Hi, I'm new here so appreciate your patience with my first question. I'm researching the current landscape of digital and streaming audio so I can simply understand it and find what I may be looking for.
As info, here's my current setups:
Resolution Audio Cantata 3.0 Music Player and Integrated Amp + Harbeth P3esr speakers - using an iMac and a mix of iTunes, Bandcamp, Tidal (and Qobuz soon) and formerly Roon as source
An old MacBook Air + Bandcamp and Tidal with a Grace M900 headphone amp/dac and Audioquest headphones
iPhone + Bandcamp and Tidal with Sony WH-1000xm3 noise canceling headphones - for commuting and at the office, and sometimes around the house - it's very convenient
As you can probably see, I'm migrating to listening primarily through streaming, though I still have a ton of music files (around 1 TB worth in mostly Apple Lossless).
One thing I'm looking for is to optimize my streaming listening quality at home. I use Tidal and I'll add Qobuz when it's available in the US. I listen to Tidal through their various apps, always at the highest resolution depending on device. I used Roon for a while and liked it but I recently unsubscribed, though I may resubscribe - but that depends on what I learn here.
To my question: there's various servers, streamers, DACs, etc that cover a range of services and options. As far as I can tell, servers simply pass through the signal from a source to a DAC, but they seem to do it better than an iMac (is that true in your case?). Therefore, I may add a server to the Resolution Audio system in place of the iMac. Or there's Audirvana and things like that. What might you suggest? Budget is flexible. Focused on streaming services like Tidal and Qobuz, but also able to play local source files. I don't listen to DSD.
The RA system is in my home office where it will always reside (I have as strong respect for its sound and design and Jeff Kalt has been very helpful over the years). Someday, when my kids are older, I may add a pair of KEF wireless speakers in our living room and stream to those; I'm striving to encourage a love of music, and helping them understand that Alexa is not an ideal audio system.
Another question: are you aware of any diagrams that outline how these things connect in broad strokes? I'm a visual person and seeing a diagram is much more informative than reading about how all these things connect up. I may also create my own diagrams.
Finally, years ago I went through the "audiophile" carousel, but paused when the kids came along. But I've always loved music since I was a kid and I've always had good systems. I don't want to hop back on the carousel - I'm much more pragmatic these days - but I do want to find the right balance of system, quality and usability.
TIA for any recommendations as I deepen my understanding of this current landscape!
Question
Andrewteee
Hi, I'm new here so appreciate your patience with my first question. I'm researching the current landscape of digital and streaming audio so I can simply understand it and find what I may be looking for.
As info, here's my current setups:
As you can probably see, I'm migrating to listening primarily through streaming, though I still have a ton of music files (around 1 TB worth in mostly Apple Lossless).
One thing I'm looking for is to optimize my streaming listening quality at home. I use Tidal and I'll add Qobuz when it's available in the US. I listen to Tidal through their various apps, always at the highest resolution depending on device. I used Roon for a while and liked it but I recently unsubscribed, though I may resubscribe - but that depends on what I learn here.
To my question: there's various servers, streamers, DACs, etc that cover a range of services and options. As far as I can tell, servers simply pass through the signal from a source to a DAC, but they seem to do it better than an iMac (is that true in your case?). Therefore, I may add a server to the Resolution Audio system in place of the iMac. Or there's Audirvana and things like that. What might you suggest? Budget is flexible. Focused on streaming services like Tidal and Qobuz, but also able to play local source files. I don't listen to DSD.
The RA system is in my home office where it will always reside (I have as strong respect for its sound and design and Jeff Kalt has been very helpful over the years). Someday, when my kids are older, I may add a pair of KEF wireless speakers in our living room and stream to those; I'm striving to encourage a love of music, and helping them understand that Alexa is not an ideal audio system.
Another question: are you aware of any diagrams that outline how these things connect in broad strokes? I'm a visual person and seeing a diagram is much more informative than reading about how all these things connect up. I may also create my own diagrams.
Finally, years ago I went through the "audiophile" carousel, but paused when the kids came along. But I've always loved music since I was a kid and I've always had good systems. I don't want to hop back on the carousel - I'm much more pragmatic these days - but I do want to find the right balance of system, quality and usability.
TIA for any recommendations as I deepen my understanding of this current landscape!
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