SQ Comparison of 3 streamers

@lanx0003 I have an Innuos Zen MKIII.  Prior to it, I had a Bluesound Node.  I'm very happy with the Innos, but I haven't made any comparisons to other high end streamers.  It was definitely a step up from the Node.

I would describe the Innuos as neutral and detailed, but the overall sound is a result of everything else in my system.  I seek out a neutral, detailed sound.

My streamer feeds my Gustard U18 ddc via USB.  I connect the U18 to my X-30 dac via i2S.  After reading various posts, I decided to try connecting from the U18 ddc to my dac via coax.  Initially, I used my Acoustic Zen MC2 cable.  I believe it's 110 ohm, not 75 ohm.  I felt that i2S sounded better.  Before giving up, I tried my Black Cat Silverstar 75 coax cable.  I spent a lot of time switching between i2S and coax from my remote and any difference is negligible.

I'm using a LHY ock-2 clock which is connected to both the U18 ddc and my dac. 

Both i2S and coax via the method described above sound better than going directly from the streamer to the dac via USB.  

@mdalton thanks for starting and curating this thread, as it has further enhanced my understanding of some additional nuances associated with streamers.

I want to extend my appreciation for your insights on this additional subject. Your contribution has certainly shed more light and helped me gain a better understanding.

@sls883  Thank you for being the third owner and for sharing your thoughts and articulating your digital front-end setup. I had planned to do the similar, but later chose the simpler route and focused on taming and smoothing the system’s tonal balance by experimenting with cables.

@mdalton I’m with you there on Roon. Best UI, amazing amounts of information on artists and albums.

I used to run Roon Core on 2018 mac mini and thought it was good. But when I got a Roon Nucleus One to see what it’s all about, I heard an improvement in sound quality. It was subtle but there was no going back to Mac Mini. Tuning and cleaning up the network feeding the Nucleus resulted in further improvements. Nothing fancy there. But I’m pretty happy with it and Roon is a pleasure to use. 

+1 on the value of roon

there is a separate, active post on ’musical enjoyment’ here

i commented there, as i will echo here --- that roon materially enhances my own musical enjoyment via its ability to suggest new music and artists based on what the user has been listening to -- this has led me to discover so much music, so many artists that i would have been unlikely to stumble onto on my own

... roon materially enhances my own musical enjoyment via its ability to suggest new music and artists based on what the user has been listening to ...

Qobuz does something similar, though I’m not sure to what extent compared with Roon. It enhances and complements human curation through its algorithmic recommendations. I find their suggestions in ‘Discover,’ such as ‘Editor’s Picks’ and ‘For You,’ to be quite well tailored to my tastes. Even more impressively, the ‘Filters’ under ‘Library’ allow users to refine selections to suit their listening preferences. The automatic track generation (autoplay) at the end of each album or playlist is also very inviting, not jarringly random, and usually aligns well with my preferences. This is something many other playback apps lack, and I enjoy it very much. One could possibly regard it as a poor man’s Roon BUT I believe Roon still has the deepest exploration and library intelligence.

https://community.qobuz.com/press-en/qobuz-unveils-its-new-discover-page?utm_source=chatgpt.com