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

Use your noisy MacBook Pro, no problem. I use a noisy crappy computer too. However, you need a moat in front of your DAC so that the analog noise before the moat does not travel up the USB cable into the DAC.

I use the relatively cheap Sonore OpticalRendu. I ignore Ethernet since Fibre cable sounds better to me. Fibre cable is made from glass and cannot carry the analog noise from the gear before the moat. The fibre cable is the moat. 

Getting fibre into you home system can be done for under $100 via a network switch. Sonore has a complete solution for this, though I only use some of it since I already have network switches with fibre support.

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If you are a ROON user (RATT protocol), this stuff is easy to do. They also support many other protocols which your Mac likely uses.

@illusionista8 When I had 3 streamers in the house, $2k, $3k, and $15k. I tested them out side by side and found they sounded different, which was surprising. However, I would not say 1 streamer was better than the other.

@yyzsantabarbara Out of curiosity, what dedicated streamers have you compared to your computer?

@soix The streamers that I used ALL used my computer so I cannot answer that. These are the streamers I owned.

• Lumin X1
• PlayBack Designs STREAM-IF
• Sonore OpticalRendu
• Sonore microRendu
• Direct USB into a DAC from a computer (a decade ago)

All of the above except the direct computer to the DAC used the ROON RATT protocol. My $500 DELL PC running ROON CORE (without monitor | keyboard | mouse) is under a bed in my guest bedroom connected to my home network by Ethernet (RJ45).

My computer automatically starts up at 7AM and shuts down at 2:30AM. In the rare case I need to get into the Windows OS, I just RDP in.

I do not care about the quality or noise on this computer because of my ’moat’ before the DAC.

If you look at how digital genius Andreas Koch designed the PBD STREAM-IF I would think it was meant for my scenario. The STREAM-IF uses a proprietary Plink connection which is essentially Fibre cable. That unit actually takes RJ45 as the input stream (or USB from a computer) but has the fibre inside to kill the noise.

I never spent money on a silent computer for my audio system, oops I mean an audiophile music server. I have recently heard an expensive $20K music server at a demo for a very expensive system. I preferred my system at home, but I think that was more a reflection of my speakers just being better.

@illusionista8

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I run Ubuntu Linux on a $125 PC I got from Amazon. My music library is on a USB drive I hang off of it. Of course it can stream. Linux is free. The Clementine music player looks a lot like iTunes, but I run JRiver for about $30.

I always laugh at all of the people with their $5000 streamers and such. More money than sense.

I do not have a $5k streamer anymore and use a cheap computer however, if you have a USB connection directly into your DAC and that USB is connected directly to your Linux computer, then the joke is on you. Same applies to Toslink, SPDIF, and AES connections.

I used to run JRiver and it works well. I have been running ROON for "free" for the past decade.

STREAMING 101. Do not stream directly from your computer into your DAC it is the worst way to stream and you can easily hear the grunge of that setup in the DACs output.

I use a $500 DELL PC to stream and it is nowhere close to my audio gear (different room different floor). I am not advocating an expensive solution. Use fibre optic cable ($40) before the DAC. This type of setup can be done for $1500 or less. I have one fibre setup for $700 (used gear)

BTW - the more expensive solutions mentioned here work well as does my Fibre based solution.

@devinplombier I have commented on my Fibre based approach to streaming for about 8 years on this site. There are a couple of posts on this thread that gets into a bit of detail.

One thing to consider about my statements is that some genius level digital audio designers are also advocating the same approach as me. That is to use Fibre Optic cable, which is not the same as Toslink cable, as a moat before the DAC. A moat keeps intruders away, and in this case, it is the NETWORK noise from the upstream components, a computer, a printer, a security system, ethernet, etc ....

One thing to remember is that with the Fibre approach there is not much money to be made by the venders.

WiFi could also be great because the air could be the moat, but the solutions are not good at all at present. I have not used Aurelic gear, and they are pro WiFi. That gear is supposed to be very good.

I use a $150 Ubiquiti switch that has multiple RJ45 and 2 fibre optic input slots for my office system. This system is now essentially a reference level headphone system. Last time I looked my Ubiquiti switch was about $500 on Amazon. I think a lot of audiophiles started chasing it and the price went up.

I have a different brand $75 Fibre switch in my Livingroom that connect to a great 2-channel system. So, I have 2 Fibre network endpoints just before the DACs. I connect the Fibre and the USB input of my DACs together with the Sonore OpticalRendu. It is a very good sounding streamer though I think there is an improved new version from Sonore.

I posted many times of my listening tests with the opticalRendu, Lumin X1, and the Playback Designs STREAM-IF. I had all 3 in the house at the same time (owned them) and did a lot of comparisons. One clarification, the X1 did not use USB, I went directly into the Fibre input on the Lumin X1 DAC, the ultimate solution.

They all sound different and all were great in their own way. I kept the OpticalRendu because I traded my Lumin X1 for speakers, the Yamaha NS5000. I decided the Schitt Yggi+ OG DAC (at $3k) was incredible, and I did not need to spend $24k on the PBD Dream DAC for which I previously bought the STREAM-IF.

All 3 of these streaming solutions supported Fibre optic cables and I did not need to change anything upstream of the Fibre switch. I do not care what is upstream of my Fibre moat.

I use ROON for all my streaming.

@devinplombier Fibre optical cables are made of glass and can be very long; cheap too.Fibre is used to transmit data across large distances reliably, 

Glass cannot carry analog noise that is in the network, a network is likely ethernet cable based for the most part, like my home network. I use fibre cable as the last bit before the DAC.

I think jitter is another matter to be concerned with, but most competent DACs (low cost) can handle jitter these days. I do not know how that relates to streaming. I do not care since the DACs can deal with it.

Toslink is likely also made of glass, but it is a different type of cable and cannot travel long distances. Toslink also has some issue related to digital transmission that I do not know enough to explain.

I do use Toslink in my office system for 1 DAC input and SPDIF for another DAC input. The Toslink is for my noisy computer (YouTube and sports) and the SPDIF is for CD/SACD's. The SPDIF sounds great, as good as the streaming. The Toslink is not that great, nor is the source.

I am just some person spewing an opinion here however, there are some heavy-duty DAC designers that are stating the same thing. PlayBack Designs Andreas Koch for one.

BTW - Lumin were the first DAC company to support fibre natively, they actually did this after reading posts on an online forum years ago about the advantages of fibre.

@soix I believe it depends on the DAC and some designers say their DACs do not need a clock, such as PlayBack Designs. Now this is not a cheap DAC, $6k -$24k.

I use the low-cost, Schitt Yggi+ OG and LIM (soon converted to MIB) DACs. I consider the Yggi a very competent DAC, one of the best. 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. 

A lot of nonsensical and incorrect information abound. I know what works for me and who is blowing a bit of hot air. 

For anyone who is not sure what I am using. I have a separate streamer that uses fibre at one end and converts to USB at the other end. The USB end goes into my Yggi+ DACs. The newer Yggi's have a good USB support.

BTW - Mike is the designer of the Yggi DACs.

There is a lot of confusion about streamers on this thread. The post by @mitch2 is one of the best at clearing the confusion. He is doing the same streaming thing as me except he has a DDC in the chain. I was considering adding one myself solely to have 2 DACs connected from the same endpoint, however, that need is now gone with my next office setup. I will be using Toslink directly out of the computer for my computer audio needs in my office. I just want to hear sound in the Toslink case not care too much about the quality.

My ROON core is still far away in another room on another computer.

BTW - my friend, for whom, I setup the same fiber based streaming setup as mine but using 100 feet of fibre cable for his shop/warehouse, is coming out with an open baffle speaker around December. It will be my new office desktop speaker (I will use stands). Photos at 11.

Can you post the link for the PC? I have a fanless PC for my office work, but it only has RJ45.

@devinplombier I actually have a PC from a company called SilentPC. I have a liquid cooled fanless PC that I use in my office. I cost about $6k but my client bought it for me. That machine is very solid with 6 monitors running off it. It also only supports RJ45 network connections.

I ran my ROON Core off this silent machine and compared it to my cheap $500 Dell that is under my guest bed. Both sounded the same using my Sonore OpticalRendu as the fibre moat before the USB connection to the DAC. I expected them to sound the same.

The idea of using SFP in the PC is interesting. I am not sure if it would make a difference in my situation. However, once my $500 Dell machine dies, I will look into getting another PC but this time with an SFP network connection.