Help settle a streaming argument!

I ask for a friend cause he wants to get into streaming and I say buy a basic streamer cause he has a killer DAC. so I have not tested.

Everything matters in streaming and matters a lot, and the streamer is one of the most important links in the chain.  Underspend on a streamer at your peril.  You’re kidding yourself if you think a “basic” streamer performs anywhere near the level of  more accomplished models from the likes of Aurender, Innuos, Grimm, Lumin, Wolf, etc.  You’re deep in the minority here on this one.

Is there a 3,000 dollar streamer that's as easy to use as a Node?

@mbmi The Innuos Pulse is usually $3800 but Audio Advisor currently has it discounted to $2355 (not sure why).  Much better performance than the Node and comes with their Sense app that gets very high marks for both usability and sound.  Great customer support too.

 
https://www.audioadvisor.com/inpulse-sil

I’m on the “low end”; I stream from an iPad, which goes into an Audiobyte Black Drragon DAC.  So, what does “jitter” sound like, if I may ask.

@boltapuresource I started streaming from my iPad and thought it was fine, but adding even a budget iFi Zen Stream streamer ($399) provided a huge performance boost so I’d highly recommend trying a streamer in your system.  Jitter has been described as hard, etched, glare, etc. and is a big factor in why saying something sounds “digital” has negative connotations.  Hope that makes sense. 

I use Roon. Roon bridge is a raspberry pi, Intel nuc is roon core in another room. DAC is a chord qutest. Been setup this way for sometime. I pickuped an Innuous Zen mini with separate PSU for a trial. Returned it after a weekend and told them no noticed difference in my setup. I’m told I am the first person not ’blown away’ by the streamer

@rgottschalk Hard to say why the Innuos didn’t make a meaningful improvement although I’ve read the Pi isn’t exactly a slouch as a streamer, but it is still a little surprising especially since you had a separate PSU (that I assume was a LPS). What pre, amp, and speakers are you using?

I’m not familiar with Roon, so is that your music source or do you use a separate music streaming service like Qobuz, etc., and I believe Innuos streamers are Roon ready so does that mean you can bypass the Nuc? (please forgive my embarrassing Roon ignorance) — wondering if you had the Innuos set up optimally to work with Roon? Just throwing darts here.

@rgottschalk Thanks for the additional info, and nice system BTW! Unfortunately I got nuthin’ further to offer here but would be very interested in hearing thoughts of others with more streaming knowledge and experience here because I’m scratching my head a bit over this one. I will say given the overall level of your system I’d consider a DAC upgrade. The Qutest is a great DAC for the $$$ fer sure, but you do get quite a bit more even just moving up the Chord line, at least that’s what I’ve read from other Chord customers and FWIW.

But all the hype I hear about better streamers addressing issues with jitter and timing which can affect sound quality, all this hype I believe is BS.

@daleberlin Well you’re free to “believe” whatever you want.  But when you have the vast majority of people here who have upgraded to better streamers and have experienced very obvious positive improvements, well, you’re kinda swimming against the stream here.  Do you really think all those folks are fooling themselves into thinking they’re hearing something better, because if you do I think you’re the one fooling yourself.  And it’s not just about jitter and timing — better parts quality, power supplies, and significantly lower noise levels are all important aspects of why more expensive streamers sound better, and significantly so.  Ignore the wisdom of the members on this site at your own peril.  I will say burying your head in the sand is certainly an easier way to go, or maybe try a better streamer yourself and see what you hear rather than just what you “believe” to be true.