Another post about a streamer upgrade

@2psyop and ​​​​@hilde45 I agree - emphasis on the streamer to improve sound quality without even identifying what sound quality “issue” there is, is an inefficient place to exercise one’s upgrade-itis.

If the interest is in a seamless user interface, it would be most future-proof to start educating oneself on how straightforward some of the LINUX-based freeware OS’s can be run on a self-assembled system. When a separate DAC is in play, there seems a lot less left for the transport computer to make magic of ;)

Ready-made streamers are great if you can (1) afford and justify them and (2) can try the app out firsthand, preferably in your system, before committing. Paying for a streamer app-unused is not something I’d advocate to someone with specific criteria for how it would preferably run.

Not looking to pot-stir. Just reinstating what general science tells us.

The fallacy of the “weak link” remains a fallacy until there is hard evidence of its existence. That’s what I meant by individuals who seek improvement in various “links” without perhaps understanding how they work and how swapping components may change them. In this (OP) case, a perceived sonic shortcoming was not even described. Based on the OP, a preferable software package x app is what should be the focus of this thread.

However, I am curious why after quite a few years there still seems to be no consumer preference research done in a statistically robust way to demonstrate any difference in how digital data are streamed in a music playback system. 

Bear in mind that’s not me saying a difference couldn’t exist. But where such a difference should not be perceptible to human hearing based on all available (rigorous) info at hand, it seems like a good place to do a consumer preference study, one that would hold up analytically. It would say a lot, but admittedly difference is a two-way street (it can exist or not), and perhaps that’s the scary thing for designers.

All the data centers that house streaming services’ files - how much is the music data degrade before individuals’ in-home systems, by lack of warehouse-scale LPS’s, proper cabling, dedicated processors, etc.? 

Again, I’m not saying more expensive streamers can’t be better-sounding. I’m just saying I have never been able to understand the logic for how they offer higher fidelity, in the absence of demonstrated perceptible difference (accounts of satisfied buyer feedback doesn’t count for this in any industry).

If we don’t query ourselves about what we want out of such toys as music playback systems, then our approach will not be question-driven problem-solving. To me, that sounds like a life about a journey that could get unnecessarily expensive and one in which enough might never be enough. 😉

@audphile1 thanks, indeed the source of my skepticism over broad applicability of the stance that greater cost = greater quality: there’s no robust study to support this, just many anecdotes and opinions. That will not change until design schematics / fabrication costs vs. fabrication / transportation costs are made available for low end to high end streamers. Until then, no evidence of streamer quality scaling linearly, or otherwise, with price.

Now to be extra clear, again, that’s not me saying “absence of evidence [of a difference in sound between streamers] = evidence of absence [of said difference in sound between streamers].” Anyone who suggests that is as unscientifically anchored as one who touts an opinion as evidence.

@ghdprentice thanks, conversely, I’m not sure you understand what “logic” would be in this case. I’m not looking to offend but rather clarify. Logic would have your reasoning based on evidential support, something that can be replicated by others. IOW, describe the process, not the pattern. The pattern is spend more and more and more money, hear more and more and more difference. Never mind the tangle from bias - the assumption most other folks will, too, is the issue. Your anecdotal experiences, numerous and over years, are still not robust enough to constitute the next guy’s predictable experience should that person try to replicate them. Consequently, your suggestion that your impressions are transferable is not particularly sound (pun!), but it’s an Internet forum so type as ya like. I don’t need to elaborate on how the differences between personal experiences and the opinions they help form cannot reliably serve the same purposes as results from a controlled investigation free of bias. But given the latter, it would take just one controlled listener preference study (a real one), similar to those done to greater / lesser extent in amps and speakers. If such an investigation showed linear scaling of preference for streamer brand/model based on unit retail price, the relative lack of testable difference in how digital transports work with what’s downstream of them would quickly become a less relevant hole in general knowledge, and the popular stance on the matter would be supported by more than anecdotal opinion. 
Opinions are fine for individuals, but their transferability to other individuals and situations are simply not predictable. YMMV being the four magic letters when sharing about effects on others’ systems you aren’t familiar with, but of course, that is just my opinion, man ;)

ghdprentice

5,843 posts

01-09-2024 at 09:53am 

@benanders

I’m glad you are curious. But we are not working on graduate degrees here (which btw I have). Those of us with lots of experience are trying to help those with less to effectively navigate this extremely complex landscape and avoid wasting enormous amount of time and money. 
 

Okay @ghdprentice . Thread’s yours, bud. 🤣

Care to oblige OP as to whether quality of streamer OS / user apps also scale predictably with unit price? Software was supposed to be the lion’s share of this topic.