STREAMER - WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE?

But he may be right.  The logic is sound.  Look at that thread I linked to before, and look at the SNR numbers - the SNR limit is the DAC, not the streamer.  The highest possible SNR using the AQ DAC is 104, regardless of whether you use a $200 streamer or a $30k streamer.  Is the leap you’re not sure of specific to your BAT gear?  If so, here are a couple data points:

1) In 2015, Stereophile measured the Rex SNR at less than 80 db snr (A weighted).

2) Today, BAT publishes an SNR, unweighted at greater than 100 db.

Those are two wildly different numbers.  If BAT’s numbers are right, they’ve really lowered noise quite a lot in the last 10 years.

to be clear, the BAT SNRs quoted above were for the 2015 and 2025 Rex preamps specifically.  Hifi news did a review of your DAC, and their A-weighted SNR measurements was 95 db:

hifi news rex 3 dac review

@mdalton The leap that I can't make with @helomech is the one that suggests thar "there is absolutely no way he is going to hear differences in streamer quality." 

With regard to SNR specs, we already know that tubes are noisier than solid state, but not sure how much that impacts my system's ability to express differences between two streamers.  SNR is one of the least relevant factors when comparing streamers in revealing systems.  

Here's what I've learned:  The differences between two streamers comes from  noise entering the DAC through the USB ground (Rex's quietest path), clock stability, Power‑supply noise inside the streamer (which someone mentioned earlier), and network isolation.  The BAT DAC has 3 noise control layers: 

1. Galvanic

2. Asynchronous clocking which reduces RF, ground noise and packet-timing variance.  

3. Local power regulation that places voltage‑regulating components close to the circuit blocks they power.

Its analog stage sets the noise flow through having balanced topology. zero global feedback, high‑current discrete analog output stage, and massive power supply reserves.  All of this means black backgrounds, stable imaging, and clarity.   Once I select a new streamer, what I hear using the A8 should be much improved. 

@patrickalston 

All that stuff you “learned” is nothing more than marketing nonsense that you’ve read or been told. It doesn’t change the fact that the DMP-A8 is audibly flawless by all known performance metrics. Learn how to do level-matched, blind A/B comparisons and trust your ears under those conditions. You’ll save a lot of time and money. 

Yeah, gonna have to respectfully disagree.  SNR is absolutely relevant to streamer noise.  There may be some rfi/emi not captured, but there’s a reason it is featured by HiFi News as one of the two measurements chosen by Paul Miller to evaluate noise levels of streamers.  Not sure where you got your info on that one.  But all good, I’m just offering my 2 cents for you since you asked.