Same file, different sound quality: Qobuz vs. JRiver

[sonwleo]

@jmtennapel

Vinyl less variables? The plint of the turntable, the turning plate, the arm, the cartridge, the stylus, the power cable, the pre-amplifier, a puck on top of the record, the power supply of the turntable, the step-up transformer … and I’m sure I haven’t named all possible components

But I agree, streaming is a headache.

I Agree, I Am not a vinyl user, but I think with streaming we deal with a lot of gear that is not made for audio and was never intended to be, the internet service provider, the switches, the software, even a streamer is a small computer with a piece of software.

For many years I was tempted to jump into vinyl, but embraced the streaming by the simplicity of it, discovering later, that even the simple things can be complicated in the end to get the most of it.

[Alley_Cat]

@Blacknote

@Alley_Cat have you heard about Audirvana origin? You don’t need to subscribe with that.

Yes, thanks, it came out after the subscription offering but I think it only allows local streaming so you can’t sign in to Tidal/Qobuz/etc and stream from the internet.

I have a couple of earlier versions of Audirvana which were outright purchases but stability was not the best in my setup unfortunately.

Thanks again for the JRiver info - I’m using MAc but think they support that.

[Alley_Cat]

We spend far too much time tweaking and often can’t decide if things are better or simply different.

Ignorance, as they say, is bliss.

[sonwleo]

@Alley_Cat

Ignorance, as they say, is bliss.

For my wife the sound was great two systems ago, for her any system of good enough quality serves her well, and thinking on her perception I find she listens with more satisfaction than me full albuns, that is because she listens to the music and I listen to the system.

Loved your reply.

[Blacknote]

@sonwleo I agree, every change makes a sound difference. I experienced that myself. I tried to make my LAN as simple as possible, still I have one switch between the computer and the NDX2. I wish I could get rid of it, but I just can’t… at least the system sounds good.
So far streaming hasn’t been an enormous headache to me but only because I’ve always tried to keep things simple from the very beginning. However the disadvantage of streaming is that it adds stuff that it’s not really part of the audio equipment. Things were (maybe) easier when you could only have a CD player if you wanted to go digital.

@Alley_Cat I have configured JRiver EQ to be used with the Qobuz desktop app. That way I only focus on using Qobuz, all audio is driven through the WDM driver to the DAC. You just need to leave JRiver open in the background.

@Alley_Cat

Ignorance, as they say, is bliss.

Very wise words

[Prolly]

@Blacknote Apologies it’s mconnect not Mcontrol. It will be great to see what you think of it. Cheers

[Blacknote]

No worries, now I found it at least! As soon as I have time, I’ll install on my tablet and try it out, I’m pretty curious!

[Blacknote]

@Prolly I installed the app, I could easily locate the local UPnP server on the computer, but I couldn’t play anything on the NDX 2. What I missing? Maybe does it work only with Qobuz?

[Prolly]

Be sure to select the UPNP endpoint (eg your NDX) in the “Play To” tab before playing a song.

In my case, I can stream from my media server (Jriver) and Tidal without messing with any app setting (other than the initial login to Tidal).

[Blacknote]

Thanks, I didn’t see the “Play to” tab, I’ll check that better and let you know!

[Blacknote]

@Prolly I had a quick test: right now I struggle to get a proper idea about the app. The app is simple yet very nice for what it is, so it can surely help managing UPnP and not only that.
Sound wise I would say that, maybe, it’s a touch punchier (bass and cymbals) and clearer in the midrange but not a lot more than JRiver, at least in my system. Sometimes I thought it sounded the same, so I need to investigate that better.