Any audiophile use computer (MacBook) as your audio streaming source?

Streamers are computers. Some brands, such as marque du jour Aurender, make a convincing effort to conceal that basic fact. And they’re right, because who wants a $14K piece of kit with a $69 motherboard at its heart? Others, like Bryston, don’t seem especially concerned.

 

Admittedly, most - if not all - off-the-shelf computers are unfit to stream digital music. They don’t have a place in a proper audiophile system.

 

But a purpose-built computer absolutely does. Usually this means a machine you build yourself of thoughtfully selected components, and properly set up and configured OS and software.

 

A computer lets you run any software you want, and that alone makes a decisive case for using them. You’re not stuck with software cobbled together by a small electronics-focused business that has zero expertise in software development. Someone recently posted about a wyred4sound unit whose driver’s supported-OS list topped out at Windows 8 if I remember correctly.

 

Or maybe you own tens of thousands of files of rare recordings that you carefully organized on your NAS, but the crappy software in your new dedicated streamer is unimpressed by your librarian skills and refuses to display or play a good number of them.

 

Speaking of NAS, I was glad to see the same Synology NAS I own in the virtual system of a member who is apparently rather revered in elevated audiophile circles. Yet a NAS is just a computer, right?

 

On the flip side a computer will output to USB, therefore a person will need a USB DAC with, preferably, a very good clock.

 

A lot of misconceptions and unchallenged groupthink are floating around computers in the context of high-end audio. If I had a say, I would encourage folks to keep an open mind and take the time to inform themselves on the subject and develop enough knowledge to at least discuss them intelligently. Beyond that, everyone is free to welcome in their systems whatever component they feel works best for them.

+1000, the same group think continues to prevail no matter how many different ways you try to explain it.

A audio optimized PC is actually quite easy to build....

a) Ya look up tomshardware for the different power supply (PSU) reviews/measurements and it is fairly easy to downselect one optimized for audio.

b) A high quality itx motherboard

c) Any Ryzen APU/integrated graphics chip

d) Drop them in a case...there are several htpc cases that are literally made with the form factor of a stereo component.

All of it for less than a 1000 bucks easily...(instead of dropping 10k for a goofy streamer). Load up the OS and sky’s the limit with free reign on any kind of software one could use, user friendliness, multitasking, etc. There is an enormous amt of nformation from the PC nerds out there about how to drop the noise to nothing (which I am sure is what the 20k streamer manufacturers read religiously as well)

Whaa? One could plug his hifi streamer into his big TV or projector, sit back with a wireless keyboard/mouse and watch Netflix too??? HBO Max too??? Watch music videos and concerts with hifi audio on a streamer??? Play games??? Send emails??? The streamer (pc) can do that??? Whaaa???

I need to start "manufacturing" high end streamers in my garage and sell them for 20k a piece to our beloved audiophiles!

It is a poor idea to have the equivalent of DDC function in a separate box with a cable in between. Such function should be packaged as close as possible inside a dac directly before the conversion occurs (negligibly short signal path). In fact, a couple of dac manufacturers do just that.

It is the Denafrips marketing wanting to sell another box (ddc) that started this goofery. 

When you have 15 different boxes wired together to play a song (separates extravaganza), it will sound more and more magical, right audiophiles? NOT.

As for the dude saying adding a DDC is just adding another box so can’t possibly help and is just a way for a manufacturer to make more profit, well that’s just stupid and not even worthy of a response. Many, many people here have added a DDC and/or external

Comprehension of the technical nitty gritty has historically never been your strong suit, but, it's ok. What i said was that DDC function is better incorporated inside  the damn dac box. Carry on, string together your 15 boxes with wires and hit the play button. Enjoy the music (which is all that matters)...

I have not contacted Mike Moffet via Head-fi web site to ask why he does not use a clock, but I do not have any concerns about Schitt DACs supporting a clock.

@yyzsantabarbara

dCS:

"In a dCS system, the DAC can act as the system master clock, but listening tests have shown that there is no substitute for a dedicated high quality master clock. dCS pioneered the use of external clocks in digital audio systems and this clocking technology has been continually refined so that our latest multi-stage Phase-Locked-Loop (PLL) system sets world-beating standards for accuracy and control of troublesome jitter from the incoming audio stream.

MSB:
"Why are external clocks sub-optimal for digital audio?

A clock signal is a fast moving precision electrical signal and is extremely sensitive to added noise or distortion. Each time it’s buffered or transmitted, a portion of its precision is lost. Even if a small amount of noise couples into the clocks, jitter will increase dramatically. It might still be an accurate clock, but accuracy is of little performance benefit to digital audio. A clock sent over an ultra-high quality cable will still increase its jitter considerably. The best solution is to create the lowest jitter clock as close to the DAC as possible.

You could figure out who’s telling the truth and who’s trying to sell more goofboxes and wires...

M. Moffat + J. Stoddard know their stuff and happen to make honest things. No goofboxes and wires will be peddled by them.

For the record, i have a hermes + venus catching dust in one rig...waiting for a good believer's home. What tad and technics are able to achieve with 1 box (how about throwing a top notch sacd player in it too, if you like)....some others need 15 different boxes and wires to screw things up, it seems.