Hey lads,
Thinking about getting a Bluesound to replace a Parasound combo (CD-1000 + DAC-1000 upgraded to K-grade). Only interested to know how they compare as sound?
Thinking about getting a Bluesound to replace a Parasound combo (CD-1000 + DAC-1000 upgraded to K-grade). Only interested to know how they compare as sound?
Since I got my elac server/streamer I haven’t used my pioneer elite cd but a few times.
I think the node 2i is supposed to be a lot better than the previous model which was pretty good.
It also has digital out so you can still use your dac if you prefer.....I think for the money it’s a great deal, add a tidal or qobuz subscription and you’ll never regret it.
I’d keep your CD player though.....there are some unavailable albums.
I think the node 2i is supposed to be a lot better than the previous model which was pretty good.
It also has digital out so you can still use your dac if you prefer.....I think for the money it’s a great deal, add a tidal or qobuz subscription and you’ll never regret it.
I’d keep your CD player though.....there are some unavailable albums.
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Those can be ripped and converted to FLAC. Stored on a NAS or whatever device and you won't need the CD anymore.
Not to be argumentative, but not everyone has that capability.......I don’t.
I suppose one day I’ll get with the times.....Since the OP was considering blue sound, the vault 2i would kill two birds with one stone.
I suppose one day I’ll get with the times.....Since the OP was considering blue sound, the vault 2i would kill two birds with one stone.
Most people have a computer or laptop. Most of these have a DVD drive. Friends probably have either one of these devices in case one does not have access....
For the price of one meal a 64 gb USB drive can be bought to transport the ripped data to the home. The Node 2i has a USB port. Plug the newly obtained USB drive in it and play back the albums....
In many cases where I hear of "capability" I mostly hear "avoidance".
For the price of one meal a 64 gb USB drive can be bought to transport the ripped data to the home. The Node 2i has a USB port. Plug the newly obtained USB drive in it and play back the albums....
In many cases where I hear of "capability" I mostly hear "avoidance".
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“avoidance”
yes, I suppose it’s my cling to the past.....much like those old black frisbees some collect. 😀
yes, I suppose it’s my cling to the past.....much like those old black frisbees some collect. 😀
I like CD's, they are physical, also how long would it take me to rip 3000? I can think of better things to do.
>also how long would it take me to rip 3000?
Start with your favorites. Get to ~100. Conjure up (or allow some automated player feature) a playlist. You may find it delightful to hear a sequence of selections back to back that would otherwise be a hard effort to do "mechanically".
Start with your favorites. Get to ~100. Conjure up (or allow some automated player feature) a playlist. You may find it delightful to hear a sequence of selections back to back that would otherwise be a hard effort to do "mechanically".
Luddites the bunch of ya! 😀
I've got about 1000 CDs currently on my Roon based set up and serve music to my man cave based listening room, a headphones setup upstairs for very late listening and a small system in my office.
I still buy some music on CDs, rip them and upload to my server.. I also purchase music from a variety of online sources like HDTracks..
Start by ripping just a few CDs at a time and upload them to the server, that's how I started 15 years ago with my original setup. (Now on generation 4)
It's convenient, accessible and sounds really good.
I've got about 1000 CDs currently on my Roon based set up and serve music to my man cave based listening room, a headphones setup upstairs for very late listening and a small system in my office.
I still buy some music on CDs, rip them and upload to my server.. I also purchase music from a variety of online sources like HDTracks..
Start by ripping just a few CDs at a time and upload them to the server, that's how I started 15 years ago with my original setup. (Now on generation 4)
It's convenient, accessible and sounds really good.
Like that yeah. I started at least 10 years ago.
Most important is to first determine to use a lossless format like FLAC. Many made the mistake (IMHO) to choose MP3.
It is striking how many avoiders always seem the need to mention it costs time and that doing nothing seems a better perspective which seems a bit laughable. "I don't like digital" is also a prize winner.
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CD fame will come back as the LPs' did. Apart from that and eventually the habit/pleasure of putting something material like a disc in/on a machine, the server is way more convenient, allows many things like playlists, swapping rapidly between albums, songs, versions and it's easier to keep safe our own collection by duplicating it at several places - disaster recovry for nothing and cheeks for free would sing Dire Strait-
Which is cool with a dedicated streamer, server, dac, three parts solution is you can construct the skeleton architecture around the library then focus to the evolution of streamers and dacs : easier, faster, diy friendly, efficient, movable.
Planars as CD players are cool objects though when you like hifi as most of us...
Don't forget they splitted the player from the dac section as they did with pre and amp... only thing is the link between the cd player and the dac is synonym of non quality due clairly to the weak link it is on the rendering : spidf, I2S a la AES, toslink and so on are not efficient as long as the Fifos are not 100 % proof : I wait o hear one that works the same from diferent sources 🙁. Anyway pro audio went to data network and there will be no come back.
Seems cdplayer integrated network streamers have cool days because mostly the hifi market is a story of objects and machines as the furnitures, cars, shoes, watches : we like our passions to be materialised for most of us : the civilisation of objetcs 😱-
When eventually ur knees will be weak and not as easy swappable as cd players one will appreciate the servers and the simple smartphone remote or the 5G streaming on his own private cloud though : from the kitchen speakers to the bathroom to the headphones in the street to the car 😀
Which is cool with a dedicated streamer, server, dac, three parts solution is you can construct the skeleton architecture around the library then focus to the evolution of streamers and dacs : easier, faster, diy friendly, efficient, movable.
Planars as CD players are cool objects though when you like hifi as most of us...
Don't forget they splitted the player from the dac section as they did with pre and amp... only thing is the link between the cd player and the dac is synonym of non quality due clairly to the weak link it is on the rendering : spidf, I2S a la AES, toslink and so on are not efficient as long as the Fifos are not 100 % proof : I wait o hear one that works the same from diferent sources 🙁. Anyway pro audio went to data network and there will be no come back.
Seems cdplayer integrated network streamers have cool days because mostly the hifi market is a story of objects and machines as the furnitures, cars, shoes, watches : we like our passions to be materialised for most of us : the civilisation of objetcs 😱-
When eventually ur knees will be weak and not as easy swappable as cd players one will appreciate the servers and the simple smartphone remote or the 5G streaming on his own private cloud though : from the kitchen speakers to the bathroom to the headphones in the street to the car 😀
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Just playing with a new (for me) solution. A Cubox-i i4 pro running Volumio connected to a Denon PMA-60. Sounds very good and no clutter. No DAC, no preamp, no analog. No waste of precious space. Music from USB stick and NAS switched off this time. Optical via Toslink is OK but USB also works and does perform better in this case.
Less is often more.
Less is often more.
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My system is ethernet streamer based and I use RPI4 as endpoints to the headphone setup and home office (touch screen).. The main system uses an Allo USBridge Signature into a Topping DX7s via USB.
Down here everything goes over fiber, the two upstairs systems use WIFI to ethernet bridges. (Some people use nativeWIFI in the RPI4, but that requires work so I didn't bother.) Two are headless, and one has a touch screen with limited touch screen functionality provided by Ropieee. Clients are my phone, tablet, and 2 laptops.
The server is an Intel Nuc 8i5beh with a 1 TB SSD for music and a 250GB NVMe drive for Roon Rock.
File format is primarily FLAC, but I also have DSF and a small % of wav files. System will handle 32bit to 768K (DXD2) and everything in between.
All of this hardware including 2 of 3 dacs cost less than the single Sony HAP it replaced and does a lot more in a lot more places. (also sounds a bit better in my opinion)
There are many much cheaper/simpler options as well as Jean-Paul mentioned in his post.
Down here everything goes over fiber, the two upstairs systems use WIFI to ethernet bridges. (Some people use nativeWIFI in the RPI4, but that requires work so I didn't bother.) Two are headless, and one has a touch screen with limited touch screen functionality provided by Ropieee. Clients are my phone, tablet, and 2 laptops.
The server is an Intel Nuc 8i5beh with a 1 TB SSD for music and a 250GB NVMe drive for Roon Rock.
File format is primarily FLAC, but I also have DSF and a small % of wav files. System will handle 32bit to 768K (DXD2) and everything in between.
All of this hardware including 2 of 3 dacs cost less than the single Sony HAP it replaced and does a lot more in a lot more places. (also sounds a bit better in my opinion)
There are many much cheaper/simpler options as well as Jean-Paul mentioned in his post.
Better sounding as well. RPI is the the most supported but for audio the worst platform to begin with (ugly way of putting connectors at all sides of the device too). A jittery source first needing stuff to dejitter so to speak. A true hype making way for many to start commercial endeavours and that is fine but please let's not pretend it is a good source. It is mainly cheap and not meant for audio. Its support and versatility are exemplary though. Some better SBC's slowly die because of lack of support, even though the hardware is optimised for audio...
A bit like surviving on McDonalds food. You will survive but let's not debate quality even if you throw the worlds best sauce on it.
IMHO opinion streaming over a wired (wireless should best be avoided) network is less optimal sound wise compared to playing from local storage but it brings many features indeed. The "avoiders" often see the network possibilities as intimidating which I fully understand.From what I hear I take it that they don't understand "where the music is coming from" with NAS and other devices being client as well as server. For such people a single source with local storage is a viable option. If I lend out one of my Aries Mini devices with internal SSD they are generally well received.
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Have you evaluated the RPI 4 for jitter? It is greatly improved over the earlier ones in this regard. The Allo uses an RPI 3 compute with a lot of filtering, etc.
All I can tell you is the Allo/Topping DX7s (ESS 9038M x 2) sounds no worse than the Sony in non blind testing and cost a great deal less. (Personally I think it sounds better, but subjective, not measured, and not blind.)
I'll admit I'm old and deaf and it's been a long time since I could hear the effects of what might be jitter on any I/O except toslink and my lap-top's USB2 ports. Thank yahweh.. More than subjectively satisfactory from my jaded perspective. (frames of reference 15ips R2R and TD-124/Jelco TK-850L/Hayabusa etc.) 😀
All I can tell you is the Allo/Topping DX7s (ESS 9038M x 2) sounds no worse than the Sony in non blind testing and cost a great deal less. (Personally I think it sounds better, but subjective, not measured, and not blind.)
I'll admit I'm old and deaf and it's been a long time since I could hear the effects of what might be jitter on any I/O except toslink and my lap-top's USB2 ports. Thank yahweh.. More than subjectively satisfactory from my jaded perspective. (frames of reference 15ips R2R and TD-124/Jelco TK-850L/Hayabusa etc.) 😀
No I stopped at RPI 3B+. Good device but Aries Mini outperforms it easily at lower cost (RPI need extra stuff that clever salespeople like to sell) and it has an internal SATA SSD which RPI lacks. With RPI one MUST stream keeping up the hype. Internal DAC ES9018K2M is fine as well!! Streaming = hype and no alternative to local storage when one wants the best out of it and does not want features/possibilities. The low price of RPI is quickly overshadowed by the need for extra stuff like DAC, PSU and the stuff of which I always have to think if one really needs it. A very big plus is open source software without the need for registration, end of support after a few years etc.
Since nothing is ideal now the need for an excellent linear PSU is there...
Since nothing is ideal now the need for an excellent linear PSU is there...
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