SQ Comparison of 3 streamers

@jrareform I have the Innuos Pulse and my sister has a WIIM ultra. One’s a Chevy Vega the other is a Corvette thinking it wants to be a Caddie. What whataboutism you may have leave them at the door. InnuOs is only manufactured to put a smile 😊 on your face! On a side note she had the mini and then I was able to get her to purchase an ultra. She couldn’t be happier with the new model. Yet when she hears my system, she agrees that mine is much more. Still could not get her to invest in a Innuos. And she makes five times more than me, go figure. Apparently she has her priorities completely skewed!

I think you want to be careful generalizing about the tonal characteristics of streamers, because anyone’s individual experience is likely to be different based upon their setup.  The reason that different streamers seem to exhibit slight tonal or sonic differences, even absent digital processing differences like up/oversampling, dsp, etc., is primarily due to electrical engineering factors like jitter, power supply noise, and electrical isolation (galvanic isolation) impacting the DAC's performance.

So while they pass the same digital bits, the quality of the transport (handling of timing/noise) differs as follows:

• Jitter (Timing Errors): High-precision clocks reduce jitter, which can affect the DAC's analog output, resulting in different perceived soundstaging or, rarely, tonal qualities.
• Electrical Noise & Isolation: Poorly designed streamers can introduce electrical noise (EMI/RFI) into the DAC via USB or SPDIF, affecting the analog stage.
• Power Supply: Better, cleaner power supplies (linear vs. switching) reduce noise floor, allowing for a cleaner signal, often perceived as a "blacker" background or more detail.
• The DAC's Sensitivity: If the DAC is well-designed with good jitter rejection and isolation, these differences become nearly inaudible. 

In sum, the interaction of these factors influence the extent to which one can hear fully the characteristics of one’s DAC.  So if one person has a warm DAC, and one person has an analytical DAC, moving from a higher noise streamer to a lower noise streamer could result in a “”warmer” or “leaner” sound, depending on the DAC.  Ascribing tonality to the streamer, imho, is inappropriate, even when the change in tonality occurred due to the change in streamers.

@mdalton  I in general agree with what you mentioned in your carefully thought-out post. For active components in a passive system, a digital transport such as a streamer has relatively limited engineering variables — mainly jitter and electrical noise — that could potentially affect perceived tonal balance.

Before returning the T8 yesterday, I tried to find any available test data that might explain why it exhibited noticeable hints of brightness compared to the Rivo+, such as the presence of sideband jitter or other artifacts that could increase perceived treble edge. However, other than factory general specifications, I couldn’t find anything conclusive.

"a custom 4N oxygen-free copper toroidal transformer and Teflon-insulated wiring achieve noise levels as low as 30μV. Further, Accusilicon AS318-B Femtosecond-accuracy clocks provide a low-jitter clock reference." To address noise, the USB, coaxial and AES/EBU digital outputs are isolated.

It is a well-engineered piece of gear that I believe is better than any other streamer around this price point, or even higher. So far, my only (positive) speculation is that it is very clean and has a darker background, which results in greater transient clarity and a sharper attack in the treble region. Ironically, however, I ended up liking it less and returned it.

@lanx0003 thanks for your detailed response.  It's much appreciated.  And you even had the upgraded power supply etc!  Maybe the T8 is the one for me but the innuos has a lot of fans as well.  Will be a while before my next upgrade but I'm keeping an eye out for when I am ready.

@gkelly I love the anecdotal comparison.  I figure maybe she doesn't have the audiophile disease that inhabits most of us (good for her 😂)

Just to throw this out there - any comparisons using the coax spdif ports on these?  I figure most of these comparisons are done with USB or I2S or AES but I can only run SPDIF for my setup right now and curious if anyone's compared them with the good ol coax port

What I don't understand that only one of the 3 has an internal DAC, then rest are just streamers without a DAC. What external DAC did you use? That would change the sound more over the streamer, did the Eversolo use it's own DAC?

I'm currently looking for a new streamer/DAC in the $1kish range, for me, only the Eversolo would work, but I don't think I want that one.