CD vs Streaming.

[Jimbo]

Had a comparison / evaluation today between CDP and FBA and tried CDP with off board DAC. Also streamed some material via Audirvana Tidal which has a 3 month trial period. I sourced the same material and mastering for all the tracks I used and kept the level the same as best I can with the Croft preamp.

The CDP used was the Rotel RCD 965Bx which use dual DACs and the ultra stable CDM4 disc transport. It is a dual bitstream CDP and uses high quality British Caps and a fully regulated high current PSU. The player also has a coax digital out so can also be used as a transport.

I used some ripped CD files so mastering was the same and I was pretty sure the tracks I picked off Tidal were from the same recording as best as I could ascertain.

I found that the CDP sounded close to the files using the same DAC which probably was not a surprise but it actually sounded better when I used the CDP own internal DAC.

I also listened to the same FBA material using the DAC with a DDC in the chain from the laptop and things did improve a fair bit. I could not replicate the same set up using the CDP as I did not have a coax to USB A cable and I am not sure if this is obtainable.


Comparing the Tidal streamed tracks was interesting and I felt they were very good. I only used regular 16 bit material and nothing hiRez.


So using the same material in each set up these were my conclusions.


1. Laptop SSD FBA + DAC + DDC gave best overall performance.

2. Rotel CDP using internal DAC.

3. Rotel CDP + DAC


4. Tidal streamed material.


I will try and dig down into the actual listening session and make some more comments on what the actual differences were later.