One Step Back Before the End

My previous post discussed the final form of my downstairs 'big' sound system. I had every reason to think that I had it knocked.

However, I also expressed some reservations about my fancy new toy, the HiFi Rose RS130 digital streamer, a big-box jobber with a spectacular display that does nothing except stream the digits from my MacMini server on to my Yggdrasil+ DAC.

And $5000+ is a lot to pay for a box that does only that, no matter how attractive it is. I questioned whether I was really hearing any difference, or if it was just those really spiffy good looks that were making me hear something that isn't actually there.

I got a chance to find out. The expensive super-duper streamer hadn't been in my system for two weeks before the damn thing died. I wasn't sure if there might be some way of re-booting it, but some research online made clear that its particular problem of just clicking after the power button is pressed, but not starting up, is actually kind of widespread.

Wow, I thought. Damn, I thought. Fuck them, I thought. If you charge $5000+ for a one-trick pony like that, it had better do that trick damn reliably. At least your five grand needs to go for that, right?

But it died, and apparently a lot of RS130s have a tendency to do that. It's not a reliable product.

So back it went to Crutchfield, and may the heavens bless them for their Nordstrom-level return policy. I had scrupulously saved all of the shipping materials, just in case the thing didn't work out for me. Thus the one-trick pony is on its way to the glue pot and I'm getting my money back. All of it.

I didn't suspect that the RS130 would just up and die like that, but I had a sneaking suspicion that buyer's remorse would set in over having purchased something that just can't be worth $5000 when other streamers, such as the Bluesound Node in digital passthrough mode, pass the digits through just as well. Any timing issues, a.k.a. jitter, can't be to the point where anybody would hear them, and according to various reviews, the Node configured as a pure digital passthrough does precisely what it is supposed to do, which is to pass through the digits utterly unmolested. Nor is there any problem with the AC power supply. My DAC is beautifully isolated from any kind of electronic interference, as is my preamplifier. Besides, I plug everything into a good-quality power conditioner. Jeez ... how much electronic noise could there be in the power after that? Probably next to none.

And here's the kicker: once I put the Bluesound Node back into the system in place of the prematurely posthumous RS130, I couldn't hear a damn bit of difference. The system still sounds just jim-dandy peachy, thanks to those superb electronics from Bryston and Schiit Audio, and those lordly speakers from Bowers and Wilkins. Maybe harder-core audiophiles would hear a difference between basic digital passthrough at $600 versus $5000. But I can't. And at some very deep level I really, really doubt that such a difference exists.

And I know that my Bluesound Node will just keep on ticking away, since I have two of the things with nary a burp out of either. Class acts, those Nodes.