Dedicated Music server vs Mac mini on a Devialet via Ethernet (AIR) connection

@roestano  

Digital is digital. Bits are bits. So you dont need to worry about noise if you assume Devialet has built a robust device with good power supply and have separated and isolated the digital logic circuits from contaminating the DAC section (this can occur through a shared  power supply or mere proximity of circuits). The only complication with audio is the timing signal. This timing problem (jitter) is well understood and modern equipmemt should function asynchronously which means the jitter clock is ignored. If you are providing ethernet to the DAC then your DAC is behaving like a small computer and it will not be receiving timing information over ethernet like it would with SPDIF or Toslink - so jitter will be a function of the electronics and clock stability of the Devialet itself. The Devialet should not care about the path of how the ethernet signal reaches it - so upstream digital devices should have no effect at all (apart from contamination of the house AC power from SMPS supply and which Devialet should be designed  to cope with.

@shadorne your explanation seems to make sense. Which makes me an even happier Devialet owner as it safes me quite some money on extra boxes and fiddling around with all the great options out there. 
I guess its the good old upgraditis which tries to find a reason to invest more in this hobby.
it’s a good opportunty to use the money on Roon lifetime. The 1.3 version sounds great and has nice DSP features that offer perfectly audible changes. My guess is that we’re in an era where software is going to be more important to our hobby/experience. Like Microsoft was back in the days.

@shadorne and @roestano

That hasn't been the findings of my own testing and many others on computeraudiophile.com

See this massive thread:

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/30376-a-novel-way-to-massively-improve-the-sq-of-com...

how is shadorne's post different?

he lists the following criteria:
- good power supply
- separated and isolated the digital logic circuits from contaminating the DAC section
- timing/jitter & which clock is used
- contamination of the house AC power from SMPS supply

What would you add to that list?

@limniscate

Ethernet is great so is optical. Optical has perfect galvanic isolation and a jitter immune DAC will just reject the higher jitter on an optical feed. However it all depends on a good DAC. If the DAC works perfectly then it will sound the same if the bits arriving are the same - no matter if they come over optical, coax, USB or ethernet. (not saying all DACs sound the same but a good one ought to sound the same on any digital input if it receives the same bit perfect data)

It boils down to the DAC performance - and performance leaves a lot to be desired for many products out there...so no wonder folks report differences with all kinds of tweaks and different inputs, bridges etc.