@fire_water wrote:
streamers don’t all sound alike and extremely expensive streamers are objectively better. There’s a clear difference in SQ between a streamer that comes with a NAD or Cambridge preamplifier, a Bluesound Node, a Lumin, an Innuos Pulse, and Innuos Pulsar based on my past experiences having owned them.
Exactly; the (much) more expensive streamer is the objectively better one compared both my own ditto and the ones I mentioned and have experience with on a trial basis in my own setup.
And yes, there are differences between all of them that are discernable, but where they don’t amount to an objective and significant improvement in core areas I merely refer to them in this context as "flavors," which shouldn’t be misconstrued with my not being able to articulate in more detail what these differences come down to. I just don’t see how it’s relevant to this particular discussion, but obviously that doesn’t keep others from being patronizing and assuming you can’t tell one from the other when it's implied the system is supposedly not up to par.
To me for something to be objectively better it needs to be so fundamentally that warrants an actual purchase. That being the case I’d rather wait a bit, save up the extra dough and go with the investment that provides a definite advancement in SQ, instead of going "sideways" with a less costly streamer.
And just when I thought the Pulsar couldn’t get better, I replaced the factory power cord with a custom Furutech power cord and the SQ was significantly better. USB cables from my Pulsar to my Accuphase DC-37 Processor/DAC also affected SQ.
Sure, just as I’m about to replace my Mundorf Silver/gold digital AES/EBU cable with a pure silver cable from AST. Recently I also incorporated a voltage regulator for a modest investment over my DAC/preamp, DSP and music server/streamer with a noticeable improvement in SQ - more so and an actual one compared to toying with previously named and somewhat more expensive streamers.
