I am not sure what I truly believe to be reasonable with this entire issue. I am a network engineer and deal with signal path constantly. If data is truly digital it is a stream of zeros and ones. Noise should not be an issue as once you are in the digital domain it would not be a part of the binary stream.
I do agree that a clocking issue could introduce some significant difficulties for the DAC, although this too could be overcome with enough buffer to allow for time correction.
I have a Node 2i being used only as a steamer and the decoding be actioned by a DA2 in a McIntosh C2700 preamp. I compared this to a well recorded vinyl selection and found the digital stream sounded somewhat mechanical…or had a lack of “warmth”. I realize these are subjective descriptions, but I’m not sure how else to describe it.
While I believe the above all to be correct, I am always skeptical of my own need to justify the next purchase I want to make. Add that to a salesman who might be willing to spout a never ending steam of technical nonsense to reinforce my decision to purchase and (I think) you wind up where we all are. Searching for facts in a subjective world.
I do however seek anyones advice on how to achieve the warmth and sonic quality of vinyl thru a digital stream…I’m lazy, vinyl is hard to find and gets very expensive…
thoughts?