it has an excellent amp section.

thanks

 

Posted on: 03 September 2018 by ChrisSU

The SU manages to squeeze an awful lot of components into a single box, so perhaps it is to be expected that decoupling the streamer and giving it an external PSU provides a sound quality improvement. Did you try any other digital sources such as locally attached CD rips or downloads, or just Tidal? 

Posted on: 03 September 2018 by MrT

Yes I also tried CD rips that were also better through the Aries/ifi. Also plugging the Aries directly into the SU without the ifi dac was better but not as good as with ifi. The Aries Mini to be fair is a very small piece of kit, were not talking full size separates. 

The surprise for me was that the Atom sounded better with the Aries/ifi streaming. The Brio with Aries sounder better than Atom to me. Given Atom / SU are one box options why isn’t more put into the dac/streamer? Off course this could just be me with my system and what I hear...