Digital to Vintage

ratatatwilly

ratatatwilly

Member
Hello,
I have a vintage setup up where I'm using a Fisher 100T as a preamp and a Marantz Model 240 as an amp with some Cambridge SoundWorks Tower II's. I have a TT but mainly listen to music through my Spotify Premium account. I have a Google ChromeCast Audio connected to the Fisher 100T that I stream my Spotify through wirelessly. My question is, what's the best quality way to stream my Spotify to my Fisher? I am pleased with the CCA, especially when the "Dynamic Range" is turned on and love the ease of casting but feel like there may be a better component to do this from a quality stand point. I'm willing to go in on FLAC and CD's but just don't know if those would be better. I'm wide open for suggestions, just want to have the best way to play digital music to my vintage gear with streaming being a plus! Thanks in advanced for your help!
 
Register to hide this ad
I think Tidal can stream lossless to the CCA, and you can connect a better dac to the CCA with an optical cable. So it's kind of scalable, try Tidal first and see if it fullfills your needs.
 
Thanks @elira! I actually tried a free trail of Tidal a couple of months ago and felt like Spotify sounded just as good if not better. Maybe I'll give it another go.
 
If there wasn't much of a difference between Tidal and Spotify, then bypassing the DAC in the CCA probably won't make much of a difference either. Flac files are CD quality as is Tidal so probably no great advancement in SQ there either. Sounds like you are already at the best SQ the CCA can achieve in your system.
 
ratatatwilly said:
Thanks @idatlof. I guess my question is though, should I move away from the WiFi streaming of the CCA and get a player? Or is it the same thing? Also, would CD's sound better than Spotify or would something like this, https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Netw...&qid=1485581461&sr=8-1&keywords=Pioneer+N-50A give me a better quality sound?
Click to expand...


If you continue using Spotify, all bets are off. Sound quality is mostly defined by source, in this case your streaming provider. If you are serious about sound quality, find provider which sends lossless streams (if there is any), or simply download FLAC files and play them from your computer storage. In that last case you may think about things like dedicated player, standalone DAC etc.
 
ratatatwilly said:
Thanks @idatlof. I guess my question is though, should I move away from the WiFi streaming of the CCA and get a player? Or is it the same thing? Also, would CD's sound better than Spotify or would something like this, https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Netw...&qid=1485581461&sr=8-1&keywords=Pioneer+N-50A give me a better quality sound?
Click to expand...

Tidal Premium streams at 16/44.1 kHz which is the same as a CD or a .flac file ripped from a CD. CDs should sound better than Spotify because Spotify is only 320 kbps. If you where listening to Tidal Premium and you thought it was no better than Spotify, then I doubt a better player or even a DAC is going to do better.

That said, you can bypass the internal DAC in the CCA by plugging in a mini toslink to toslink wire in to the CCA's analog output jack. The regular toslink plugs into the DAC. The DAC then plugs into your preamp via RCA. A new DAC like a Schiit Modi Multibit is $250. This is much cheaper than that pioneer you linked to and probably sounds better too. It also has a 15 day money back guarantee if it is not your cup of tea.

Whether you should stop using WiFi depends on whether you are getting dropouts or not. If you are not getting dropouts, WiFi has plenty of bandwith to play Spotify or even .flac files.
 
I think your weak link would be the chrome cast. A proper dac will improve your sound, Of course all depends of your budget, there is a lot of good brands there, nuforce, m2tech, etc etc. I like the idea of the Pioneer N50.
 
ratatatwilly said:
I actually tried a free trail of Tidal a couple of months ago
Click to expand...

Do you know if the "free" trial was streamed in FLAC (1411/cd quality)? Even if it is/was, sometimes you have to go into "settings" and click on the correct setting.
 
onemug said:
Do you know if the "free" trial was streamed in FLAC (1411/cd quality)? Even if it is/was, sometimes you have to go into "settings" and click on the correct setting.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it was. I went into the settings and changed it to the highest quality too. I may try it again.
 
ldatlof said:
Tidal Premium streams at 16/44.1 kHz which is the same as a CD or a .flac file ripped from a CD. CDs should sound better than Spotify because Spotify is only 320 kbps. If you where listening to Tidal Premium and you thought it was no better than Spotify, then I doubt a better player or even a DAC is going to do better.

That said, you can bypass the internal DAC in the CCA by plugging in a mini toslink to toslink wire in to the CCA's analog output jack. The regular toslink plugs into the DAC. The DAC then plugs into your preamp via RCA. A new DAC like a Schiit Modi Multibit is $250. This is much cheaper than that pioneer you linked to and probably sounds better too. It also has a 15 day money back guarantee if it is not your cup of tea.

Whether you should stop using WiFi depends on whether you are getting dropouts or not. If you are not getting dropouts, WiFi has plenty of bandwith to play Spotify or even .flac files.
Click to expand...
I really appreciate all of your suggestions. I'll look into some DAC's.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom