Sound quality differences in streamers

Interesting. I have never purchased a single piece of audio gear after having looked at the specs (other than making sure a power amp has enough for the task). And, I’ve never rejected a piece of gear based on specs. I listen. And I purchase if it makes a noticeable difference and I reject if it does not. I’ve rejected far more than I’ve purchased including some rather expensive digital accessories and cables, etc. 

Reading through your post, it appears you’ve actually never listened to any of this gear. There is certainly plenty of eye candy in our hobby and I’m sure there is plenty of gear that does not perform to its promise or price. Indeed, I’ve heard some of it. But not only are you dismissive of those consumers who are looking to improve their digital chain, you are accusing every manufacturer who markets such gear as predatory, even though most of them have invested years and millions in capital pursuing better performance. Perhaps they understand something you do not. Perhaps they aren’t just following the money. Perhaps they remain curious as to “what if” and “why”. I, like many others, am grateful that there are those crazy innovators who explore, tinker and learn new things to improve understanding which then fosters new approaches. And I, like many others, are enjoying the fruits of those labors.

Keep reading your spec sheets. I’ll listen first, then read up and try to understand what I heard (or didn’t.). 

I’m fully on board with your analysis from a purely specifications-based standpoint. But the subject touches on something deeply human when it comes to consumer behavior around luxury items. Let me try my best to summarize it:

1. Aesthetics - using your example.  I could imagine / visualize the Antipodes Oladra might look nicer, slickier

2. Perceived quality / Justification biases - better design component, craftmanship, durability / reliability

3. Emotional value - Luxury items make them feel 'exclusive' and exciting to own

4. Social proof, symbol of taste and wealth.

Look, as I mentioned before, money is something we’re not born with, and something we can’t take with us to the grave. If one has it, spend it as one pleases — if one feels like it or is willing to.  It’s not really our business, although I do sometimes sincerely urge them to share their wealth with those who need it.

With respect to my streamer bona fides, I was an early mover to streaming 20+ years ago, well before I got back into vinyl (which was probably about 15 years ago now).  And with respect to listening to streamers, I’ve had 10(ish) different models of streamers over the years.  It is true that I’ve never purchased an uber-expensive streamer - putting aside the original Yamaha Musicast server/streamer, which was quite pricey for the time, as I recall - but that would be weird, given my views.  Having said that, I have listened to quite expensive streamers at dealers and at friends’ houses, including A/B comparisons to try to understand what we’re hearing.  Most recently I heard a subtle difference in a Wilson Sasha system where streaming was first thru the Simaudio 891 ($25k), and then where streaming to the 891 dac was handled by an Innuos Pulsar.  I thought I heard a subtle improvement in the latter case.  Why?  Well this particular dealer is quite good, and to his credit acknowledged it’s simply about noise.  You see, as great a company as Simaudio is, they still manufacture to a price point.  And including a convenience feature like an on-board streamer with their preamp/dac means they clearly have to make some compromises, and have probably decided not to invest even more to get that last nth degree of noise reduction.  Antipodes has a greater technical challenge because they decided to combine the server with the streamer, and that presents a more significant noise issue than just the streamer.  So in order to get state of the art noise performance in that use case, they charge $29k.  
 

Again, I’m not saying that the Antipodes doesn’t sound great, I simply object to the claim thst you need to spend that amount to get that level of performance.  You don’t.  In addition, I’m not averse to folks spending alot on their systems - I mean I spent $8k on a cartridge for god’s sake!  I’m also contemplating a pretty serious outlay ($50k or more perhaps) when I purchase my “end of days” speakers.  I guess my one dogma though is that crazy audiophiles like me should be advertent with respect to our purchase decisions, not delusional.  If you acknowledge you bought something for its looks and exclusivity, that’s fine.  Just don’t try to convince yourself , and others more importantly, that you had to spend that amount for performance.  To wit, my Koetsu was an emotional purchase - it was hand painted with Urushi lacquer and Koetsus were originally voiced by Sugano on his personally modified Garrard 401.  I mean, of course I had to have it, lol!

mdalton,

Again, value is determined by every individual. If you don't think you need to spend  "x" amount for a streamer/server, it's pretty simple...don't. I never said, that you or anyone had to spend a certain amount of money to get to a certain level of performance, so I hope your not directing your comments to me. I simply don't believe in judging people for how they spend "their own money".

@ricred1 

Nope, not directing anything at you.  But it doesn’t seem like you’re getting my point.  So let me “flip the tree” as they say in statistics.  If I told people that my Koetsu is a better cartridge than their cheaper cartridge, and that any criticism of my Koetsu only reflected the critic’s failure to invest sufficiently in his or her cartridge, or that their system must be insufficiently resolving to appreciate the perfection that is Koetsu, I would be making a dumb argument.  It would be an even dumber argument if I said that my Koetsu sounded better and more accurate than their cartridge to my ears, even in the face of frequency response measurements showing the Koetsu to have a rolled off upper end.   Now I acknowledge, btw, that this is not a perfect analogy - indeed, the complexities associated with the analog realm do not lend themselves as easily to objective measurement as the digital realm.  (Keep in mind that DACs operate in the analog realm.)   But servers and streamers operate solely in the digital realm.  So in fact, the argument that Big$ server/streamer is better, especially when it flies in the face of easy-to-quantify measurements, is in fact even dumber than my Koetsu example.  

In summary, I really don’t care how much someone spends, but I do care if they argue that you have to spend extreme amounts on glorified file movers if you want to have a great sounding streaming system.  Unfortunately you see that argument made by many on this site.  

As one Absolute Sound reviewer put it:   “A simple, well-designed, robust streaming-signal chain should not have an audible effect on the sound of a music file.” And in my view, this doesn’t need to cost much.  And that’s what the OP was asking, isn’t it?