Streaming VS local file playback & digital source quality

Sovrce Gear
81

I had the same experience with both the NS1 and the Optical Rendu in my system, to the point I wouldn’t claim there was a difference, and I know the versions I was comparing were bit for bit identical.

Doesn’t mean that on a different system or with a different streamer, the results wouldn’t be different.

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82

I agree. I also think that Roon is clearly problematic for some people and there are a lot of folks that say the same thing about the propriatary players sounding better. Whether the Innuous send or as Orr says his Aurender player.

I actually should try the Lumin player and see since it’s their new revised platform. I just don’t want to give up the convinience of Roon and now that my wife is using the Roon client on her iPhone, I’m pretty much stuck. lol

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83

On the U1 mini i bought from you many moons ago the local playback was noticably and immediately better than the Qobuz streaming. I listened to Ozzy’s Zombie Stomp streamed and it felt more “staticy”, less settled than the local file. The local flac was much more calm, in place, and in line. To me it is like using the sharpness setting in a monitor too much and it looks off, like many lines slightly off set vs in place to make the line look solid.

84

Still not out, still being promised soon.

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85

I did that test too, and actually wrote an application to serve via upnp and squeeze so I new exactly what was going on.

Honestly if there was a difference it was small, about the only interesting observation was that the streamers I tried consumed the entire track from the network connection in under 10 seconds and just played it from memory. That was true of both UPnP and Squeeze.
It’s not very surprising since both protocols serve audio the same basic way.

RAAT doesn’t appear to do that, I see network activity periodically throughout playback, and I guess that might be the difference, if it is the impact is going to vary by streamer and it’s software.

I also tried decompressing the FLAC file on the server vs on the streamer, that didn’t make a significant difference either.

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86

Hi, my experience:

  • using local files only differ in my setups if I use DSD vs, PCM/FLAC
  • real heavy difference, depending on certain SACD-Remaster, I prefer 44.1khz over do DSD/SACD via I2s on my SACD-Transport
  • lot of my preferred albums are available on very high quality CD recordings (ACT, ECM, Stockfisch, lost recordings or Bluenote) and outperform many times Qobuz streaming the same titles (depending how crazy you go up into the DAC-chase)
  • using different digital input Interfaces matter only what kind of receivers vendor is using. At a certain quality/price stage it shouldnt really matter, besides of course using SPDIF/EBU over USB over I2s as those are complete different digital receivers and different implementations.

Streaming protocols matter!! Roon/RAAT 2y ago was not on the same level as Squeezlite or some other propritary DLNA/UPnP server-/client apps. These days a roon core is pretty damn good.

Most issues I’d are always the crappy (mobile) client implementations, no matter of streaming applications. As an old Linux and networking guy did many diagnostics and network sniffing and buggy client software are not so uncommon some would may think! Also RAAT-Client connection sometimes disconnect stream (yeah, should be independant some may think to roon-bridge logic), because stupid tablet app was going in standby and did some 1sec hickup of my live streaming and always thought it was my server appp.

So keeping long story short: pay attention what kind of server and client streaming app are you using. Also stick with one streaming protocol and turn others off :wink: having curated-synced private playlists is my top priority and therefore roon-fanboy + Qobuz.

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87

Extremely important, if you’re not using them, turn them off. Any additional processing to keep a protocol up is just adding unnecessary noise.

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