Improving on the stream of a combined streamer dac


I recently (foolishly) compared the streamed sound of my Electrocompanient

ECM 1 Mk II to internally stored digital downloads on the same ( ie not stored in my Small Green Computer server).  I was surprised how much better the downloaded files sounded.  Perhaps, I was naive to think otherwise.  So, I started looking at old audiogon threads to see if I could figure a quick and easy fix to up the sound of the streamer but found little that made sense or was affordable.  My question is whether I should continue to search, or if I should take it for what its worth and just listen to the music.  The rest of my digital front end:  Small Green computer server,  a Trendnet unmanaged switch and the ECM.  I use a Luna Orange ethernet cable from switch to ECM and a Purist Audio cable to the SGC.  Thanks for your advice and happy holidays to all.

rivinyl

I have my ROON core on a piece of junk. It does not matter in my case because I have done what someone already posted on this thread. Use fibre optic before the DAC and you will not get hit by the nasty sonic gremlins of bad this or that. It don’t matter if you use fibre before the DAC.

My ROON core is on a cheap $500 Dell that I got about 6+ years ago. This machine has no mouse | keyboard | monitor and resides under a bed in my guest room. Why, because it is a bit noisy and a piece of junk. It does not matter about using such junk if you use fibre.

I am ROON all the way and my streamers ONLY work with ROON. It was cheaper this way, and I have no intention of using anything but ROON.

I just got an Eversolo AMP-6. Was thinking of just adding a separate DAC to finish my system off... What might be a good one or price range to consider?

@cbowie88 I by-passed the DMP-8 DAC and feed a Benchmark DAC3L that feeds an AHB-2 followed by the Focals 948. I found good improvement. Which eventually (lol) will make you exchange the 6 for a T8. Make the path as short as possible with ood cabling and you'll be OK.