Weakest digital link: DAC - Streamer - Server?

@soix +1 couldn’t agree more with his take.

First I got an Innous Zenith MK3, then got a decent DAC (Musetec MH-DA005), now finishing it up with the Innuos Phoenix USB reclocker.

So start strong, then finish strong and lastly work the in-between to shore up any weakness in your sound chain.

@alexb76 Many, many years ago I ripped my CD library to a Synology NAS using iTunes, installed LMS, and used it for whole house stereo via Squeezebox devices connected to NAD 7140 integrated amps and tower speakers in several rooms.

About 4 years ago, I ditched the Squeezebox devices for RIVA Wand powered speakers. I purchased a 2TB Innous Zenith MKII streamer and a Roon lifetime subscription. I hosted Roon core on the Zenith, and I ripped my CD library to FLAC on the Zenith I had two zones: RAAT in my basement listening room and rec room; and AirPlay to the RIVA Wand speakers on my first and second floors.

A couple of months ago I migrated Roon core and database to a new Mac mini. In my basement, I use Sense and Roon for my first and second floors. IMHO, the Sense SQ exceeds Roon by a wide margin. Both Roon and Sense use the Zenith’s "shared" music library. I stream Tidal, Qobuz, and JazzRadio.com.  If you haven’t yet, give Sense a try if you can. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

In my "old school", the belief was that the most critical components were the transducers - speakers, phono cartridges, mics...

While a DAC might not technically be a transduceer, I'm satisfied that converting data into music qualifies as converting energy from one form to another!

These are the worst things you can do when setting up a digital playback system: use usb into a dac and have a server in the same room as your audio equipment.

Most of your better dacs use Ethernet and i2s. Using Ethernet, you can put your server in a different room.

If you buy a dedicated proprietary music server, the main reason you should be doing this is so you don’t have to build 1 yourself. There are many threads that have stated they heard no difference in sound between a good audirvana or Roon server or a $10k dedicated server. I’m in that camp too because I did have a Auralic Aries server for a couple years using usb to the dac then sold all that and went back to a Roon server (my hardware) using Ethernet to a great dac.

As for bit perfect streaming: how many times have you dealt with a remote company anywhere in the world and the data you sent to that company turned up not what you sent? If you purchased 10 shares of stock, did the remote computer interpret that 10 shares to be 100 or 1000? Packets of data are guaranteed to be sent in the order it was sent and the data had to be bit perfect or the packet is resent. If the data we send to banks or stock exchanges could not be guaranteed to be identical as the source, we would have major issues.

Your question, if i understand it correctly, is What factors influence

digital sound. 

It has been said that on a scale of 1-10.

CD = 10

File = 9

Streamed music= 7-7.5

If the above is accurate, streaming is already behind the eight ball by 25%.

Of the three you mention, the DAC is the first place to find improvement.

But just using Roon degrades the SQ.

And what about your Router line corrections?

Are you using fiber, coax or USB connections?

Please keep us posted on your progress!1