Cyrus x2 - WD Live - No difference?

DylanFan

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Jun 18, 2013
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I recently bought the Arcam irDAC which I've used with streaming from a PC largly .flac I also have the Kandy2 CD player I’ve recently ‘borrowed’ a Cyrus x2 streamer & have had for a while a cheap WD TV live connected via optical to the DAC - The problem is the Cyrus X2 sounds no different to the WD Live or streaming from the PC using AIMP player, nor any worse than the Kandy CD player & are coming to the conclusion that the WD Live actually sounds better than CD played either from the Kandy's analogue out or wired to the DAC using either coax/optical.

I am fast coming to the conclusion that streamers don't do anything other than add an interface to see what's playing - As the music flowing into the Cyrus (£999) or WD Live (£55.00) is already digital what do streamers do for the grand the Cyrus costs? I noticed in the latest What H-Fi Cyrus has brought out a CD player that has 33% less errors than previous, I can only wonder what my Kandy CD plyer is sending to my amp? Lots of errors?

And why is the WD Live as good if not better than the Kandy CD player? My intention was to upgrade the WD Live to a something more esoteric now cash flow has improved, hence the returnable Cyrus X2 in my rack - I looked at the Cambridge streamer but was put off by app issues & the fact it probably wont like my 90,000 music files - The disadvantage with the WD Live is I have to use the TV to see what’s playing but the advantage is that the TV is never out of battery or borrowed/missing like my iPad, I’m at a bit of a loss to understand why a £55 unit sounds the same as a £1000 unit using 16bit .flac? Amp is Roksan Kandy 2 Am I going deaf or daft? :oops:
 

cheeseboy

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Jul 17, 2012
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You're not going mad at all, it's how it should be. A streamer isn't a bit of hifi kit, it's a networked computer, and generally speaking if you're outputting to an external dac, it shouldn't do anything to the data, as it's just passing it through. Therefore if you're using the same dac, it should sound the same.

There's quite a few people looking at the raspberry pi now as a serious alternative because it's super cheap and does the same job.
 

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