New speakers or DAC?

[bartlett23]

I have a Marantz M-CR603, which is currently running a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 9.1s.

I mainly play music via an AirportExpress from a Mac Mini so am looking for ways to improve sound quality, as it's not as good as CD. Would a DAC be better, such as Arcam's new AirDAC or a new pair of speakers? Am thinking Acoustic Energy's new 301s as I need front ported speakers. Both are about the same price.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

 

[Overdose]

I have a Marantz M-CR603, which is currently running a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 9.1s.

I mainly play music via an AirportExpress from a Mac Mini so am looking for ways to improve sound quality, as it's not as good as CD. Would a DAC be better, such as Arcam's new AirDAC or a new pair of speakers? Am thinking Acoustic Energy's new 301s as I need front ported speakers. Both are about the same price.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

If you consider that your streamed music is not as good as CD, then either your music rips or the DAC may be to blame. What type of file and what bit rate do you use? Personally, I find 192Kbps AAC files with VBR to be identical in sound to lossless ALAC files.

How is your AEX connected? Digital output or via headphone jack?

Turn on error correction for the best chance of a good rip and turn off the iTunes EQ.

Lastly, speakers have the potential to give you the best improvement, but you need to optimise your music files first to get them to sound the same as CDs.

 

[bartlett23]

Hi there.

I'm importing CDs at 256 kbps (stereo) using the AAC encoder or using Apple Lossless. I also buy a fair bit of stuff from the iTunes store which is also 256kbps, so the file quality should be fine. Just want to upgrade the AirPlay system as I use that most, and trying to work out the most cost effective way.

Cheers :beer:

 

[ID.]

Hi there.

I'm importing CDs at 256 kbps (stereo) using the AAC encoder or using Apple Lossless. I also buy a fair bit of stuff from the iTunes store which is also 256kbps, so the file quality should be fine. Just want to upgrade the AirPlay system as I use that most, and trying to work out the most cost effective way.

Cheers :beer:

If it's lossless it should sound as good as CD. Where possible, rerip to lostless because the reason it doesn't sound as good as CD is because the source material isn't so upgrading the DAC isn't going to do much for you.

Overall I think upgrading speakers will bring the most gains in that system (but reripping to lossless is free).

 

[bartlett23]

TBH, there's a real mix of file types in my iTunes library so I don't always know what's lossless and what isn't. Maybe the CDs sounding better is all in my head.

And I secretly wanted new speakers over a DAC anyway, so cheers

 

[BigH]

Check those iTunes settings, lots of problems with their default settings.

 

[Overdose]

TBH, there's a real mix of file types in my iTunes library so I don't always know what's lossless and what isn't. Maybe the CDs sounding better is all in my head.

And I secretly wanted new speakers over a DAC anyway, so cheers

I find 192 AAC files using VBR compression to be excellent. Certainly 256Kbps AACs will sound no different to a CD, given the same DAC is used and error correction is used for the rips.

Sounds like you might need a nice pair of actives with integrated DAC.