Another post about a streamer upgrade

@lalitk Excellent stance.

The system is only as good as the weakest link in the chain. But people’s values and priorities are personal and differ case by case. Whether someone finds value in investing to improve said weak links is dependent on what the person is attempting to achieve and how important or valuable it is for them to accomplish their goal. 

An audiophile mentor of mine always says, “It’s about the journey, not the destination.”  While there’s always room for improvement, enjoy where you are now and learn everything you can every step of the way. 

Not looking to pot-stir. Just reinstating what general science tells us.

The fallacy of the “weak link” remains a fallacy until there is hard evidence of its existence. That’s what I meant by individuals who seek improvement in various “links” without perhaps understanding how they work and how swapping components may change them. In this (OP) case, a perceived sonic shortcoming was not even described. Based on the OP, a preferable software package x app is what should be the focus of this thread.

However, I am curious why after quite a few years there still seems to be no consumer preference research done in a statistically robust way to demonstrate any difference in how digital data are streamed in a music playback system. 

Bear in mind that’s not me saying a difference couldn’t exist. But where such a difference should not be perceptible to human hearing based on all available (rigorous) info at hand, it seems like a good place to do a consumer preference study, one that would hold up analytically. It would say a lot, but admittedly difference is a two-way street (it can exist or not), and perhaps that’s the scary thing for designers.

All the data centers that house streaming services’ files - how much is the music data degrade before individuals’ in-home systems, by lack of warehouse-scale LPS’s, proper cabling, dedicated processors, etc.? 

Again, I’m not saying more expensive streamers can’t be better-sounding. I’m just saying I have never been able to understand the logic for how they offer higher fidelity, in the absence of demonstrated perceptible difference (accounts of satisfied buyer feedback doesn’t count for this in any industry).

If we don’t query ourselves about what we want out of such toys as music playback systems, then our approach will not be question-driven problem-solving. To me, that sounds like a life about a journey that could get unnecessarily expensive and one in which enough might never be enough. 😉

@benanders

You are simply speaking from a lack of experience and a strong unfounded sense of skepticism.

Many of us here have decades of experience in high end audio and have constantly listened to the digital technology as it has developed over the the last thirty plus years. I have listened to streamers on PCs… optimizing them, MacBooks… running on batteries, inexpensive streamers, $3K, $5K, $10K, $13K, and $22K streamers. The thing that absolutely stands out is the sound quality differences… like night and day.

For most of us here our primary concern is sound quality and the big deal is the sound quality of different streamers. While their control apps are a question of convenience. Most get the job done and once learned they are not the primary function.

Sorry you cannot understand the logic. 

Again, I’m not saying more expensive streamers can’t be better-sounding. I’m just saying I have never been able to understand the logic for how they offer higher fidelity, in the absence of demonstrated perceptible difference (accounts of satisfied buyer feedback doesn’t count for this in any industry).

@benanders may I recommend you research various design and implementation of streamers and DACs. How each design influences the final product. I mean a thorough research from power supply and inputs to outputs and everything in between. If you’re sitting around twiddling your thumbs and expecting the community in this forum to present their arguments to you trying to prove streamers and cd transports make a difference, you will be wasting everyone’s and your time and effort.