OP. I myself is new to streaming. I’m mostly and analog guy. Yes streamers do make a big difference when hooking up to an external dac. Rather than speculating and asking everyone here why not go and listen yourself and form your own conclusions? And Yes bits are bits and they “SHOULD” sound the same in an ideal situation but in reality the situation serving the data is never ideal hence there is a difference in sound.
Help settle a streaming argument!
This is a SQ argument and is as follows- I argue if you connect your streamer to an outboard DAC the streamer does not matter it’s just serving the music to the outboard DAC to do the work. Therefore, buy a basic streamer. The other is that you need to buy a top quality streamer and DAC to get great SQ.
I liken it to cd players or the more pretentious cd transport argument- if the intent is to connect to outboard DAC the cd player doesn’t matter the outboard DAC DOES!
features and functionality aside! Thoughts…..