Do I need a streamer?


Streaming devices, with or without an internal DAC, seem to be very popular these days, so I am wondering if I am missing out on something.  I have Audirvana on my iMac that streams Tidal and music from my 8 TB external HD.  My iMac resides next to my audio rack and I connect my iMac via an optical cable (Fibbr) to my Aqua LaVoce DAC.  It seems to me that my iMac and external HD take the place of a streaming device.  Am I missing out on something other than convenience?  My external HD was a few hundred bucks and streamers a whole lot more.  The sound of my system is fantastic. 

whitestix

Showing 2 responses by whitestix

As much as I read about music servers and streamers, I am still bewildered how they fit in my system which includes:

Don Sachs preamp & KT88 amp; Willsenton 300b; Wells Audio Innamora,VTV EVO1200 

Spatial Audio M4 Triode Masters

So the streamer does not have the noise that a computer does?  Does a Micro-Rendu clean up that computer noise?

I have ripped all my music to my external HD which has nearly 8TB of music on it.  Would my HD connect to a streamer?  I am unaware of any streamers or music servers that have that much internal storage, or do streamers not even have storage?

I currently control music on my iMac with Audirvana so how to I control the music if I have a streamer?   Do I still use Audirvana if use a streamer?

Thanks for your information. 

 

 

Gents,

Whew, a bit of light is shining on the issue so thanks very much for all your comments.  My pal with a similarly good system as mine used to stream from his iMac and went to a streaming/music server (NAD I think) and I noticed zero difference in SQ before and after.  I did notice that his bank account was noticeably depleted after the purchase.   It is really hard for me to imagine that I would get ~$6K worth of SQ improvement adding the suggested Lumin or Aurelic device recommended above.  I do use the USB Disrupter ($150) in place of the ultra-fiddly Micro-Rendu device and it does improve the sound to a degree.  Odd that nobody mentions the MR device which seems to function to clean up computer noise, but at a hefty price.    I most often sit at my iMac while streaming music to my system and I have never experienced a hiccup or drop out... no difference if I have several programs running at the same time or not in terms of the effect on SQ.  

I am going to take mapman up on the offer of a private chat to further my knowledge base.  The modestly-priced iFi Zen Stream might be a place to start, but spending $6K on a streamer is not in cards unless is radically improves the sound of my system and I really doubt that is possible given how great my system already sounds.  Thanks again for everyone's contributions.