Digital music questions

Would a dedicated streamer sound a lot better than the Macbook Pro?

Good God yes!

if the MacBook is sending a digital file, comprised of bits (0s, 1s), why would the streamer make so much of a difference? Isn’t the digital file the same regardless of the source? I’m trying to left brain this, it just isn’t making sense the way there can be such a difference in speaker quality or amplifiers, for instance.

I think most of us probably started this journey thinking very similarly because it’s eminently logical, but just like jitter was a relative unknown when CDs first came out, things we didn’t know initially can turn out to be very consequential and even critical. For dedicated streamers, a lot of the difference can come down to reduced noise (probably the biggest issue and the single biggest problem with using an extremely noisy computer as a source), clocking, power supply, and overall parts quality. If you pursue streaming further you’ll quickly learn that every single thing matters and almost always matters A LOT.

I’ll share my own example where several years ago I started running a high-quality all silver USB connection from my iPad/iPhone to my DAC, then I compared the same recordings between my budget CD transport and streaming through Qobuz and the transport was undeniably superior, and at that point I was pretty damn depressed. So I reached out to the fine folks here and the overwhelming consensus was I needed to get a dedicated streamer, so that’s what I did and picked up an iFi Zen Stream for a relatively paltry $400 and BLAM — right away my streaming quality leapfrogged my CD transport by a huge margin. Point being, moving from a noisy computer to even a relatively modest dedicated streamer will be a significant upgrade, and once you do that I’d also strongly suggest you do a free Qobuz trial as it’ll be far superior to Apple Music and there’s also a ton of music in high-res as well. I know you’re hesitant to take on another subscription, but at least you can try it and then decide if it’s worth it.  I’ll just say some things are just worth paying for.  A couple very good streamers you can consider in the $1000 price range are the Eversolo dmp A6 and the Innuos Pulse Mini — the A6 has more features but Innuos is more established and offers excellent customer support and the highly-regarded Sense app interface that’s constantly being upgraded for sound and usability. Sorry to drone on, but there’s a lot to consider here and a huge amount of sonic benefits to be had with some very worthwhile effort. Hope this helps, and best of luck.

@cmb13 : I sense you are questioning stuff, rather than asking questions. I hope I am wrong.

Next question, dealing with a little sticker shock, is the Aurender N200 at $6300 really THAT much better than, say, a Bluesound?

Then just get a Bluesound. It will most certainly be better than a noisy general purpose computer used for streaming audio like your MacBook

There is absolutely nothing wrong with getting your feet wet purchasing a Bluesound Node.  The streamer in it is perfectly adequate, if not better than that.  It is its internal DAC that is rather just OK.  Its operating software is among the best. You will find that there are members here with fine systems who enjoy their music using the Bluesound, again running it into external DACs.

Other than improved sound of using a dedicated, purpose built, audio, streamer, there are other conveniences:

1) Ability to use an app on your phone (or tablet) to control music playback. Way more convenient than dealing with a general purpose computer connected to your DAC via USB cable

2) free up your general purpose laptop (your MacBook Pro). You don’t then have to worry about connecting to the DAC, approximate distance to your audio, and be able to freely do tasks associated with laptops, like for example doing work, browse internet and YouTube, watch porn, and stuff like that normal people do on a computer 

Your system seems to be of a quality that would benefit by adding a quality streamer/server and your built in DAC is of fairly high quality. I consolidated the families music services and we all use Quboz. The only advantage that I see in using Apple is that I can listen to music from my Apple Watch. Apple does have an amazing selection of music. I think that a number of streamers will add the Apple services to their list of vendors, but as of now that hasn’t happened. I welcome someone to correct this statement.
I am also a big fan of Aurender, starting with the N200, but these are fairly expensive even on the used market. That said, the Aurender would provide quality in keeping with your components.