The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

jamieanderson1968 said:
First off, welcome to the Darkside.

There are a few of us with a BlueSound device and I think most of us here are happy with the unit. The app itself is pretty crappy I think. If you are using Tidal you can use Tidal Connect to stream right to it without any loss of quality. I think Spotify Connect works the same (though is not a cd quality stream yet.) Apple music uses Airplay within the music apps, so it only streams at CD quality.

If you have a large amount of personal digital files on your computer/network, you might want to look at Roon. It integrates you local files with your Tidal/Qobuz streams (not sure if Spotify is in there yet). I have about 2000 local digital albums and I find Roon is the best player for my needs, but it is an annual license instead of a 1 time purchase.

Overall I really like my BlueSound Node 2i, and cannot imaging being without it after about 18 months. I have it plugged into a 50yr old Marantz receiver and it would wonderful.
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Thanks for the reply. I think I am most interested in exploring Tidal's capabilities first and then maybe diving into a NAS. I have no familiarity with Roon, but that was my next step in exploring.
 
folsom_lives said:
Thanks for the reply. I think I am most interested in exploring Tidal's capabilities first and then maybe diving into a NAS. I have no familiarity with Roon, but that was my next step in exploring.
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With it being Tidal Connect ready you don’t even need to use their app after the initial set up. Can just use the Tidal Connect feature from within the Tidal app.
 
Had to give up on setup of the Node last night. Kept running into issues with connecting to Wifi. Found a forum post in customer support saying there were issues with the 5GHZ frequency on some routers.

I didn't have a long enough cable to reach the router directly so I'll have to snag one from the office and try again tonight.

Bummer.
 
Good news everyone. Hardwiring worked and setup went flawless after that.

Trying out Let It Be on Tidal at the moment. Nothing earth-shattering. Maybe I’m just not familiar enough with the mastering to notice the difference in digital but it does sound a bit thin compared what the Grado would do to color things on the warmer side and the low end.

I don’t think the Node will replace my vinyl for the time being but it will be a fun experiment and addition. Should be fun to compare tracks one right after the other from the table to the Node.
 
folsom_lives said:
Good news everyone. Hardwiring worked and setup went flawless after that.

Trying out Let It Be on Tidal at the moment. Nothing earth-shattering. Maybe I’m just not familiar enough with the mastering to notice the difference in digital but it does sound a bit thin compared what the Grado would do to color things on the warmer side and the low end.

I don’t think the Node will replace my vinyl for the time being but it will be a fun experiment and addition. Should be fun to compare tracks one right after the other from the table to the Node.
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The only thing I've heard on Tidal that rivals my albums is Bob Dylan Man in the Long Black Coat in Master Quality Audio. Everything else even in high res falls below my vinyl copies.
 
Mather said:
The only thing I've heard on Tidal that rivals my albums is Bob Dylan Man in the Long Black Coat in Master Quality Audio. Everything else even in high res falls below my vinyl copies.
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I like my digital setup but still buy and use my TT a lot. The main benefits for me are:

A) not having to deal with vinyl QC or lackthereof

B) streaming things that i don't feel the need to own on vinyl (or listening to them to see if I'd listen to them enough if I owned them on vinyl)

C) getting high quality copies of albums that are difficult or very expensive to find

I've never gotten MQA to work quite right, or at least I don't think I have. My Qobuz account sounds better to me than Tidal does. I also have a redacted account, so that sends me down the rabbithole of getting copies of certain CD masterings, etc. which can be fun and an interesting experiment.
 
folsom_lives said:
But I haven’t stood up once to spin three albums. Just saying.

Laziness is a hell of a drug.
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I've got a few high res FLAC copies of things like Nirvana Unplugged and DSOTM so I'm gunna try those out to see how they compare. I think you could definitely put together a digital system to rival vinyl but the Node won't be it. But I have it as well and it's perfect for me for what I want it for, all the shit I can't or won't buy on vinyl.
 
Mather said:
I've got a few high res FLAC copies of things like Nirvana Unplugged and DSOTM so I'm gunna try those out to see how they compare. I think you could definitely put together a digital system to rival vinyl but the Node won't be it. But I have it as well and it's perfect for me for what I want it for, all the shit I can't or won't buy on vinyl.
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This is the conclusion that I am coming to on day one.

It pretty much confirms that I do have a deep love for vinyl and the sound it’s capable of. And more importantly I can notice the difference.

But in the cases that I just don’t feel like opening something up, putting it away, or just dealing with that one click or pop that won’t go away; this will fit the bill quite nicely.

I was still tapping my toe and looking up when a particularly good note hit, or even to look at the table to see how much left there was on what I thought was a record still spinning.

The music was still there and sounded good and I think that’s all I can ask for.
 
folsom_lives said:
This is the conclusion that I am coming to on day one.

It pretty much confirms that I do have a deep love for vinyl and the sound it’s capable of. And more importantly I can notice the difference.

But in the cases that I just don’t feel like opening something up, putting it away, or just dealing with that one click or pop that won’t go away; this will fit the bill quite nicely.

I was still tapping my toe and looking up when a particularly good note hit, or even to look at the table to see how much left there was on what I thought was a record still spinning.

The music was still there and sounded good and I think that’s all I can ask for.
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The big thing for me was I always heard people say digital can’t compare to vinyl at all. I still think vinyl sounds better but sometimes it’s damn close. Enough to make me contemplate buying a more expensive DAC…it’s why the Denafrips is intriguing to me. It has rave reviews and people seem to compare it favorably to vinyl…

But I do still enjoy spinning records and sitting down to listen to a full album. Don’t see myself ever going fully digital.
 
MikeH said:
The big thing for me was I always heard people say digital can’t compare to vinyl at all. I still think vinyl sounds better but sometimes it’s damn close. Enough to make me contemplate buying a more expensive DAC…it’s why the Denafrips is intriguing to me. It has rave reviews and people seem to compare it favorably to vinyl…

But I do still enjoy spinning records and sitting down to listen to a full album. Don’t see myself ever going fully digital.
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Honestly if I had to start it all again, I think I would invest in a high end digital system and don’t bother with buying records. I’m too deep into vinyl now to change though.
 
I will not give up vinyl for a while, but I love my digital setup now. I also thinks my sound is helped by going from the Node into my old Marantz, but that just could be nostalgia talking.

Now just be careful not to start going doing down rabbit hole of finding unemphasized cd or start hunting various vinyl rips to compare.
 
Well I figured out why digital was sounding so "thin". Something was up with my speaker wires and I wasn't getting sound through the right speaker. Might have to troubleshoot some more since by swapping the right and left wires I got sound back in BOTH speakers...

Puzzling. Might be a loose connection between the banana plugs and only one set of leads from the amp...
 
folsom_lives said:
Another update now that I got sound back. An album ended and in the silence afterward I expected to hear the repetitive tick from the run-out groove. I don't know if this means I have found a comparable sound to vinyl or if I'm just conditioned to hear it at this point.
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Glad you got it sorted. I have been very happy with my Node. It looks great sitting on my old Marantz
 
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