Hi Everyone, I'm new to the forum but have been involved with hifi and the pursuit of the best sound for over 30 years.
Due to moving abroad approx 10 years ago I went from having a 'standard' 2 channel system to headphones and have been successfully running a Chord Hugo and Audeze LCDx system for the past 6 years. However, the batteries on my Hugo now need replacing and so I started to look into what was available, having been out of the hifi trend for so long........
Now I am confused.
My confusion lies not in the headphone / amp / DAC side of things but in the source. Is it really so much better to run from a streamer rather than direct from a laptop? What would give me the best sq? What is the benefit of software such as Audirvana etc, is it a step up from using Tidal alone (I have no local files, just use the streaming service)?
My listening is currently done at my desk so would be controlled from my laptop anyway. However, I would like to understand best practice for a modern computer based system.
Thanks for any help explanations!
Due to moving abroad approx 10 years ago I went from having a 'standard' 2 channel system to headphones and have been successfully running a Chord Hugo and Audeze LCDx system for the past 6 years. However, the batteries on my Hugo now need replacing and so I started to look into what was available, having been out of the hifi trend for so long........
Now I am confused.
My confusion lies not in the headphone / amp / DAC side of things but in the source. Is it really so much better to run from a streamer rather than direct from a laptop? What would give me the best sq? What is the benefit of software such as Audirvana etc, is it a step up from using Tidal alone (I have no local files, just use the streaming service)?
My listening is currently done at my desk so would be controlled from my laptop anyway. However, I would like to understand best practice for a modern computer based system.
Thanks for any help explanations!