How Good a CD Transport is Required to Sound Better than Streaming?

There seems to be a fairly solid consensus (Lucasz Ficus, LL21, Al M, etc.) that CD playback or computer file playback, or perhaps both, sound better than streaming (assuming, of course, that all other variables, including the DAC, are held constant).

But I assume that one cannot assume that any device that can spin a CD necessarily will achieve better sound quality than will streaming.

So how good a CD transport does one need to achieve CD playback which sounds better than streaming? Where do the lines (rising sound quality of better transport and streaming sound quality) cross?

 

Hi Pat!

You are correct. I don't remember that comparison. That is interesting.

It's puzzling, because I take as a matter of faith, all else being equal, that in a comparison of the same exact recording and mastering a physical CD generally will sound better than streaming. For this proposition I cite Lucasz Fikus.

In that comparison was "all else equal" in terms of wires and ethernet switches and other digital doo-dads?

Hi Ron,
I used to share this opinion until I had the opportunity to experiment extensively with local and remote streaming.
In essence, you take the output of a transport, cable it into a DAC and listen to the result. About the only thing you can improve is the quality of the cable

In streaming, there’s a whole chain of components i.e the network that can be used to refine the data stream. In the course of transitioning a network that data stream is resynthesized and retimed several times. From a sound quality (audio) standpoint the whole network chain works on a better in = better out principle so if the network is arranged as a series of improvements, ie a cascade of increasing higher spec physical layer components, an improvement early in the chain will compound at all the following stages. Thus a network can be set up to clean, refine, retime and improve the data stream at every stage.
In my experiments I took this to the extreme, providing a cascade of improving cabling based on Synergistic Research, a cascade of improving power supplies based on Sean Jacobs DC4 ARC6 supplies, a cascade of gradually improving anti-vibration measures based of IsoAcoustics footers, Atacama bases and Finite Element MR racks, a cascade of improving power cables based on SR, with ALL cable screens star earthed to a low impedance ground and all DC power running though Mundorf Silver Gold cable in JSSG360 format. As I gradually added all these measures and components over a 5 year period, I reliably obtained solid improvements in sound quality, sometimes of a jaw dropping magnitude. Compare that to the almost static nature of a transport, where the only real improvement potential lies in vibration control, the interconnect, the power cable and the transport itself. With a transport you really have no access to the data stream, which is where much of the improvement potential lies. The transport itself is a source of vibration (spinning disc, motors, servos), lots of noise (power supplies, motors, servos, processors etc.) and there’s really nothing to be done to ameliorate those noise sources, so its very much a case of what you see is what you get, whereas streaming offers huge potential for improvements that got me way beyond what I had previously achieved with both vinyl and CD media. If we were talking small or marginal increases in performance I’d be far more cautious in posting about my efforts, but some of these improvements were profound in the way they affected the listener and my reaction to the music. For me, changes in the ‘hi-fi’ performance of a system are only important if they consistently change my long term enjoyment of the music and that’s exactly what I’m talking about with network optimization. I always enjoyed listening to music on my system, but many many upgrades over the years were noted but quickly assimilated so that levels of involvment and emotional response remained the same. With streaming, the potential improvements have a major impact on how the music affects the listener subconsciously…..increasing emotional response and the music’s ability to instantly (temporarily) change the listener’s mood. With CD, I always preferred what a good vinyl recording could do, because digital always had a synthetic element to the sound that I didn’t care for. Based on the above experiments, I’ve come to believe that the digital sound ‘character‘ is an artefact of noise that can’t be heard directly as noise but whose presence affects the processing of digital data streams in a way that negatively impacts the final sound quality. Remove as much noise as possible from a high quality digital stream and the sound quality becomes far more natural, transcending that which is possible from vinyl (which has a sound character of its own) and untreated digital.

 

Hi Ron,
I used to share this opinion until I had the opportunity to experiment extensively with local and remote streaming.
In essence, you take the output of a transport, cable it into a DAC and listen to the result. About the only thing you can improve is the quality of the cable

In streaming, there’s a whole chain of components i.e the network that can be used to refine the data stream. In the course of transitioning a network that data stream is resynthesized and retimed several times. From a sound quality (audio) standpoint the whole network chain works on a better in = better out principle so if the network is arranged as a series of improvements, ie a cascade of increasing higher spec physical layer components, an improvement early in the chain will compound at all the following stages. Thus a network can be set up to clean, refine, retime and improve the data stream at every stage.
In my experiments I took this to the extreme, providing a cascade of improving cabling based on Synergistic Research, a cascade of improving power supplies based on Sean Jacobs DC4 ARC6 supplies, a cascade of gradually improving anti-vibration measures based of IsoAcoustics footers, Atacama bases and Finite Element MR racks, a cascade of improving power cables based on SR, with ALL cable screens star earthed to a low impedance ground and all DC power running though Mundorf Silver Gold cable in JSSG360 format. As I gradually added all these measures and components over a 5 year period, I reliably obtained solid improvements in sound quality, sometimes of a jaw dropping magnitude. Compare that to the almost static nature of a transport, where the only real improvement potential lies in vibration control, the interconnect, the power cable and the transport itself. With a transport you really have no access to the data stream, which is where much of the improvement potential lies. The transport itself is a source of vibration (spinning disc, motors, servos), lots of noise (power supplies, motors, servos, processors etc.) and there’s really nothing to be done to ameliorate those noise sources, so its very much a case of what you see is what you get, whereas streaming offers huge potential for improvements that got me way beyond what I had previously achieved with both vinyl and CD media. If we were talking small or marginal increases in performance I’d be far more cautious in posting about my efforts, but some of these improvements were profound in the way they affected the listener and my reaction to the music. For me, changes in the ‘hi-fi’ performance of a system are only important if they consistently change my long term enjoyment of the music and that’s exactly what I’m talking about with network optimization. I always enjoyed listening to music on my system, but many many upgrades over the years were noted but quickly assimilated so that levels of involvment and emotional response remained the same. With streaming, the potential improvements have a major impact on how the music affects the listener subconsciously…..increasing emotional response and the music’s ability to instantly (temporarily) change the listener’s mood. With CD, I always preferred what a good vinyl recording could do, because digital always had a synthetic element to the sound that I didn’t care for. Based on the above experiments, I’ve come to believe that the digital sound ‘character‘ is an artefact of noise that can’t be heard directly as noise but whose presence affects the processing of digital data streams in a way that negatively impacts the final sound quality. Remove as much noise as possible from a high quality digital stream and the sound quality becomes far more natural, transcending that which is possible from vinyl (which has a sound character of its own) and untreated digital.

But that's the point. Very few people go to the great lengths in implementing streaming that you did. As I have said, good streaming can be done, but actual implementation is difficult and/or expensive.

As for your former CD playback having a synthetic element in the sound, that suggests it was not implemented optimally either.

Yes, noise is the enemy of digital.

 

But that's the point. Very few people go to the great lengths in implementing streaming that you did. As I have said, good streaming can be done, but actual implementation is difficult and/or expensive.

Hi Al,
There’s plenty here on the forum who’ve done just that.

There’s so many examples of great file based server systems here… Taiko, Wadax, Antipodes, Innuos, CH Precision… it’s not that difficult once you get past the initial challenges of a more complex approach and I’ll admit I did it the hard way by trying to get under way without having access to a lot of tech support myself… but there are plenty of reasonable cost options as well… it’s not just about the ultra OTT top end.

You are comfortable with staying with a spinner and I’m sure your sound is good. I saw other advantages (mainly about music access) in going with a file based server setup instead.

 

… what about a lossless rip of that same cd fed to the streamer/dac vs the cd directly into same dac though… only difference being 1. file based playback of cd (rip) and 2. cd and the player used 1.1 server/streamer into dac and 2.2 CDT into server… would you think there’s still a difference?

I don't know. That's not my field.

In my interview with Lucasz at Steve's during the debut of the LampizatOr Horizon, I asked Lucasz about CD versus file playback versus streaming. The answer is in there.

Off the top of my head I don't remember Lucasz's general preference between CD and file playback.

Please see:

 

Hi Ron,
I used to share this opinion until I had the opportunity to experiment extensively with local and remote streaming.
In essence, you take the output of a transport, cable it into a DAC and listen to the result. About the only thing you can improve is the quality of the cable

In streaming, there’s a whole chain of components i.e the network that can be used to refine the data stream. In the course of transitioning a network that data stream is resynthesized and retimed several times. From a sound quality (audio) standpoint the whole network chain works on a better in = better out principle so if the network is arranged as a series of improvements, ie a cascade of increasing higher spec physical layer components, an improvement early in the chain will compound at all the following stages. Thus a network can be set up to clean, refine, retime and improve the data stream at every stage.
In my experiments I took this to the extreme, providing a cascade of improving cabling based on Synergistic Research, a cascade of improving power supplies based on Sean Jacobs DC4 ARC6 supplies, a cascade of gradually improving anti-vibration measures based of IsoAcoustics footers, Atacama bases and Finite Element MR racks, a cascade of improving power cables based on SR, with ALL cable screens star earthed to a low impedance ground and all DC power running though Mundorf Silver Gold cable in JSSG360 format. As I gradually added all these measures and components over a 5 year period, I reliably obtained solid improvements in sound quality, sometimes of a jaw dropping magnitude. Compare that to the almost static nature of a transport, where the only real improvement potential lies in vibration control, the interconnect, the power cable and the transport itself. With a transport you really have no access to the data stream, which is where much of the improvement potential lies. The transport itself is a source of vibration (spinning disc, motors, servos), lots of noise (power supplies, motors, servos, processors etc.) and there’s really nothing to be done to ameliorate those noise sources, so its very much a case of what you see is what you get, whereas streaming offers huge potential for improvements that got me way beyond what I had previously achieved with both vinyl and CD media. If we were talking small or marginal increases in performance I’d be far more cautious in posting about my efforts, but some of these improvements were profound in the way they affected the listener and my reaction to the music. For me, changes in the ‘hi-fi’ performance of a system are only important if they consistently change my long term enjoyment of the music and that’s exactly what I’m talking about with network optimization. I always enjoyed listening to music on my system, but many many upgrades over the years were noted but quickly assimilated so that levels of involvment and emotional response remained the same. With streaming, the potential improvements have a major impact on how the music affects the listener subconsciously…..increasing emotional response and the music’s ability to instantly (temporarily) change the listener’s mood. With CD, I always preferred what a good vinyl recording could do, because digital always had a synthetic element to the sound that I didn’t care for. Based on the above experiments, I’ve come to believe that the digital sound ‘character‘ is an artefact of noise that can’t be heard directly as noise but whose presence affects the processing of digital data streams in a way that negatively impacts the final sound quality. Remove as much noise as possible from a high quality digital stream and the sound quality becomes far more natural, transcending that which is possible from vinyl (which has a sound character of its own) and untreated digital.

Thank you very much for this kind and comprehensive explanation. I do appreciate it! I also fully appreciate that the application of this level of thought, dedication and perfectionism to a problem can create an exception to a general rule (if, in fact, that general rule is valuable in the first place).

But honestly, it is lost on me. I don't like computers, and all the data talk and IT talk and digital talk sounds like computer stuff to me. It's just not the music reproduction path I have any strong practical or intellectual interest in.

As a sonic matter and as a philosophical matter and as a policy matter I am happy with some version of analog, except for enjoying the convenience of Qobuz streaming. I respect the criticisms about the character of vinyl playback (including artificial warmth, ticks and pops, tweakiness, stress of non-optimality and peak-y moving coil cartridges). My answer was to move to analog tape -- to which I have applied the least effort and money, and from which I get the most musical satisfaction.

I genuinely am delighted that you have found your way to the digital promised land you sought!

Thank you, again, for the thoughtful and detailed explanation!

 

But that's the point. Very few people go to the great lengths in implementing streaming that you did. As I have said, good streaming can be done, but actual implementation is difficult and/or expensive.

As for your former CD playback having a synthetic element in the sound, that suggests it was not implemented optimally either.

Yes, noise is the enemy of digital.

Of course you may be correct although I did lavish the same care, attention and budget on optimising several CD-based systems as i did on streaming but could never get anything like the same results. I imagine it’s why a lot of audiophiles still prefer analog over digital. The difference, as I mentioned is that in CD one doesn't have the same access to the data stream to remove noise and a CD transport is in itself a fairly noisy environment.
I wouldn’t call my streaming implementation difficult or particularly expensive, given that it’s both logically conceived and very scalable. I think the best term to apply is ‘audio optimized’ based on a lot of experimentation and a willingness to accept alternate conclusions vs the accepted IT wisdom.
When I went into audio streaming I had a lot of preconceived beliefs about how digital is supposed to work. Those beliefs had their roots in the IT community and I had no reason to question or disbelieve, given they were well proven concepts. For example, the concept that a bit-perfect file cannot be improved upon, the logic being that improving a file must by definition alter its bit structure. Or that the clocks in an internet stream have no effect on the final sound. The problem I encountered was that while the above may be true in a purely IT environment, I was unable to get the same results when the data files were converted into music and evaluated as subjective and subconscious reactions. Based on my initial experiments i developed a personal logic that hypothesized that the quality of a bit perfect data stream’s physical layer has a major impact on sound quality. When I pursued this hypothesis, the results followed, often far exceeding my expectations. The extremes to which I took the optimisation were based entirely on the results I was getting. You may wonder at the sanity of spending $4K on a power supply for a modified $250 network bridge, but when the results obtained exceed those of other potential $4K upgrades then at least based on audiophile economics, it makes perfect sense. But the great thing is, a $1K power supply applied in the right place can bring equally jaw dropping improvements. The key measure isn’t the amount of $$$ spent, its the logic applied to construct a network that optimises the resulting sound quality.

 

If I was to add a CD transport to my MSB Reference DAC/Reference Digital Director combo it would be the Pro-Ject RS2 T (in black livery) via AES/EBU. How would it compare with streaming via the MSB Network Renderer module? I expect it would sound exactly the same, albeit less convenient. Happy to conduct the experiment in the future if funds permit.

We are in a similar position. My current transport is PS Audio PST SACD and I’m happy with it but I was considering a smaller unit to save space. AES/EBU output is mandatory (I have the Reference 7 meters far from the other sources). What I don’t like about the RS2 T is the quality of the display graphics (icons are really embarrassing to see - have you seen the one that appears when there isn’t a CD inside?).

 

Of course you may be correct although I did lavish the same care, attention and budget on optimising several CD-based systems as i did on streaming but could never get anything like the same results. I imagine it’s why a lot of audiophiles still prefer analog over digital. The difference, as I mentioned is that in CD one doesn't have the same access to the data stream to remove noise and a CD transport is in itself a fairly noisy environment.

My Mutec reclocker fed from the CD transport rejects noise and feeds a low noise signal into my DAC. On the power side, the transport+ reclocker are also isolated from the DAC, and all from the rest of the system, by isolation transformers. Good quality power cords are also essential for sound quality.

 

I roughed up a server with an obsolete mac mini, a Meridian 518 digital processor that I had in mothballs since forever, and a Yamaha MXC 50. My pre pro has a server element but no digital processor loop, and the MXC has a digital output for the Meridian.
The sound quality with the old Meridian in the loop (reclocks, removes jitter, adds word length, dither and noise shaping to match DAC) has a surprising level of fidelity for anything redbook and below, including Spotify and even old 128 kps mp3 and various compressed files and FLAC.

My hi rez discs and SACD can still be played through the disc player and the pre pro, but they seem almost redundant. Ordinary CD's played through the Meridian loop back into the 24/192 DAC sound, well, amazing.

That's nice since there is so much stuff out there in redbook, and the file sizes are manageable without draconian storage and retrieval force majeure requirements. It seems that the improvements in DACs have also allowed sufficient recovery of the redbook format with the right processing and inputs.

 

We are in a similar position. My current transport is PS Audio PST SACD and I’m happy with it but I was considering a smaller unit to save space. AES/EBU output is mandatory (I have the Reference 7 meters far from the other sources). What I don’t like about the RS2 T is the quality of the display graphics (icons are really embarrassing to see - have you seen the one that appears when there isn’t a CD inside?).

Agreed. The icons used by Pro-Ject is a sore point for me.

 

I roughed up a server with an obsolete mac mini, a Meridian 518 digital processor that I had in mothballs since forever, and a Yamaha MXC 50. My pre pro has a server element but no digital processor loop, and the MXC has a digital output for the Meridian.
The sound quality with the old Meridian in the loop (reclocks, removes jitter, adds word length, dither and noise shaping to match DAC) has a surprising level of fidelity for anything redbook and below, including Spotify and even old 128 kps mp3 and various compressed files and FLAC.

My hi rez discs and SACD can still be played through the disc player and the pre pro, but they seem almost redundant. Ordinary CD's played through the Meridian loop back into the 24/192 DAC sound, well, amazing.

That's nice since there is so much stuff out there in redbook, and the file sizes are manageable without draconian storage and retrieval force majeure requirements. It seems that the improvements in DACs have also allowed sufficient recovery of the redbook format with the right processing and inputs.

Agreed. The digital engineers conceiving the Redbook CD format were mostly correct in their math (yes, as it seems now that math had some minor flaws preventing perfection, but nothing gross). Hi-res was mostly a band-aid for technical implementation problems, but not strictly needed on the *playback* side. The main problem of the Redbook CD format is that it is so uncomfortably "on the edge", with little safety headroom to spare. But once implementation gets to a certain level where it is closer to ideal, which finally after a few decades now is more achievable, the advantages of hi-res become less and less.

On the *recording/mastering* side of course a greater bit depth is advised, since it prevents or minimizes losses during digital manipulation.

 

I'd like to see someone run one of these experiments using a top flight transport/DAC combination, like maybe an Esoteric Grandioso K1X SE SACD Player, using the Esoteric's excellent DAC for the streaming piece, and doing both CD and SACD playback. Streaming both locally stored files and identical files from Qobuz over a well curated network. Maybe soon such a comparison could be made on a complete WADAX Reference system once they release their new transport. I thought I read somewhere where one of the WADAX folks expects their transport to provide a tad better SQ than streaming on their system?

 

I wish the car makers would put CD players back in cars. Mine will take an SD card but no CD.

I have the AIE USBCD 2. Amazon $149. Other less expensive options available. Seems to be sturdy, well made and sounds good to me in my Mazda CX5.

 

'feel good' electric cars are just that. their actual carbon equation is debatable. .

NPR had a very detailed "Sunday Story" podcast about this topic using industry energy experts as sources to analyze the various segments of the carbon equation. Their analysis, if you believe the experts they interviewed, was quite conclusive. Significant overall reduction in carbon pollution. You might want to listen to that podcast if that topic interests you.

 

Honda did return to an actual volume rotating knob, within easy no look reach, for their sound systems....in their most recent model cycles.

Honda's have the best human engineering of any cars. which means things are where they should be and you can focus on the driving and not processing. Honda's certainly have menu's and various adjustments too; but many are locked out if the car is not in park. safety first.

You should look at the Mazda concept which has been in place for many years. Little if any touch screen pushing required and a rotating "push" dial on the center console to access menu items and selections thereof. A simply brilliant solution to avoid distracting processing. And a separate volume control using a knob. IMO, Mazda can certainly give Honda a challenge for best "driver safety focused" human engineering.

 

Mike, it was my understanding that Roon had a sound signature that was not preferred. Is this not the case?

Also......and this may be based upon my streaming setup....

Vinyl (while limited in frequencies), offers more on other aspects...

Tom

 

I don't know. That's not my field.

In my interview with Lucasz at Steve's during the debut of the LampizatOr Horizon, I asked Lucasz about CD versus file playback versus streaming. The answer is in there.

Off the top of my head I don't remember Lucasz's general preference between CD and file playback.

Please see:

… that’s great Ron - all the answers there

 

I'd like to see someone run one of these experiments using a top flight transport/DAC combination, like maybe an Esoteric Grandioso K1X SE SACD Player, using the Esoteric's excellent DAC for the streaming piece, and doing both CD and SACD playback. Streaming both locally stored files and identical files from Qobuz over a well curated network. Maybe soon such a comparison could be made on a complete WADAX Reference system once they release their new transport. I thought I read somewhere where one of the WADAX folks expects their transport to provide a tad better SQ than streaming on their system?

I have done this experiment many times, mostly using a CEC TL0 belt-driven transport. In my almost 40 years of using CD transports, this is by far the best one I have used. I think it’s the combination of the use of belt drive, which minimizes vibration, the suspended three-point chassis, the massive fly-wheel effect of the puck that is heavier than almost anyone uses, and the two box separation of the power supply and the electronics. All in all, it’s a stunning CD transport, well worth it if you are like me and still have thousands of redbook CDs lying around. It won‘t play anything else. It’s quite heavy, around 50 pounds with the power supply. It’s very analog like in its use. You pick up the flywheel puck, put the CD on on a suspended chassis, and put the puck back on. No drawer that slides in and out, like the Esoteric’s, which invariably go bad. And unlike Esoteric’s notorious “Read Error” bug that plagues all their top quality transports (including the Grandioso’s), it reads almost all CDs I have without a hitch.

FWIW, I consider all universal transports seriously flawed. I owned an Esoteric P-03 transport for a few years (SACD + CD), and it just doesn’t compare to the CEC. What you get in convenience, you lose in sonic quality. Not to mention universal transports are slow as molasses in reading discs. I recall the Sony SCD-1 used to take 30 seconds to read a CD. I have a massive Marantz universal Blu-Ray player, and I can go to sleep before it decides to play back a CD.

Why CD replay from a top quality transport sounds better in many cases than streaming is a mystery to me. Partly, I think Roon has so many layers of processing that it seems to drain many recordings of their inherent quality. A lot of Roon rendered bitstreams sound compressed to my ears. They keep adding more and more DSP options and one has to wonder how much their layers of processing affects the sound. The CEC does no processing at all — no upsampling tricks, no DSP nothing. You get the raw bits off the CD, and it gets sent to whatever DAC you use. I’m currently pairing it with Brian Putzey’s masterpiece, the Mola Mola MAKUA preamp with the Tambaqui DAC built in (and this sounds better than the standalone Tambaqui as it uses a class A line level section and no digital volume control).

https://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/326/index.html

 

Thank you very much for this kind and comprehensive explanation. I do appreciate it! I also fully appreciate that the application of this level of thought, dedication and perfectionism to a problem can create an exception to a general rule (if, in fact, that general rule is valuable in the first place).

But honestly, it is lost on me. I don't like computers, and all the data talk and IT talk and digital talk sounds like computer stuff to me. It's just not the music reproduction path I have any strong practical or intellectual interest in.

As a sonic matter and as a philosophical matter and as a policy matter I am happy with some version of analog, except for enjoying the convenience of Qobuz streaming. I respect the criticisms about the character of vinyl playback (including artificial warmth, ticks and pops, tweakiness, stress of non-optimality and peak-y moving coil cartridges). My answer was to move to analog tape -- to which I have applied the least effort and money, and from which I get the most musical satisfaction.

I genuinely am delighted that you have found your way to the digital promised land you sought!

Thank you, again, for the thoughtful and detailed explanation!

Ticks & Pops and peaky moving coil cartridges. I have 28,500 LPs. After Kirmuss Ultra sonic and VPI 16 cleaning, most records do not exhibit a problem with pops & ticks. It is possibly due to use of non-peaky sounding moving coil cartridges. Currently, I use a less than SOTA resolution cartridge, the Dynavector 20X2 L (previously a Benz Ruby 3). The noise level of the vinyl has dropped significantly despite enjoying a high resolution speaker (Von Schweikert VR9 SE Mk2 rewired/new ribbon tweeters/new Foundation amps). It is currently an all tube system geared to neutrality. Pops & ticks go by so quickly when they are present that it has to be a damage or very poor vinyl to affect the overall playback and enjoyment. Guests do not point out LPs as being noisy. They are flummoxed in most cases in their inability whether I am playing a CD or an LP. My audio friends share in similar very low noise/minimally intrusive pops & ticks on their analog playback and avoid rising high end/non-flat sounding cartridges (with correct impedance loads). Setting up a new cartridge though is more psychologically painful than when I go to the dentist. I only change cartridges when the stylus is worn. That's my experience. I also listen to my 15,500 CDs and the noisier 7,000 78s.

My late friend Michael Lane was able to take early acoustic recordings, e.q. them, use noise shaping/gating computers, use a choice of 30 to 35 stylus/cartridges and reproduce them so beautifully that one was astonished on the clarity, dynamics and color of the performances, almost lifelike. To bad pressed Remington LPs from the 50's, he employed similar techniques and they were noiseless as the best pressed LP. It is possible but extremely uncommon to do the same at home for nearly all listeners and audiophiles. Sonic Restoration of Historical Recordings (Jun. 1991) (gammaelectronics.xyz) Sonic Restoration of Historical Recordings--Part 2 (Jul. 1991) (gammaelectronics.xyz) He had 250,000 records and only kept mint condition, so there's that.

 

My Jay's Audio CD2-MK3 CD transport -> Lampizator Baltic V4 is equal roughly to local high rez files hosted on my Lumin L2 -> the Lampizator (Lumin U1 transport), streaming is not yet quite at the same level except in very rare anomalous cases.