The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

CD question for those that might know: most things I play sound great, but a few CDs I've listened to have a static/clip like noise, almost sounds like I can hear the CD spinning in my headphones. It's not constant, only when the music plays and modulates with the music (louder with louder parts of a song). It's loud enough that I can't listen. I figured it must be the CDs themselves so I took a look and lightly cleaned some (even though they looked fine visually). Played again, same sound. I then took them out from my CD changer where most of the CDs are (Sony CDP-CX100) and put into the drive I have on my computer (the computer goes into the DAC as well so that's the only change. There, it sounds good, no noise. So it must be the CD changer. Could it be the lens that just needs cleaning, even though most CDs sound fine? Or are there any other parts I should look at? I'm not shy about opening this thing up, but since it's filled with 100 CDs, it's a time consuming task. Has anyone else ever experienced this kind of thing before?
 
*I know there is dedicated Digital thread so if the moderator would prefer this post there fell free to move it.

I'm about 50/50 Streaming-playing/vinyl and been looking at getting a affordable budget Dac for my MBP setup and was wondering what some of the good music loving people here recommend ?

I'm fairly familiar with some of the usual subjects, the Topping D/E-30/10, Schitt Modi 3/Modius, Audioquest Dragongly, Maverick Tube Dac, etc

Upsampling and DSD capability are a bonus.
 
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I’m really digging the little purple MQA indicator light. It’s a nice contrast to the yellows. 1A8A4A68-9F82-410D-A098-4BAF2A0D1452.jpeg
I’m just quickly going to say that the USB DAC is sounding really, really nice. I’m ok having given up the Vega. The DAC in that was amazing and I was concerned that I would miss it. I’m good.
 
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Slimwhit33 said:
I’m really digging the little purple MQA indicator light. It’s a nice contrast to the yellows. View attachment 66888
I’m just quickly going to say that the USB DAC is sounding really, really nice. I’m very ok having given up the Vega. The DAC in that was amazing and I was concerned that I would miss it. I’m good.
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Have you developed strong opinions on MQA vs other formats? I know where I stand, but I still think it's an interesting topic in general.
 
displayname said:
Have you developed strong opinions on MQA vs other formats? I know where I stand, but I still think it's an interesting topic in general.
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Im not sure it’s a strong opinion, and I don’t have one at all with this DAC yet, but with the Vega I heard perceptible differences in sound between non-MQA tracks on Tidal and MQA tracks on TIDAL. The MQA files have a larger soundstage extension outside of my speakers.

Im not sure there is much of a difference between the Tidal MQA files and non-MQA HI RES 192k files.
 
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Slimwhit33 said:
Im not sure there is much of a difference between the Tidal MQA files and non-MQA HI RES 196k files.
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Haimez40 said:
That was the question I was about to ask.
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the only way to do that is either through the test file of 2L OR through subscribing to qobuz as well and finding an album in both MQA and hi res qobuz

personally im just going on the MQA train because tidal is cheaper than qobuz for me since im a college student and thus i pay 10 bucks instead of 15 a month
 
is qobuz worth an extra 5 bucks compared to tidal student? i am getting the ifi hipdac which has MQA support
 
kvetcha said:
thinking of it another way: is it worth 50% more to go from one lossless format to another?

I’d venture no.
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That's fighting talk on some forums!

(I can't tell the difference by the way. Must have my ears stuffed with cabbage as most the time they sound exactly the same)
 
If you are willing to wait for discount programs and bulk buy you can get Tidal Hifi for less than Spotify... kind of.
I did a 4 month extended trial for $20.
When that ran out I did the Best Buy 1 year subscription for $120. [link]

So you figure 16 months at for $140... $8.75/month. Less than Spotify at the end of the day.
But I also get free Hulu via Spotify too, so I con't mind paying for both. I kind of prefer Spotify on the go.

I do still dream of the day that Spotify jumps up to lossless OR Tidal creates an equivalent user experience to Spotify Connect.
 
displayname said:
If you are willing to wait for discount programs and bulk buy you can get Tidal Hifi for less than Spotify... kind of.
I did a 4 month extended trial for $20.
When that ran out I did the Best Buy 1 year subscription for $120. [link]

So you figure 16 months at for $140... $8.75/month. Less than Spotify at the end of the day.
But I also get free Hulu via Spotify too, so I con't mind paying for both. I kind of prefer Spotify on the go.

I do still dream of the day that Spotify jumps up to lossless OR Tidal creates an equivalent user experience to Spotify Connect.
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You can get tidal for a fiver a month with a TMR sub too... Although that actually make it $28 a month really... But you get a cool record package too
 
Rowan said:
That's fighting talk on some forums!

(I can't tell the difference by the way. Must have my ears stuffed with cabbage as most the time they sound exactly the same)
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I mean, for Dukey, who would admit they're not flush with cash, I don't think it's worth considering.
 
kvetcha said:
I mean, for Dukey, who would admit they're not flush with cash, I don't think it's worth considering.
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they are fighting words because TECHNICALLY MQA is not lossless (its like they use lossy compression for everything about the 192khz limit and then use lossless for everything before that or something its weird)
 
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