How much difference in Sound quality can be expected from different streamers?


 

I would appreciate very much in obtaining advice on the SQ from different Streamers. I am currently using a good quality vintage DAC (Altis Reference) connecting to Roku 4 (using its Tosslink out to a simple coaxial converter which connects to the coaxial “in” of the DAC). When comparing the SQ of the exact same artist/music through first  CD setup( CECTL0 connecting to the DAC) or second setup (Oppo 105 to DAC) vs ROKU 4 accessing Tidal Master level  at 48KHz, both CD systems provided better SQ with CECTLO the best. I was reading with interest on the forum (4/2/2021)  on DAC and found out that the SQ from different decent DAC does not appear to vary too much; the new DAC may offer connection convenience, but not necessarily SQ. More likely, different CD player or Transport can provide a more obvious difference in SQ than different DAC, like what I had experienced.  Thus I am very interested to seek advice from those who had experience in comparing different streamers. Can high end streamers when accessing Tidal Master level produce much better SQ than Roku 4 if connected to my DAC(at sampling rate of 48KHz)? If so, which ones would you recommend?


moses189

Showing 3 responses by jjss49

on a decent system, the sound quality improvement using a w4s modded unit (or a reclocker with decent cables) is immediately noticeable over a stock sonos connect

akin to using a noisy/jittery computer streamed usb input into a good dac versus a properly designed streamer like a bs node 2i, elac discovery etc etc
@zlone 

the sonos connect units used as streamer are known to be jittery and add a hash to the sound

that is why the wyred4sound mods to the sonos streamer has been so successful over the years, and led to the mod becoming 'productized' in the form of the w4s reclocker...

https://wyred4sound.com/products/upgrades-and-mods/sonos-connect-modified
https://wyred4sound.com/products/digital-converters/remedy-reclocker

transformative of sound coming out of the sonos unit feeding downstream dacs...
search is your friend - the search bar is above

this topic has been covered ad nauseam already in the digital section