Does the streamer effect sound quality

Improving the PS by adding a LPS to the Node was a step in the right direction. Replacing the Node setup with the Innuos Zen Mk3 was huge! I'm seeing used ones going as little as $1550. That is a steal. No brainer. 

@cleeds Respectfully decline to identify brand names. Believe there is brand name bias, myself included, that can get in the way for this topic.  Will say all my components are from brands with long history in audio, not expensive, high performance for the cost.

@ghdprentice To further clarify streamer and CD transport feed digital to the same DAC via optical connections. Comparing the same track, streamer sound is noticeably congested.  Not enough different to say the streamer sound is bad, just different.  Is it the streaming service or the streamer?  Don't know.

The Bluesound streamers have gotten better over the years. I’ve had the Node 2, 2i and now the X, and each one has sounded better. Not sure how much better a $1k plus streamer would sound compared to the latest Node. Never did the power supply mod on any of them, but might go for that down the road and still keep the cost reasonable.

@texbychoice

Just a word of caution. Optical connections tend to be poor. Typically they are add in functions and the component manufacturer just sources an inexpensive electrical to optical converter to do it. In general, these are not the connections people serious about sound quality would use. So, it is very possible what is coming through is more of how well the optical converter was integrated. I would use SP/DIF or AES for sound quality comparisons. Of course, then it is a question of how well the streamer and CD transports manufacturer designed and built their components.

I’ve had the blue sound, the Lumin, the Cambridge, the overall advice is that it’s hard to logically separate what these devices do. If it’s only to transport bits into a DAC, or to provide a processed signal, and does it attenuate volume? One of these three will give clues as to what may cause audible differences. My bet is in that pesky volume knob. I ended up with a crazy expensive preamp just because that volume knob seemed to make a huge difference. I’m thrilled with the Apple TV to control the music and deliver bits to the dac and then preamp has the volume knob. If a product can handle all three it’s great but all I’ve listed didn’t tick the box in my listening.