The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

Joe Mac said:
No coax is a digital cable the same as toslink is. It has a slightly better bandwidth which allows you to use the full 24/192 hi res rather than 24/96 which toslink is limited to. It is also better shielded should also theoretically be better in terms of interference and jitter but honestly I’ve never had that issue with toslink either so that’s probably only going to impact in certain situations. So I suppose that’s all a long way of saying that if I was using Spotify I’d not really care and toslink is fine but if I’m paying for a service giving me 24/192 I’d want to be using coax or usb to connect to my DAC to get the fullness of what I was paying for.
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For some reason I was thinking coax was same as RCA. I might have to try the pro and pass on the Wiim to a friend.
 
Rowan said:
The pro is fully Roon Ready now. Think that the pro plus isn’t though. They’re also working with Qobuz on a Qobuz Connect so that’s interesting in itself.

It’s a ridiculous price for the functionality (assuming it’s not proper shit)
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It sounds like Roon is coming soon to the Pro Plus as well.
 
Wiim is set up and it’s pretty decent. worth adding I’m running straight in to an ess9038 and not using the wiim dac and my amp only has about 10 hours on it but it was a synch to set up. Qobuz is in the Wiim app and is marginally clunky but not offensively so. Also airplay is decent enough sound wise.

Having to run through the toslink for now as my coax cable is missing presumed but weirdly it’s flagging the bitrate through the tos at 24/192. Always thought it was capped.

But in short. It’s totally fine. Sound quality seems spot on. App is fine. No worse than anything else I’ve used (although native qobuz would be nice). If I was reliant on its dac I’d probably have a different view but I’m all on board for under £150.
 
Joe Mac said:
No coax is a digital cable the same as toslink is. It has a slightly better bandwidth which allows you to use the full 24/192 hi res rather than 24/96 which toslink is limited to. It is also better shielded should also theoretically be better in terms of interference and jitter but honestly I’ve never had that issue with toslink either so that’s probably only going to impact in certain situations.
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Toslink is an optical connection while coax is electrical; both are digital. Toslink is immune to electrical interference and ground loops because it is optical.

Both Toslink and digital coax use the same S/PDIF data protocol - so performance can be similar. Jitter is not inherently higher or lower with either connection type, but depends on implementation in the device. Jitter is much less a concern in current devices than it was a couple decades ago.

I typically only use Toslink when nothing else is available. I have a preference (bias) toward coax based on my history of breaking Toslink connectors. Coax seems more robust to me, but I can acknowledge that there are times when Toslink would be the better choice.
 
I’m Just Ken said:
Is it common to use an external DAC in combination with a streamer, in my case the Bluesound?
And how much is sound quality sacrificed by not having Apple Music on their list of services and having to use Air Drop?
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Don’t know if common is the right word, but it’s possible to do so. I have the Auralic Aries mini and use a Denafrips Ares DAC. It sounds better to me than the internal Aries DAC. With Apple Music and airplay, you’re limited to 16/44.1
 
MikeH said:
Don’t know if common is the right word, but it’s possible to do so. I have the Auralic Aries mini and use a Denafrips Ares DAC. It sounds better to me than the internal Aries DAC. With Apple Music and airplay, you’re limited to 16/44.1
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Maybe I’ll try Tidal sometime down the line.
I did discover that there are tone controls within the BluOS app that allowed me to adjust the treble and bass so now it sounds more open. I only listened to a couple tracks last night and they sounded muddy.
 
I’m Just Ken said:
Maybe I’ll try Tidal sometime down the line.
I did discover that there are tone controls within the BluOS app that allowed me to adjust the treble and bass so now it sounds more open. I only listened to a couple tracks last night and they sounded muddy.
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I gotta say. The jump in quality for high res Tidal is palpable. Just coming through my phone and running to my back garage speakers through a normal mixer people have commented on how good it sounds and that system is absolutely nothing special, it's totally the source. Didn't sound like that with Spotify.
 
Mather said:
I gotta say. The jump in quality for high res Tidal is palpable. Just coming through my phone and running to my back garage speakers through a normal mixer people have commented on how good it sounds and that system is absolutely nothing special, it's totally the source. Didn't sound like that with Spotify.
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This is good to know. I’ve only been using Apple for a year and a half now, but it only took me a few seconds to hear the difference after many years of Spotify.
I’ll probably end up trying Tidal soon and if it slays, I’ll drop my Game Pass sub.
 
I’m Just Ken said:
This is good to know. I’ve only been using Apple for a year and a half now, but it only took me a few seconds to hear the difference after many years of Spotify.
I’ll probably end up trying Tidal soon and if it slays, I’ll drop my Game Pass sub.
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I grabbed that Syd vault package from Third Man and decided to try Tidal again with the discount. Well worth it imo. I mainly only stream when I'm in my office at work, but it sounds noticably better even on my powered speakers I've got in there.
 
Yeah the problem with Apple Music is that is lossless but damn AirPlay is an utter mess of a thing so you struggle get that out. It’s why down the line I’m tempted to just dump the whole idea of a streamer and might just hook my iPad to a DAC directly and get the full lossless. I didn’t like tidal app and felt there were more gaps in its catalogue that other services, Qobuz is brilliant but also doesn’t have a connect and isn’t great with CarPlay and Siri. Sigh.

As to your streamer. With a good enough external DAC there definitely could be but but you’ve bought well, the new node x has an improved DAC over the original and it might cost a few pennies to improve on it.
 
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Joe Mac said:
Yeah the problem with Apple Music is that is lossless but damn AirPlay is an utter mess of a thing so you can get that. It’s why down the line I’m tempted to just dump the whole idea of a streamer and might just hook my iPad to a DAC directly and get the full lossless. I didn’t like tidal app and felt there were more gaps in its catalogue that other services, Qobuz is brilliant but also doesn’t have a connect and isn’t great with CarPlay and Siri. Sigh.

As to your streamer. With a good enough external DAC there definitely could be but but you’ve bought well, the new node x has an improved DAC over the original and it might cost a few pennies to improve on it.
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The native Apple Music feature is what drew me to the EverSolo DMP-A6. No Airplay tomfoolery and the cast feature is awesome.
 
SnowmaNick said:
The native Apple Music feature is what drew me to the EverSolo DMP-A6. No Airplay tomfoolery and the cast feature is awesome.
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I looked hard at that for that exact reason but, as impractical as it is, I love the little 1960's Nathan hifi stand I have and couldn't squeeze another box that big on there if I want to keep using an external phono. So it was internal day and a WIIM instead.

I don't hate the Qobuz interface on the WIIM app though. But If cash and space was no option I'd have done the same as you.
 
Rowan said:
I looked hard at that for that exact reason but, as impractical as it is, I love the little 1960's Nathan hifi stand I have and couldn't squeeze another box that big on there if I want to keep using an external phono. So it was internal day and a WIIM instead.

I don't hate the Qobuz interface on the WIIM app though. But If cash and space was no option I'd have done the same as you.
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There is supposedly a Qobuz connect in the works, once that drops it would definitely make it a much more compelling prospect for any streaming box!
 
I’m Just Ken said:
Is it common to use an external DAC in combination with a streamer, in my case the Bluesound?
And how much is sound quality sacrificed by not having Apple Music on their list of services and having to use Air Drop?
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The Node DAC is pretty much a starter unit. It works well for that purpose.
I use the DAC in the amp via USB.
Have you tried Qobuz yet?
 
SnowmaNick said:
The native Apple Music feature is what drew me to the EverSolo DMP-A6. No Airplay tomfoolery and the cast feature is awesome.
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I have a Bluesound Node 2i but am looking hard at the FiiO R7 for the built in different apps, including Apple Music

All-in-One Desktop HD DTS Decoding and Ear Mafer-FiiO R7

FiiO R7 combines transmitter/decoder/amp/preamp/media playback functions into one unit. It features numerous connections and expansion capabilities and rich operating modes, providing an excellent desktop HiFi experience!
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Joe Mac said:
Yeah the problem with Apple Music is that is lossless but damn AirPlay is an utter mess of a thing so you struggle get that out. It’s why down the line I’m tempted to just dump the whole idea of a streamer and might just hook my iPad to a DAC directly and get the full lossless. I didn’t like tidal app and felt there were more gaps in its catalogue that other services, Qobuz is brilliant but also doesn’t have a connect and isn’t great with CarPlay and Siri. Sigh.

As to your streamer. With a good enough external DAC there definitely could be but but you’ve bought well, the new node x has an improved DAC over the original and it might cost a few pennies to improve on it.
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Agree that there are far more gaps in the Tidal catalogue, which is annoying.
 
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