Streamers rabbit hole

Russbutton. Bits are bits is true. The DAC doesn’t care where the bits came from. DACs don’t have feelings like humans do. All of those streamers just use Linux boxes, blah, blah, blah. I have owned many streamers like many here and our experience tells us there are differences in sound and quality of sound. They don’t all sound the same. Better parts, better power supply and better isolation and better design will give a better product in just about everything we buy. No end for suckers in audio. True. No end to “know it all blowhards” too.

It would be helpful if others chimed in. It is a bit of a mystery to me as to why a DAC is unable to "properly" clean up an incoming signal and given help from a DDC device, they sound better. 

@goodlistening64  I found upgrading even to a budget iFi Zen Stream (with their iPowerX power supply) was a huge upgrade over a computer, and inserting a Denafrips Iris DDC and going i2S into my Musician Pegasus R2R DAC was again a significant improvement.  With Amazon, Crutchfield, etc. offering low/no risk returns there’s really no excuse for you not to at least try a decent streamer. 

@goodlistening64  I am aware of reclockers for digital connection between a PC and a DAC.  I run Linux on a dedicated PC, with JRiver as the music manager.  I dropped $200 on a reclocker and didn't hear a difference.  

I've never heard a difference between USB cables either.  Bits is bits.  If you're not getting the same bit stream with different cables, then you've got a bad cable.  If you've ever done any assembly language programming, you'd realize that bit copying is extremely reliable.  Sorry.  Bits is bits.

Two streamer brands to add to your list - Lindemann Woodnote Solo Streamer with balanced outputs or Volumio Primo Streamer. If you want the best Volumio streaming system then look at the Volumio Rivo+ with their Lineo5 linear power supply and Volumio Preciso DAC. Lots of YT video reviews on the Volumio options.