STREAMER - WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE?

@jrareform nope, absolutely not what I said.  I said it is very helpful for evaluating streamers.  Unless somebody is just looking to pick a fight, that is an incredibly non controversial statement.  Another measurement that is useful, and also published in many HiFi News reviews, is jitter.  As I am sure you know, the primary purpose of reclocking is to remove jitter, and it can be done at the streamer, a separate product, or alternatively by the dac itself.  Having insight as to how much jitter a streamer adds to a dac’s output can give you insight into whether you want to explore reclocking.

@jrareform nope, absolutely not what I said.  I said it is very helpful for evaluating streamers.  Unless somebody is just looking to pick a fight, that is an incredibly non controversial statement.  Another measurement that is useful, and also published in many HiFi News reviews, is jitter.  As I am sure you know, the primary purpose of reclocking is to remove jitter, and it can be done at the streamer, a separate product, or alternatively by the dac itself.  Having insight as to how much jitter a streamer adds to a dac’s output can give you insight into whether you want to explore reclocking.

@mdalton oh ok when you said "But for streamers, SNR really tells you a lot; that’s because noise is the only differentiator among streamers" it sounded like you're saying "noise is the only differentiator among streamers" I was just taking you literally.  But gotcha.  I think

I have the HiFi Rose RS 130. I have not tried any other streamer other than Bluesound. The quality of the HiFi Rose is very good. I have no doubt the sound is superior. I have not compared it to Innous, Eversolo, Lumin or other hi end brands. The screen is beautiful, the sound is spectacular, it’s built very well and has the best connections. T-base fiber optic Ethernet, Is2, hdmi, SSD HDD for storage and caching, OCXO external master clock, DSD and a great analog section. The user interface is not as great as Bluesound (but like another audiophile here, I pair it with Roon). It’s expensive, but I would not use another brand, at this point. I tried Eversolo once and it was too complicated to use, not intuitive. I am using a Denafrips Pontus 12th Anniversary DAC with the Rose, which sounds great. I feel if I spent twice as much on a DAC, the Rose would sound twice as good. It sounds as good as my VPI Prime X turntable, maybe better on some recordings. My two cents only...

@jrareform 

As the British day, “don’t be daft.”. But let me explain the nuance a little more explicitly so you can follow:  yes, noise is the only difference.  no, SNR doesn’t capture every element of noise.  yes it captures a lot (including power supply noise that is not filtered). That’s it.  See, it really wasn’t very complicated.  So go pick a silly fight on the internet with someone else.