iTunes Sounds Best

[jhwalker]

After reading through a lot of posts here and getting started in moving my CD collection to my computer, I have found that to me that iTunes sounds best in terms of sound quality.

 

My setup consists of a late 2015 21.5" iMac with a Sumiko Pro-Ject USB Box DAC which is connected to my 40 year old McIntosh Mac 1900 receiver. My CD player is a Marantz CD5004. For speakers, I am using BIC America RTR-EV15's which have a 15" woofer and horn tweeter. I am old school when it comes to speakers in that the bigger the better! The setup has always sounded good.

 

The strange thing is that CD's now ripped in Apple Lossless sound better than when the CD's are played through the CD player.

 

Even stranger, I have tried Audirvana, Amarra HiFi, Roon, BitPerfect and one other that I don't remember the name. They all sounded thin and uninspiring.

 

I use Tidal HiFi for streaming and the Amarra for Tidal app which sounds fantastic.

 

Interesting - in my setup, iTunes consistently sounds strident and thin, while any of the other players sounds "better"

 

I always *thought* they should all sound the same, but clearly different implementations (even of "bitperfect" output) can sound different with different processing chains.