Do I need a streamer?


Streaming devices, with or without an internal DAC, seem to be very popular these days, so I am wondering if I am missing out on something.  I have Audirvana on my iMac that streams Tidal and music from my 8 TB external HD.  My iMac resides next to my audio rack and I connect my iMac via an optical cable (Fibbr) to my Aqua LaVoce DAC.  It seems to me that my iMac and external HD take the place of a streaming device.  Am I missing out on something other than convenience?  My external HD was a few hundred bucks and streamers a whole lot more.  The sound of my system is fantastic. 

whitestix

You don’t "need" a streamer, especially when you have not experienced the benefits. Carry on.

Most SQ improvements require an A-B compare for me to confirm. Not so when I hooked up my first streamer.

Night & day.

And I use Fildelizer.

The key to good quality streaming from a general purpose computer is keep the “noisy” computer physically well away from the hifi gear by using a long wire to connect. Mine is a good 8 feet or so away connected by a long good quality USB wire and the results are very good, competitive with using the hifi streamer as the source. Also be sure to use a driver on the computer capable of doing higher res streaming. Default driver on a PC for example may not be up to the task.

As much as I read about music servers and streamers, I am still bewildered how they fit in my system which includes:

Don Sachs preamp & KT88 amp; Willsenton 300b; Wells Audio Innamora,VTV EVO1200 

Spatial Audio M4 Triode Masters

So the streamer does not have the noise that a computer does?  Does a Micro-Rendu clean up that computer noise?

I have ripped all my music to my external HD which has nearly 8TB of music on it.  Would my HD connect to a streamer?  I am unaware of any streamers or music servers that have that much internal storage, or do streamers not even have storage?

I currently control music on my iMac with Audirvana so how to I control the music if I have a streamer?   Do I still use Audirvana if use a streamer?

Thanks for your information.