[Triode User]

Thanks for reply being doing a bit of research on dsd as most of my music files are pink floyd and the doors which I guess were never recorded and mastered in high res so at some point have been upsampled.

I wasn’t trying to make a point. Well not much of one. It’s just that since I became interested in the symptoms of RF noise in Blu2 I have realised that there are some people who actually prefer the music when it has the false detail and false sense of space created by the RF noise. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter because if someone prefers one thing then that is the end of it no matter that technically it might not be correct.

 

[Triode User]

issue only is with digital recordings (so post 'early 80'). anything before that was analogue recording and you can remaster those tapes to anything you like: yes, even DSD

Yeah but sometimes they still just do a simple upscaling of the red book digital files rather than going back to the analogue tapes.

 

[soares]

hello all,
Had my qutest now around 2 months and still fiddling around with the settings. One question is that I find tidal cd quality streaming sounds better than all my digital high res music files 24 bit and dsd.is there a reason for this, dsd just sounds quiet and lifeless for me all my music is played through Audirvana plus.

I stream from the same server (STi5) + uR and the ripped files from CD do not sound as good as the ones through Tidal. This is frustating as I've got hundred of track that are not available on Tidal. Is it because they are stored in a USB Hard Disk? Shall I nuy a SSD to store the files. Will they sound better? Shall I buy NAS? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[miketlse]

I stream from the same server (STi5) + uR and the ripped files from CD do not sound as good as the ones through Tidal. This is frustating as I've got hundred of track that are not available on Tidal. Is it because they are stored in a USB Hard Disk? Shall I nuy a SSD to store the files. Will they sound better? Shall I buy NAS? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

A good starting place is by understanding what do you mean by better?
I will start by using a simple example.
When I started using the Mojo, I used both the usb input and the optical input.
With optical the music/vocals was very clean and pure.
With usb the music was very clean and pure, but sounded slightly brighter. I added a ferrite choke to the usb cable, to remove any RFI that was being picked up, but some of the brightness still remained. That extra brightness was caused by the residual electrical noise from the computer internals, travelling through the usb cable, and entering the mojo internals.
Some people prefer the more realistic sound quality from using the optical input, but others prefer that false brightness created via the residual electrical noise.
There is no right or wrong answer, because so much depends on peoples preferences.

It is possible that there is little that you can do, to reduce any residual electrical noise from your server, reaching your dac.
However there is a simple experiment that you could try. Some owners who only have usb outputs on their computer, buy a usb to optical converter from amazon, and use that to discover if they prefer the sound, when using the optical input.
Little explorations like that, can help owners understand what they want to achieve, and possibly steer their route to achieve it.
It is certainly cheaper than rushing out and immediately buying SSD drives.

 

[smodtactical]

How does Qutest compare to Yggy 2? I searched on the forums but didn't find very many direct comparisons.

 

[x RELIC x]

I stream from the same server (STi5) + uR and the ripped files from CD do not sound as good as the ones through Tidal. This is frustating as I've got hundred of track that are not available on Tidal. Is it because they are stored in a USB Hard Disk? Shall I nuy a SSD to store the files. Will they sound better? Shall I buy NAS? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

A lot of the difference may also be down to the mastering of the music. Many of the albums on Tidal are re-mastered to sound louder, but this also compresses the dynamic range. When comparing a wide dynamic range track (typically original older recordings pre 2000) to one that’s been re-mastered louder (with less dynamic range) the louder one usually sounds ‘better’ initially because that’s how humans are wired. Now, take an older track that isn’t mastered loud and increase the volume a little and the impact, nuance, and dynamics becomes MUCH more enjoyable.

Just a thought. Also, as mentioned, it would be very helpful if you described ‘better’.

 

[Lodwales81]

A lot of the difference may also be down to the mastering of the music. Many of the albums on Tidal are re-mastered to sound louder, but this also compresses the dynamic range. When comparing a wide dynamic range track (typically original older recordings pre 2000) to one that’s been re-mastered louder (with less dynamic range) the louder one usually sounds ‘better’ initially because that’s how humans are wired. Now, take an older track that isn’t mastered loud and increase the volume a little and the impact, nuance, and dynamics becomes MUCH more enjoyable.

Just a thought. Also, as mentioned, it would be very helpful if you described ‘better’.

Tidal music is louder but also seems to have more ambient and space to it and picks up on the bass more than my hi res music stored on my ssd

 

[x RELIC x]

Tidal music is louder but also seems to have more ambient and space to it and picks up on the bass more than my hi res music stored on my ssd

Is it similar to the differences hear in this example? Again, just thinking out loud here.

 

[soares]

A good starting place is by understanding what do you mean by better?
I will start by using a simple example.
When I started using the Mojo, I used both the usb input and the optical input.
With optical the music/vocals was very clean and pure.
With usb the music was very clean and pure, but sounded slightly brighter. I added a ferrite choke to the usb cable, to remove any RFI that was being picked up, but some of the brightness still remained. That extra brightness was caused by the residual electrical noise from the computer internals, travelling through the usb cable, and entering the mojo internals.
Some people prefer the more realistic sound quality from using the optical input, but others prefer that false brightness created via the residual electrical noise.
There is no right or wrong answer, because so much depends on peoples preferences.

It is possible that there is little that you can do, to reduce any residual electrical noise from your server, reaching your dac.
However there is a simple experiment that you could try. Some owners who only have usb outputs on their computer, buy a usb to optical converter from amazon, and use that to discover if they prefer the sound, when using the optical input.
Little explorations like that, can help owners understand what they want to achieve, and possibly steer their route to achieve it.
It is certainly cheaper than rushing out and immediately buying SSD drives.

Thank you so much for your input but all my system was optimised for USB. A friend of mine lend me a spidif converter about the same price of an SSD and it's miles away of the sound quality I have. Also I did try dozens of Albuns and there isn't a single one that it is bettered by the USB hard disk. So I am quite sure that this is not related to some remaster from Tidal... As what concerns the definifion of better, unfortunately my English it is not up to the task. It is a kind of veil that disappears when using Tidal. It is the same when you upgrade your DAC...

 

[DjBobby]

Tidal music is louder but also seems to have more ambient and space to it and picks up on the bass more than my hi res music stored on my ssd

Tidal has raised the volume level recently and is playing much louder than ever before. I used to spent some time, a year or two ago, comparing Tidal's sound quality with my hi-rez flac rips, but at the moment the loudness difference is too significant to make any comparison without careful level matching. As I understand they use now by default the loudness normalization.
It is like using high gain - louder might mislead to sounding "better".

 

[jwbrent]

I’ve been looking for a data USB cable to connect my MacBook Air which I use as my music server to my Qutest. Since they are very close to each other, I really only wanted a 6-8” cable, and I was strongly considering a Curious USB since they make an 8” version for a bit over $100.

I kept holding back for another option, and I saw that Penon Audio makes exactly what I need using pure silver conductors—6” long—for about $40, so I ordered it. I had purchased a Penon micro to micro with the same pure silver conductors for my 240SS to Mojo hookup, and it works great and is well made.

Thought I’d share the news for anyone else looking for a similar solution.

 

[jwbrent]

 

[schneller]

How does Qutest compare to Yggy 2? I searched on the forums but didn't find very many direct comparisons.

I too would like to know impressions. Especially SE vs. SE and SE vs. XLR>SE. Paging @sheldaze ?

 

[Rhamnetin]

I’ve been looking for a data USB cable to connect my MacBook Air which I use as my music server to my Qutest. Since they are very close to each other, I really only wanted a 6-8” cable, and I was strongly considering a Curious USB since they make an 8” version for a bit over $100.

I kept holding back for another option, and I saw that Penon Audio makes exactly what I need using pure silver conductors—6” long—for about $40, so I ordered it. I had purchased a Penon micro to micro with the same pure silver conductors for my 240SS to Mojo hookup, and it works great and is well made.

Thought I’d share the news for anyone else looking for a similar solution.

Seems oddly cheap considering the price of silver.

 

[miketlse]

Seems oddly cheap considering the price of silver.

I thought that as well. Must be very thin wire.