Bluesound Node versions SQ

so when a young 20-something coworker, who has backed into this hobby via home theater asks me questions contemplating a purchase, if I can’t give him a valid "why" something should sound better, they might just decide to stick with Bluetooth, and that is rather sad.

@moonwatcher The best advice is to have him/her demo something in their system  — that’d be more effective/impactful than any words or logic, and it’s easy to try things like DACs and streamers risk free these days so why not?  Words only go so far, and listening is the final arbiter anyway.  They’ll either hear the improvements or they won’t, and that’ll override any words/logic you can provide. 

If I send a data stream of 01001101 and another streamer does the same to the exact same external DAC, and that external DAC is doing buffering and reclocking of the data stream such that jitter is not an issue, there should be no difference whatsoever

@moonwatcher There’s more to it than that when it comes to audio that has been discussed ad nauseam here so I’m not gonna rehash it here. If you wanna keep believing better streamers don’t sound better that’s your prerogative, but it flies in the face of 95% of people’s experience here so just maybe there’s something to it — or they’re all just wrong and fooling themselves and you’re right. Whatever you do, don’t even try a better streamer or heaven forbid use your ears. 🙄

All those on YouTube continually say that a $4K streamer sounds better than a $300 one when feeding an external DAC, but none of them, not even Hans Beekhuyzen, with his oscilloscope prop in the background, can show any data as to why that is. Guess stuff that cost more just always sounds better. I’ll sell you a Raspberry Pi for $8000 if you are so inclined. Wink, wink.

@moonwatcher They might not show data, but they use their ears as have so many others here have done and have found very significant improvements with more expensive streamers.  Of course not all expensive streamers may sound better as with everything in audio, but those who have stepped up to pricier models from Aurender, Innuos, Grimm, etc. have experienced significant improvements over Nodes and other budget streamers or even when moving up the line within those brands.  What streamer are you using and what more expensive streamers have you compared it to?  If you haven’t heard any of the pricier streamers then you are speaking out of ignorance in assuming that more expensive streamers aren’t better or worth paying more for. 

If I was on a tight budget I’d get a used Node (N130 or later to get the functional USB output) and an LPS from Teddy Pardo, SBooster, or LHY.  By all accounts this setup punches well above its weight/price, and you get the Bluesound app that is better than most especially among budget streamers.  Best of luck.