Help settle a streaming argument!

for the best sound quality available, you should eliminate the USB cable and it’s inherent problems by connecting ethernet directly to your DAC for streaming

@eastendhifi 

Thats comforting as I have a DAC with built in streaming - was wondering if I should get an external streamer for sonic uptick.

@Kennyc That is interesting because the original question was about separate streamer/DAC’s.  Congratulations on having an integrated solution.

My prior research and experience led me to the same conclusion as Jimmy2615--the cable determines which clock (streamer or dac) is prioritized and therefore will influence the sound. USB sounded far superior during A/B testing SPDIF vs. USB. To no surprise, my DAC is greatly superior to my streamer. This is also the reason I've delayed upgrading my streamer as I'm afraid I may not see the benefit I'm hoping for.

The short answer is yes, the quality of the streamer can matter even if you’re using a high-quality outboard DAC. Here’s why:

1. Jitter: The timing of the digital signals can be affected by the quality of the streamer, causing slight deviations known as jitter. Although a high-quality DAC can often mitigate jitter to some extent, a poor-quality streamer may introduce enough jitter that even an excellent DAC can’t fully compensate.

2. Signal Integrity: Poor-quality streamers may not maintain the integrity of the digital signal as it’s transmitted to the DAC. While error-correction protocols can minimize the impact, they’re not perfect. In some cases, a compromised signal may lead to a less accurate analog conversion.

3. Compatibility: High-quality streamers often offer better compatibility with various formats and resolutions. If you’re playing high-res audio files, the streamer needs to support these to take full advantage of the DAC’s capabilities.

4. Noise: Digital streamers, like all electronic devices, can generate electrical noise. Poorly designed streamers may not isolate this noise well, leading to a contaminated digital signal which can adversely affect sound quality when converted to analog by the DAC.

5. Connectivity: A better streamer usually offers more and better connectivity options, including higher-quality digital outputs (e.g., AES/EBU, coaxial, optical, etc.), which can impact the audio quality by maintaining a more stable and higher-integrity signal path to the DAC.

6. Ease of Use and Features: While not directly related to audio quality, the user interface and features like streaming service integration, multi-room capabilities, and software updates are generally better in high-quality streamers.

7. Clocking: Some high-end streamers have extremely precise clocks to synchronize data transmission more accurately. This can lead to better performance in the digital-to-analog conversion process.

So while a high-quality DAC is critical for getting the best sound, a poor-quality streamer can be a bottleneck in your system, limiting the performance of even an excellent DAC.

This is a puzzling post, can some clever engineering matter in a digital transport device? One area you can be pretty confident is the digital domain. Rarely could anyone say the expense or engineering of a streamer matters in video. Which seems harder since you have both video and audio. But our perception isn’t about bitrate, it’s contrast, volume and other things artists deliberately manipulate.  Possibly there’s a difference in video streamers but the beauty of a digital signal is noise imperviousness. It sends information in such a way that you encounter little or no error. You likely can’t measure any either because of outrageously clever protocols that basically make every system work. Like the internet. You don’t get misspelled words or grainy pictures.  Except somehow for audio since it’s ‘special’. Hate to say but all these boxes don’t make sound, they just process it. In a blind test our ears are too sensitive to all the myriad of other ssues of reproducing sound, including mainly mixing choices by the artists, our room and speaker placement, etc. My take? Get the cheapest possible streamer. DAC may make a little difference but most problems come with amplification and energizing your space realistically with the recording type and choices of the music you listen to. Personally I couldn’t be happier and have always used Apple TV. Without the TV part.  It has the best and easiest to use interface, reachable by any Apple device including my watch. You just have to split HDMI audio out into toslink, but that’s a 20 dollar box.  Also for 30 dollars a year you can store all your music in Itunes. So it plays anything from its catalog or yours, wherever on any device. But this hobby isn’t about saving money but I think they have the best solution at about 250 all in.