Thanks for the information. I was concerned that you may be suffering from lack of bandwidth though this may be more likely to cause inability to connect or breaks in reception rather than poor sound quality. Anyway you seem to have an excellent connection, better then mine according to your numbers
I have previously been treating your issue as a fault and reading this story from the start I hoped that there might be a clear suspect to deal with. However it all seems to be working properly. It is just that the outcome doesnât fit with your expectations. That kind of situation is ultimately personal and I am afraid that I canât add much from circa 1800km away.
You could see if there is something about Qobuz that you donât like by trying another streaming service using their free trial period. You could also perhaps try a different switch or some other network hardware. However you seem to rely on the changes being made by your technician. This can involve problems in communication if the technician is not also an audiophile. Good luck.
@Frankie67
Did you ever try the SOtM switch with power switch pushed down instead of up? (To turn off the status LEDs) Iâm curious if you heard a significant difference. For me, it was significant.
Yes I did and I like it much more in terms of SQ.
Iâll see the technician today and will try a number of things, including different cabling and a different PSU to the switch.
Happy to report that, after the visit of my technician today, by (i) moving the fiber optic switch at the wall end, and (ii) replacing the existing Ethernet cable connected to the SoTM switch with an Entreq cable, my network source (local hi-res files playback) has dramatically improved. Still need to change a couple PSUs with linear units but I would say that this source is now pretty much equal if not better than redbook cds.
I might be wrong but Iâve concluded that direct streaming from Qobuz (especially through Roon with Mosaic slightly superior) cannot be as good because of its inherent lower quality.
Extremely happy with the results. Thanks everyone of your help so far!
Youâve replaced a shielded Cat6 cable with an unshielded Entreq cable. Assuming this is between the switch and streamer, this is a good thing as you were formerly overriding the galvanic isolation inherent in the switchâs design.
Itâs interesting that your conclusion re sound quality says âcannotâ rather than âdoes notâ and refers to âinherent lower qualityâ. Do your ears tell you the same thing? Theory should inform practice not get in the way of it
After youâd moved the fiber optic switch at the wall end, did you listen to the system with the Cat 6 cable? Or did you only listen when youâd changed both the fiber optic position and the ethernet cable? Itâs best practice to change only one thing at a time of course, and so be able to associate cause with effect.
The first paragraph says you went from shielded to unshielded which IMHO is a good thing where a switch is concerned. I suspect that this will have contributed more than the fiber optic repositioning to an improvement in sound quality but it sounds like you donât know.
The second paragraph invited you to reflect on whether your âcannot be as good because of its inherent lower qualityâ was what you actually experienced ie. to confirm whether it is actually worse to your ears. You did say âI might be wrongâ!
My third paragraph asked if/how you knew whether the improvement in sound quality was from the change in cable or the change in fiber optic position. If you donât know and donât care, thatâs fine, but most people would be interested in which change made the difference, in understanding cause and effect.
You posted asking for help. Iâve offered it. Enjoy your system, whatever.
Not helpful the way you put it but it doesnât matter.
As I said on my post, and as it is a general assumption in this and other forums, my observations are completely personal and are solely based on my system and my ears.
Yes, I have made both changes one at a time and have tested my system before and after each of such changes. Based on my test, I would be inclined to say that the most important factor was the cable but moving the fiber optic switch at the wall end had a clear, audible effect too.
Iâm now planning to improve my network further by introducing better, linear PSUs and potentially a superior Ethernet cable in the future.
Thanks again for everyoneâs help so far.
Finally, if someone can let me know how I can reach a better quality with streaming from Qobuz (as opposed to local files playback) I would be most grateful.
This is the point that I need to understand. In my current system (after the most recent tweaks), local file playback is now on par with redbook cd (if not potentially slightly better). On the other hand, streaming from Qobuz (whether using Roon or Mosaic) is absolutely inferior in terms of SQ. My technician told me that itâs the same in his system and thatâs why we both concluded that it was something inherent in the SQ of such source (steaming) but again I might be wrong. Grateful if someone can help me improve this part as well!
IMO, a technician who confirms that streaming is of inherently less SQ is not helpful if you want better streaming SQ. It is not inherently of less SQ.
Please find yourself a good technician, who is not trying to sell you more stuff. Often, less is better. It is not complicated.
Franco, we need to try and find some rational possibilities rather than just chancing on a random number of potential solutions. I am sorry that this has to be lengthy.
So, working backwards we start with the loudspeakers and the amplifiers that power them. Why not them? These components are common to all of your music listening. Only streaming Qobuz is causing you problems yet streaming local files, CD/SACD replay is fine. So these components can be eliminated.
Next there is a pre-amp or pre-amp/processor. These too are common to all replay and therefore cannot be responsible for something that only affects Qobuz. However the processor comes in two parts one of which navigates and controls Qobuz ( Upsampler). It is therefore a potential culprit. The file processing itself produces an analogue signal is common to both Qobuz and the other digital music sources so seems not to be a problem. What about the software that navigates and controls Qpbuz? However the same problem occurs when either Mosaic or Roon is used. So either both Roon and Mosaic have the same issues or neither does. Aside from it being unlikely that both will show the same issues independently it is also necessary to say that all the thousands of other Roon or Mosaic users seem to be happy and, so far, I am only aware of this issue being reported by you ( plus your technician).
What about the network in terms of router , switches and cabling? I donât know how your system is configured but as you have network streaming of both local files and a streaming service unless otherwise advised it suggests that both involve the use of all of the above yet only Qobuz is reported has showing the issue. This suggests it is all working fine especially as you have just had it serviced yet the issue remains.
What about the Qobuz signal itself then? You report very good connection speeds from your ISP but what about what Qobuz actually sends? Just about everyone here says that Qobuz flac files, redbook or hi-res, are close to or even indistinguishable from originals. However of the posters here AFAIK only you is subscribed to Qobuz Italy. The rest of us have Qobuz USA, UK, France etc. This is why I asked earlier for you to try another streaming service using the free trial period . If that other service sounds good then we may have found the culprit. Remember Tidal has started or is just about to start a flac, not MQA, service so it and Qobuz will be directly comparable. In this context I note the comment made by your technician that he finds Qobuz of poor quality too. Is Qobuz Italy inferior to others?
Finally there is you. Individuals may be sensitive to issues which to others are not noticeable. Another reason to try an alternative streaming service.
I hope this long post helps but if you or anyone else can improve it please feel free.
On April 2022 my Swiss dealer organised a demo Rossini vs Rossini APEX.
On a USB stick I did bring along copies of some tracks of CDs I own.
When playing âWhat a Wonderful Worldâ from the Eva Cassidy album âNightbirdâ, my dealer thought that he had heard some PA noise on this album before and was amazed, that the noise was not there on my copy. He then started to stream the same track from Quobuz. The PA noise was not there either, so he switched back to USB, and this was really a slap, the CD copy had clearly superior SQ compared to the Quobuz streaming.
Recently from free Spotify I streamed âSanford & Son Themeâ from the Quincy Jones album âYouâve Got It Bad Girlâ and noticed a full and deep bass line. From the CD I own, the bass line was not nearly as prominently full and deep as from Spotify. In spite of the stream being only 256k mp3, IMHO the SQ was better from Spotify than from CD.
The bottom line:
Regardless of the data format, you do not have any influence on the SQ offered by the streaming provider or the CD record company. Different track copies with different masterings or even different CD pressings (!) will inevitably lead to differences in SQ.
Absolutely correct. However I think that Francoâs issue seems to be based around his complete experience of listening to Qobuz rather than individual comparisons alone. However I have given him a small sample of high quality albums I have heard on Qobuz UK. So far he has not responded but his last posting was made after I gave my list. Anyway I agree that simple comparisons can be misleading.
