Digital Replay

The CD players we have on demonstration at present are mostly integrated, one box players. We do have three brands that offer separate drives and DACs with superb sound quality: Audio analogue, Aqua Acoustic Quality and Audiolab. We still believe CD players to be the more musical way to listen to digital recordings for a more natural, less ‘hifi’ sound, compared to other digital media. Many of the smaller independent labels are producing very high quality digital recordings on this format which can rival the best of the golden age of analogue recordings.

We have now listened to most of the leading brands that specialise in playing music files from a computer, streamers and servers that are available to the audiophile consumer and, to date, we are not convinced by many of them. Most do not come close to the sound quality achieved by a high quality recorded CD played on a quality CD player. FLAC and WAV files, even at so called higher resolution files, still sound compressed when compared to the same music played from a CD through modestly priced CD players such as the Luxman D-03X or the AVM CD 30.3.

The higher resolution music file, the size of a movie, such as those supplied by HDTracks or Native DSD should easily beat a standard CD – but it does not. In careful listening tests, this is very easily demonstrated with a close A vs B comparison using exactly the same music. Clearly something is lost even if they tell us it is ‘lossless’. Streaming from quality subscription services, such as Tidal or Qobuz, sounds very compressed compared to the same tracks played from a CD, even if it is claimed to be stream at CD quality level. This again, can be easily demonstrated in a controlled listening test.

The major difference in sound quality is one of resolving the details that give the aural clues to the 3-dimensional depth of sound stage. The air and space around instruments and vocalists. These are very important aspects of 2-channel stereo and one that make it a more convincing recreation of the concert experience, not just merely a “hi-fi” reproduction. So far music files played from a computer from a hard drive fail to deliver these finest details despite the claims made for them. The tonal balance is generally shifted towards the brighter end of the spectrum, far removed from the natural timbre of instruments and voices heard live. The sound stage is 2-dimensional, flat, with no real attempt to create the illusion of depth.

We fully appreciate the convenience of access to millions of tracks, the ability to create playlists and sampling music before purchasing a physical format. Convenient streaming and computer files may be, if it does not have the realism of a truly holographic sound stage and the timbre and textural properties of the instrument or voice, we would never choose convenience over sound quality. Even DACs capable of supporting high resolution files, DSD and DXD recordings, have not lived up to expectations despite glowing reviews. For us streaming from Tidal or Qobuz will be recommended as a convenient secondary source to offer our clients, who use CDs as their prime source.

We have introduced some streaming components to our portfolio but only after extensive and careful listening tests for sound quality. Up until this point, we have been disappointed with the flat, compressed sound of this medium, when compared to a good CD player. Streaming from subscription services such as Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon HD, etc, still does not compete with the same music played from a CD via a competent CD player.

We therefore regard streaming as being a complimentary technology to the best physical sources available, CD and Vinyl, as opposed to a replacement of these well-established, well proven formats. Streaming offers convenience for casual listening, discovering new music, sampling music prior to purchase, or creating background music playlists.

After extensive auditions of many of the best brands in this arena, two stood out to us on sound quality: AVM and Innuos. Both offer exceptional sound quality from physical sources as well as offering a competent sound from streaming but have a different take on this area.

AVM offers a real TEAC based ‘Pure CD Drive’ CD player integrated into many of their streaming units and are a more traditional hi-fi component in appearance. The CD is played as in a conventional transport in real time.

Innuos has its history in computer based equipment only. Their units give the ability to quickly rip CDs to internal storage and then serve this data (along with other streaming services and attached storage) to the network, or direct to the audio system, or to a separate DAC.

Both brands offer a more natural sound than most other streaming products at their respective price points and are solely audio-focused in their design and build.