DDC Sound Improvements???

I asked ChatGPT if an Innuous streamer would be worth it over my node N130 with an external Teddy Pardo LPS ( I’m using the DAC in my Boulder 866) and it said I would only see a 5-10 percent improvement.  I wound love to get some thoughts on Chats assessment. 

Chat GPT is using an algorithm.

Garabge in garbage out..  

if an Innuous streamer would be worth it over my node N130 with an external Teddy Pardo LPS

It depends on which Innuos streamer you’re referring to. If you mean the Pulse Mini, it only sounds on par with, or slightly better than, the iFi ZS, which in turn is better than the old Node (with a non-Teddy LPS), based on another trustworthy reviewer. But if you’re talking about the Zen / Zenith Mk3, it can easily make it into Hans’ “1B” list alongside the Rivo and ICON. Is Hans just another person like you and me, as @jjss49 refers to? I’ll leave that for you to judge.

I suddenly realized that I’m surrounded by a group of BS NODE N130 + Teddy Pardo LPS owners who have been pretty civilized so far... 

Streamers, as always. Tarun is just one example. There are other reviewers saying the same thing. I had the A6 before, and the Nano clearly outperforms it — again, on digital out, in my rig. I never take built-in DACs seriously.  To be frank, I even prefer Nano over ES T8.

Clock is just one component in streamer and SQ depends on, for example, power supply design, noise isolation and output stage engineering.  I assume you know about this.  Mentioning this to you might be an insult, isn’t it?

no offense taken - good we are talking about the bluesound units as streamers feeding downstream dacs...

i agree that the eversolos are somewhat shrill sounding, not a preferred option 

while i comment on the bluesound units, it isn’t that i am a fanboy.... i had been just curious to know how much the lps upgrade impacts sound quality, so I did various experiments on the several units I had around the house piping music into various rooms... what i found was the lps upgrade materially helps the s-q by reducing noise and providing the unit a purer power feed... whether it be from it’s usb or spdif outputs, the unit sounded better as a streamer - how much better depends of course on the capability (clock, jitter rejection, noise rejection) of the downstream unit but there was a noticeable difference small or large in every case

this all said, folks can do a lot worse than using a lps'd node or nano to feed their DACs... you have to spend double the cost or more to beat it... also worth mentioning that the icon cannot be easily upgraded with lps like its 'lesser' stable mates though

Couple observations:

1) Why would you reclock using DDC when your DAC restocks?  Purpose of reclocking is to remove jitter.  I’m guessing your signal out of the X30 is already jitter-free.

2) Why would you consider the Mattix NT-1 when all you need is a streamer?  It has an onboard server as well, which unnecessarily adds noise.  For half the price, you could get the Mattix TT-1, which is just a streamer.

3) I assume you’ve compared the X30’s internal streamer to your Node and that the Node is superior?

More broadly, the thing to keep in mind is that streamers don’t have tonal characteristics, and 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, apart from 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 can 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.  But you do not have to spend more than $2k on a streamer to get state of the art performance - i.e., vanishingly low noise levels.