Hi Jim - I must say i really don’t notice too much about where the source is, so i find myself listening to both local and Tidal content without a noticeable change in quality or musical enjoyment. Something i never thought i’d find myself saying…
Both sound superb, whether through my main system or my headphone system. If i’ve liked an album on Tidal, i usually end up buying it on CD so i can rip it and have it locally available to add on to my Walkman or use in the car.
I’d never want to fully rely on Tidal (or any other streaming service) - loss of internet connectivity or even just the tracks becoming unavailable on Tidal due to licensing changes would put me off going fully reliant on a streaming service as my only source of music. To some that may not be a concern though.
thanks James
So you’re buying and ripping CDs mainly as a backup in case Tidal is destroyed or greys out your tracks.
I only have limited time and energy and budget for HiFi, so am trying to be single-minded about doing one thing as well as possible within those limits.
So I’ve dispensed with the luxury of having a backup to Tidal for the time being.
Anyway, if Tidal does disappear, I’ll just move to Qobuz, or other service.
I’m trying a month’s free usage of Qobuz at the moment, and it’s surprisingly similar to Tidal on first usage in terms SQ and the way searching works on my initial usage of it.
That’s why I’m trying to resist the urge to get a Melco or Innuous, i.e. a posh NAS.
What I’m only just realizing is that some people seem to feed all traffic through their Melco as a sort of ‘digital cleaning device’ - is that also happening?
cheers
Jim
Hi Jim - i’ve already got a library of 2000 or so of my own CDs. Tidal for me is a way of exploring new music. Roon has been a bit of a revelation - it’s been the thing that’s been missing through my (pretty long now) journey through computer audio in that it allows me to interact with my musical collection and really make the most of it.
As the Roon Core is taking my local files or internet content and sending it as PCM data to the various end points i use, it doesn’t matter if the source of those music files is the SSD drive inside the Roon Nucleus i use or a server on the Internet somewhere on the planet, supplying the data from the Tidal service. A Cisco 2960 still sits at the heart of my network - and excellent purchase.
You’ve got the DCS Bridge which is a very effective digital source whether taking content from your internal network or from streaming services - you’ve got a ton of options as to what you connect to it to convert that digital source to analogue. With the DCS bridge, a ‘posh’ NAS (for local content) is superfluous so no need to look at the Melco or Innous options here and again no point if you are just using a streaming service.
I also use Tidal as a way of exploring new music, but in my system it sounds inferior to the locally stored files, so if I hear something new I like, I buy it. First preference is digital download as I am drowning in CDs!
If you click on your avatar icon in my post above it opens your post.
I was just interested in the fact that I think you changed a Melco for an Innuous and found the latter sounded better - and I wondered whether the two boxes were the same price or not.
Thanks
Jim
In which case, yes, my Innuos was indeed more expensive than my Melco and was/is better. But, just to clarify, the Zenith is demonstrably better than a Zen or Zen Mini, and, imho, better also than all the Melcos below the top-end version, which I haven’t compared.
If I happened to be buying new today, I’d buy a Zenith.
should perhaps be worthwhile to point that you use the innuos connected in usb, to your Dave dac. If i remember well?
The Melco in direct ethernet is it’s strongest quality. I know the innuos has also a direct ethernet mode however.