Stupid Question Time

Good. I thought it worthwhile putting it out there. Not everyone is aware of it. I'm certainly not trying to talk you out of it.

However, if I start making noises about spending close to $3000 on a DAC next year, don't hesitate to talk me out of it. :congrats: [I'm not suggesting you were thinking of spending $3k. I've been thinking about it recently, so that's where that amount came from.]
 
This is refreshing...a real question to the community from an ordinary punter! :whew: Will reply more fully later as it's the middle of the working day here..
 
Jack
I appreciate and understand your input, I just think MQA has more momentum than most and am looking to future-proof at this point. I'm not in a big hurry. If was convinced that Oppo would able to upgrade to MQA with a firmware update, I would do it today. I'm waiting.
WY5O2J
 
Melbguy1 said:
This is refreshing...a real question to the community from an ordinary punter! :whew: Will reply more fully later as it's the middle of the working day here..
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yes, I'm a punter and proud of it! Look forward to your input.
 
If you're in no hurry then you've got time to see what direction OPPO goes in now that they have gotten the Sonica and the also long overdue 205 released as that has been their first priority. Once they get past the bug fix stage with both products and the software then they can decide what features they are interested in adding. There may also be other product additions from other companies in that general price range but at this point the starting point is many thousand higher.
 
Unworthy said:
Larry,
No worries, you're adding to the conversation. I would love to understand what you do about digital playback, just don't understand, in this age, why it needs to be so difficult.
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At first, I was hesitant to embrace digital. It does not have to be complex. I started out with JRiver and ripped all my CD's to Wav or Flac. Then eventually started buying digital downloads in 44K to DSD once I upgraded my DAC to a DSD DAC. A friend of mine turned me on to other music players like HYSOLID, Bug Head and HQ player which sound much better than JRiver. Now I fire up 2 computers (a tablet or smart phone), one to control the dedicated music laptop from my listening area and I have music playing in 1-2 minutes and I don't have to leave my comfortable seat to change albums or play lists. Although I still listen to vinyl. The issue with digital is that you have to have everything backed up on another hard drive because hard drives do die.
 
Unworthy said:
what are the requirements, specific purpose and advantages of a "Network Player?" So many devices now are multi-purpose bundles of functions that it is hard to decipher what is doing what. Also, I know that some network players are Roon-ready, but what is it that makes a device a "Roon Endpoint?"
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A network player is a player that has network input and analogue outputs. Its primary advantage is convenience as it can be controlled by iPad (in case of Lumin products), and network is generally superior to USB for digital audio transmission because USB cable often carries the EMI/RFI noise from a noisy computer to affect the sound quality of your USB DAC. It is also ideal for streaming Tidal, Qobuz and AirPlay from Spotify or YouTube, etc.

A Roon Ready player refers to a player that has a network input, and integrated the Roon RAAT SDK in its firmware, shows up as a Roon Ready device in Roon, and passed Roon certification tests. Roon Labs say that the ideal setup is to have a powerful PC running Roon Core, located far away from the audio equipment, using only network to transfer the audio data. That's why it makes the Roon Ready program.

Lumin is already Roon Ready. We have been trying to get MQA certification, but not done yet. When using Lumin app (instead of Roon), a PC is not necessary for music playback.
 
Another option besides a network player is a DAC like the PS Audio DSD. You can buy it with a Network Bridge and use ethernet and set up a NAS. This DAC sounds the best through ethernet.
 
wklie said:
A network player is a player that has network input...

A Roon Ready player refers to a player that has a network input...
Click to expand...

Thanks for addressing my original questions, I was afraid they had gotten buried. Your explanation is pretty much what I understood, but you filled in some important gaps.
 
Mechnutt said:
Another option besides a network player is a DAC like the PS Audio DSD. You can buy it with a Network Bridge and use ethernet and set up a NAS. This DAC sounds the best through ethernet.
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An NAS, located remotely at my router and ethernet wired to my audio room, would probably be part of my ultimate solution if I decide to rely mostly on my digital library. I don't yet subscribe to Tidal, so I thought I would start there by streaming (wirelessly) through the Oppo 103D and see what I think. I may ultimately determine that I don't really need to expand my digital library. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
OK, subscribed to Tidal Hifi this weekend. Streaming wirelessly thru my 103D and controlled by my iPhone it sounds quite good, maybe even better than the disc spinner. I think my CD collection is going into deep storage. With this approach I may only need to consider a better DAC and possibly adding an ethernet line from the router upstairs (a little messy, but not too bad) to complete the package to my liking. I guess I would still want the NAS if I ever want MQA.

As a side note, I've also run Tidal in my car via iPhone/bluetooth and it sounds waaaay better than Pandora One ever did and I haven't experienced a single glitch. I'll test it through rural areas this weekend.

Thanks for everyone's input!

DT
 
any of you ever thought of the air condition as an important factor for the soundquality?

any studies on this?

cheers

andy
 
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