Weakest digital link: DAC - Streamer - Server?

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

@ja_kub_sz 

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.

I was previously considering the Holo Audio May DAC as my next purchase, but the positive feedback for Mustetec on the other thread has me wondering if I should save my money and go with DA005 instead.

Hopefully you will share your impressions once you get the Phoenix USB reclocker. BTW, have you looked into PhoenixNET by any chance? There are folks who believe that it might result in more improvements compared to the USB reclocker.

Jason Bourne I think you're quite wrong about that, anything under four figures won't sound very good at all and you're also wrong about transports they do sound different, that's why esoteric makes the best ones and everybody else is second and third