Hi ,

I'm a Noob to the Hifi world and my current set up is RR-2160 paired to Monitor audio Bronze BR6 speakers.Most of my time I stream Music through Chromecast audio through Tidal. Inspite of trying several options (even MQA from TIDAL through PC usb input) I still feel something is missing in the quality. I have only used Normal audio cables and have not Bi-amped my speakers>Can some one throw more light on the best way extract good quality from my current set up. Anyother alternative to Chromecast Audio which can can improve the quality (Blusound Node2). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Loki

Loki, streaming audio has no guarantees as far as audio quality and is usually the weakest link as well. There's a huge difference in quality among the different streaming options (from AM radio to Hi-Res), so if you want guaranteed high quality, then I would use CD's, SACD's or sites like HDTracks, Qobuz, etc...

Loki, I am streaming TIDAL Hi-Fi from my iPhone via a digital dock. The dock sends the raw digital bitstream to my Marantz SR6003 AVR via optical cable. The Marantz's DAC then decodes the digital bits to analog. I have to say, this setup sounds amazing. CD quality. I have played tracks that I have on CD and compared. The TIDAL tracks sounded at least as good, if not better for whatever reason, possibly due to my CD player not having a digital out so it is only outputting analog to the Marantz.

Loki, you need to get the audio signal to your 2160 as a digital signal and let the 2160s DAC decode and produce the music. Streaming from your phone or your computer is likely using the DAC in your phone/computer to decode the signal. High quality digital streaming is made garbage if not decoded by a quality DAC which you paid big $$$ for in your 2160. As Stach said above the streaming quality control is just not consistently consistent.

That's exactly right XenonMan, and is what I was describing in my previous post.

What digital dock do you use? I’m looking for one also.