[J2Ordan]

This evening, I hooked up a MacBook (2015) to my BDA 3 via USB C to the USB 2 input on the BDA.
Qobuz steaming via WiFi using the Qobuz app.

I noticed that Santana's Abraxas was 24/176 on Qobuz but played at 24/88 0n the DAC. When moving to 24/176 on the Mac's Midi settings, it sounded like a 45 rpm played at 78. Any ideas?

Interesting to note, the BDA did change settings automatically when moving to a Qobuz 16/44 selection.

Thanks,

john

[James Tanner]

Hi John - The BDA3 tells you what is 'Coming In' so it must be the MAC determining what is going out.

james

[newzooreview]

Macs are USB Audio layer compliant with no need for adjustment, unlike Windows computers that suffer issues and often need drivers installed.

Could it be a cable issue? Are you using adapters to get USB-C out to the USB-B input on the BDA3?

A cable wired end to end for the purpose might help:



Digital streaming directly from a computer running a general-purpose operating system (Mac or Windows) will not sound great. There are far too many processes running. Even a simple, dedicated streaming device will sound better.

If direct wire from the MacBook is the best option for your needs, you might also consider an iFi Purifier on the end of the USB cable (at the BDA3 input) to suppress the worst of the noise. Digital audio is an analogue signal into the PHY layer in the receiving chips interprets it into 1s and 0s, so there is a lot that can degrade the signal in transit and processing.

[J2Ordan]

Thank you James and "newzoo" for your responses. Very helpful to get a better handle on streaming moving forward.

Yes, i am using a USB C to USB B cable, no adapters. It is a cable creations $10 Amazon special not an audiophile variety.
It is very possible that although qobuz says 24/176 it is in reality 24/88. I'll have to check it using the BDP3 as the endpoint.

Sound wise, this set-up was not bad. Qobuz through the BDP is better and ripped CD's beat Qobuz. I prefer using the Qobuz interface for Qobuz opposed to The Moose on the BDP hence the experiment.
There are many things one can do to improve streaming sound. I really enjoy reading of all the methods and audiophile "dingleberries" such as exotic cables, power supplies, switches, routers etc folks have used to achieve this goal.

Pondering all this, for me, I will continue to view streaming sound as modern day FM. Great for background music and to check out something specific; endless choices, great ready made playlists and very decent sound quality.
Then if liking something specific, it's a fast Amazon purchase and rip to the BDP3 away. In the long run (again for me) far less complicated and wallet friendly.

Enjoy the Sounds,

John

[jobiwon]

Pondering all this, for me, I will continue to view streaming sound as modern day FM. Great for background music and to check out something specific; endless choices, great ready made playlists and very decent sound quality.


Enjoy the Sounds,

John

Have you checked out the capabilities of ROON?

[J2Ordan]

jobiwon-

Yes, i did give ROON a try using the BDP's 60 day trial.
It was pretty incredible with how all my ripped CD's and Qobuz favorites were integrated together. Also, all the information and additional suggestions was pretty cool.
The problem was sound quality. Both the ripped Cd's and Qobuz sounded a good better using the BDP3 and Manic Moose.

At first, I put everything ROON (remote/core/ripped CD's) on a laptop and WiFied to the BDP3. Then tried having the core and ripped CD's on a Desktop PC, WiFi ing the stuff to the BDP and using the laptop just as a remote. This did improve the SQ.
I suppose a direct ethernet wire from the PC to the BDP would have further improved SQ. A permanent solution for this set up would have required punching holes in walls to run the ethernet and my sparkle skills are terrible. So that experiment ended.

John

[jobiwon]

John

I had Roon Core running off a Mac Mini.  Sound stage was flat vs my little BDP Pi/MPD.   I bit the bullet figuring  it was worth the spend and I could unload the equipment and suspend the year of Roon I paid for if it did not stack up.   I invested ~$1K in an SGC Sonic Transport for the ROON core and went to a mesh network.  I put one of the mesh nodes at my rig and hard wired it to the SGC ST & the Pi with a decent ethernet cable.  Then of course switch the Pi to Roon Ready.  I have to really scrutinize the system to tell the difference with ROON vs MM/MPD.    Total investment ~$1.5K.  I can rip CDs on my mac and drop the files right onto attached storage on the SGC/ST.
 
Find something you really like and flip the switch and stream it through the Pi to see if its better.

[J2Ordan]

Jobiwon-

Thanks for the reply. Had a feeling a dedicated ROON server hard wired might make a difference.
Good food for thought as I re-evaluate my digital set-up. Stream-Rips-CD's.

Enjoy the Sounds

John

[planet10]

I noticed that Santana's Abraxas was 24/176 on Qobuz but played at 24/88 0n the DAC. When moving to 24/176 on the Mac's Midi settings, it sounded like a 45 rpm played at 78. Any ideas?

I had the same problem with PureVinyl/PureMusic. Worked thru the issue with the author and he found the bug in the software. It was not my 2015 MacBook Pro.

Despite James suggestion it is more likely the Bryston SW than that in the Mac.

dave

[J2Ordan]

update to all-

I just tried Abraxas streamed via Qobuz from the BDP3 to the BDA3. It registered at 176. So looks like something with the MacBook/iTunes and its limits. Much more of a curiousity than anything else quite frankly.
As a side note, the ripped CD at 44 is better sounding than the 176 Qobuz streamed. Surely, using a better hard wired means than WiFi to reach the BDP may well have helped. But ...I have come to the conclusion that this 44 vs 96 vs 192 etc has its own built in non-sense. It's more about the original capture/engineering/mixing. Preceived differences between orignal CD's is more about the re-mastering/mixing than putting the same stuff in a larger container (44 vs 192 etc/etc).

Thanks to all for the replys. All comments are welcomed.

Enjoy the sounds!

John