Digital music questions

What’s your budget?

Would a dedicated streamer sound a lot better than the Macbook Pro?

Good God yes!

if the MacBook is sending a digital file, comprised of bits (0s, 1s), why would the streamer make so much of a difference? Isn’t the digital file the same regardless of the source? I’m trying to left brain this, it just isn’t making sense the way there can be such a difference in speaker quality or amplifiers, for instance.

I think most of us probably started this journey thinking very similarly because it’s eminently logical, but just like jitter was a relative unknown when CDs first came out, things we didn’t know initially can turn out to be very consequential and even critical. For dedicated streamers, a lot of the difference can come down to reduced noise (probably the biggest issue and the single biggest problem with using an extremely noisy computer as a source), clocking, power supply, and overall parts quality. If you pursue streaming further you’ll quickly learn that every single thing matters and almost always matters A LOT.

I’ll share my own example where several years ago I started running a high-quality all silver USB connection from my iPad/iPhone to my DAC, then I compared the same recordings between my budget CD transport and streaming through Qobuz and the transport was undeniably superior, and at that point I was pretty damn depressed. So I reached out to the fine folks here and the overwhelming consensus was I needed to get a dedicated streamer, so that’s what I did and picked up an iFi Zen Stream for a relatively paltry $400 and BLAM — right away my streaming quality leapfrogged my CD transport by a huge margin. Point being, moving from a noisy computer to even a relatively modest dedicated streamer will be a significant upgrade, and once you do that I’d also strongly suggest you do a free Qobuz trial as it’ll be far superior to Apple Music and there’s also a ton of music in high-res as well. I know you’re hesitant to take on another subscription, but at least you can try it and then decide if it’s worth it.  I’ll just say some things are just worth paying for.  A couple very good streamers you can consider in the $1000 price range are the Eversolo dmp A6 and the Innuos Pulse Mini — the A6 has more features but Innuos is more established and offers excellent customer support and the highly-regarded Sense app interface that’s constantly being upgraded for sound and usability. Sorry to drone on, but there’s a lot to consider here and a huge amount of sonic benefits to be had with some very worthwhile effort. Hope this helps, and best of luck.

You’re on the right track as far as audio quality and streamers go. They’re all 1’s and 0’s. As long as the data is getting to your McIntosh DAC intact, then one streamer is no better than another in terms of audio quality.

@yage Uh, I couldn’t disagree more.  You’re completely missing the critical issues of noise and clock quality among other things. 

I’ve got a fairly technical background

Ah, that explains it.  Ugh.

Noise and clock quality are basically immaterial when you’re using the USB interface as the transport…Also, I’m not sure why having a technical background is frowned upon.

@yage Because it tends to be “tech” guys, ASR disciples, and engineers that say noise, etc. is immaterial and it’s just 1s and 0s, which is completely ignorant and wrong headed — that’s why. To be clear, many tech, engineers, etc. are extremely valuable members who provide extremely valuable and useful insight here. Then there are the blind deniers/flat earthers like you who are largely frowned upon here because most of us have considerable personal experience that’s completely at odds with your assertions. People here tend to have enough listening experience to trust their own ears rather than blindly following scientific dogma. That’s why the likes of you and jasonbourne, etc. hold little to no weight here whatsoever and are indeed “frowned upon.” Comprende amigo?

BTW, this also begs the question, what streamer do you use and what have you compared it to?  That’d be interesting info. 

If the data received by the DAC’s USB receiver from two different components is the same - whether it was sent by a $100 streamer or a $10k streamer - then there’s no difference between the two components. It is literally the same audio signal that’s being communicated. This is fundamental to how digital systems function.

@yage Dogma City, population you. Do you seriously think a Bluesound Node sounds as good as the top streamers from the likes of Aurender, Innuos, Lumin, dCS, Wolf, etc., etc.? Seriously, do you really believe that???  And again I ask, what streamer are you using, or do you just stream from your computer because it apparently makes no difference anyway?

Now onto streamers, yes I’m saying that an inexpensive streamer can sound just as good as an expensive streamer if the DAC receives the same data. Bits truly are bits - and that’s the beauty of digital data. We can make and store and stream as many copies of music files as we want and as long as those copies match the original bit for bit, they will always sound identical.

Ok, I’ve already said my piece on this and I’m done as it’s clear the cement has hardened on this one.  If anyone else here takes issue with this please feel free to chime in because this is just absolute ignorant silly talk.  A cheap streamer can sound just as good as the better and more expensive streamers out there?  You gotta be kidding me man.  There are so many people here who’ve had revelations in their streaming setup by upgrading to a better streamer it’s not even a question anymore except in your mind.  A quote from Pink Floyd’s The Wall once again seems appropriate…

”And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall”

Peace out.