I too have been on the fence about investing in a dedicated streamer. Currently I'm using a Dell micro PC with a USB feed to a Schitt Bifrost DAC. From what I'm hearing, could I do better with the bespoke gear?
Any audiophile use computer (MacBook) as your audio streaming source?
I rarely see any audiophile talking about streaming audio digital sources from a computer. I understand MacBook can accept native lossless formats form all the various platforms, and it can store unlimited music files in any format, so supposedly it’s the best source, and the digital file is the most purest before it’s fed to the dac. Anyone compared the sound quality of computer vs other audio streamer?
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At under $1K, as previously recommended. Can be used as a stand alone streamer or as a DDC with your computer. |
Do you have a CD player? If you do it is a worthwhile exercise to compare the sound of a CD to the streamed equivalent. Just make sure the CD and the strreaming version are the same. I'm using an ASUS ROG gaming laptop as my streamer and running it through a Berkeley Reference DAC using the Berkeley USB unit. I have a Jay's Audio CD3 MkIII transport. I have compared numerous CDs with their Qobuz counterparts and they sound identical to me. If there is some sort of noise or hash coming out of my PC it isn't enough to be audible on my system with my ears. Even though they sound the same I'm going to buy a dedicated streamer soon primarily due to the convenience. However, I will be quite surprised if the streamed content actually sounds better than CD. |
- 144 posts total