Hi @audio-b-dog,

As audiophiles, we live trying to understand the complexities of the laws of physics on our audio systems, but in the end, what matters is getting closer to our audiophile goals. 

Without getting into too much technobabble, all cables including LAN cables, act as antennas, are subject to many sources of noise RFI, EMI, static, dielectrics, connectors, noisy grounds, switching power supplies, etc, etc. The problem is complex to say the least. 

I have used very expensive streamers, cables, etc. But now thanks to other forums, and more experienced audiophiles, I use a very inexpensive solution for the network and my streamer costs less than $100 USD. The power supply that powers the streamer is $800 USD, but the sound is sublime. 

Here is the article with the details and it has all the references if you decide to research it more. 

The NanoPi Streamer — A $50 Endpoint That Competes with the Best

BTW, how would you characterize the sound of your Boulder?
 

the 866 is very transparent. I’d say it’s neutral with extremely low noise floor. It will give you a very good idea of what upstream components and cables are doing. 
With my digital and analog setups it sounds natural and provides a fatigue-free listening experience for hours on end. I was hoping that it would compete extremely well with the Pass separates that it replaced but the 866 is more articulate and engaging to listen to. Overall I like it more than the Pass gear I replaced with it. Coming up on two years in July.

Today, I completed the transition of my NUC music server from Roon Optimised Core Kit, ROCK to DBpoweramp Asset UPnP with a stripped down Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC. I haven’t completely written off Roon as I’ve still got to compare it to Asset on the Windows NUC.

This has been the last leg in my improve the sound of streaming project over the past few months. All that’s left to do is convert a number of albums of DSF files to FLAC and generally tidy up the tagging. So tonight I’ve sat down and listened to the final results of my efforts. It’s only been local files ripped from CDs and not Qobuz so far.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I’m delighted with the sound. My phono stage is out action at present so I can’t make a definitive comparison with vinyl. However, it is certainly involving like vinyl. Are there even degrees of involvement? I’d argue that it’s either involving or it isn’t.

@newton_john 

Interesting question "are there degrees of involvement?" I might say that there are types of involvement. Earlier I streamed Horowitz playing Rachmoninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto with Fritz Reiner conducting. The sound was from an old record, compressed, but Horowitz's playing was so unusual, as if he were tripping to find the notes. As if he could hardly remember the piece. Yet he was explosive and I was totally involved. So, that's one type. Another could be when the sound of the recording is beautiful.

Full text linksCite

AbstractPubMedPMID

Abstract

Interindividual differences in music-related reward have been characterized as involving five main facets: musical seeking, emotion evocation, mood regulation, social reward, and sensory-motor. An interesting concept related to how humans decode music as a rewarding experience is music transcendence or absorption (i.e., music-driven states of complete immersion, including momentary loss of self-consciousness or even time-space disorientation). Here, we investigated the relation between previously characterized facets of music reward and individual differences in music absorption. A first sample of participants (N = 370) completed both the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ) and the Absorption in Music Scale (AIMS). Results showed that both constructs were highly interrelated (r = 0.78, p < 0.001), indicating that higher music reward sensitivity is associated with a greater tendency to music-related absorption states. In addition, four items from the AIMS were identified as suitable to be added to an extended version of the BMRQ (eBMRQ). A second sample (N = 550) completed the eBMRQ for a validation study. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on the whole sample (N = 920) showed the reliable psychometric properties of the eBMRQ and suggested that taking into account an absorption facet could contribute to a better characterization of individual differences in the sensitivity to experience music-related reward and pleasure.

Keywords: absorption; music; reward; transcendence