Is a USB stick directly into ones streamer (renderer) better than streaming from a PC/NAS?

Thanks, I agree - why spend a small fortune on expensive hardware that's not actually needed to get great sound. I understand my 'all in one' solution could be bettered, but again, at a massive increase in price.

The 6Moons 'thing' is another proprietery device, which is very expensive. Like the Roon machine, basically a PC in a fancy box with,,, blah blah blah inside, which I see as unecessarily overpriced.  If I had Thousands of $/£ to spend then it may be worth persuing, but these pieces of, basically, PC hardware, seem like a complete rip off to me, like Etthernet switches which can also cost thousands. The cheapest 'Audio' switches are about £500, and are based on c£40 switches, with very little done to the 'modded' version to warrant the huge increase in price!

There's a lot of bandwagon jumping on IMO.

@erik_squires - I'm not looking to 'invest' in anything. I'm simply putting the question out there, as there seems very little discussions going on around my question.

@fuzztone - I'm not frugal, quite the reverse, but I'm also not dumb. I don't see the need to spend, possibly, thousands, to get no, or very liitle SQ improvement. I'm willing to try anything out. I'm open to all possibilities - although expensive fuses in your mains pre/power amp input is where I draw the line! In a speaker, yes, maybe, as they're in the direct line of music. People get drawn in by 'good' dealers selling Foo. 'Good' meaning good at their job, the job of SELLING stuff.

@tomic601 - Where would I use the Jitter Bug in my scenario? The Jitter Bug that's been reviewed many times, and most conclusions are - the only thing a Jitter Bug does is relieve you of $60/£50!

@jond - So you spent c$1k. My NAS (920+) + 3x6Tb drives came to about the same, but my 32Gb stick was £12. A slight difference. And music from the stick sounds better. I've seen people who've spent c$10k on a streaming setup. Maybe they couldn't directly stream into their renderer from a USB drive/stick; maybe they haven't even tried it. Scared to no doubt after that expense. c$10k v $10. One would imagine/think/BELIEVE that the $10k setup would be much better. If so, by how much, if at all (that's not a question btw)?

@akg_ca Thank you, and everyone here, for the useful input. Although you say the USB is equally good as your NAS. There's so so much written about LOTS of noise produced by a NAS/Switch/PC/Cableing, and how much one needs to spend to alleviate it, which is what prompted my original question. A USB stick obviates the need for any of that, IF your renderer has a USB input.

@akg_ca - I agree this can force one 'down the rabbit hole', but that is the reason for my original post, to get people to go down it, and explain their reasoning. Also, your idea that there's no 'noise' before the DAC, is wrong. We're not talking of musical noise here, but noise genereated by the device itself, the switch eg.

The link you've supplied from the network engineer, is, basically, irrelevant, as he's talking of data transmission and it's integrity along the way, which is not the issue here. He also doesn't seem to understand the issue we're talking about. He says that it's ridiculous to suggest that this can colour the audio signals - THAT statement proves he's not on the same page as most on here, as no-one is talking of audio signals being coloured in a switch or ethernaet cable. nIt's the JITTER that's produced which is the issue, I believe.

Do you realise that your post has several duplications within it?

I agree with what cindyment is saying, I'm afraid akg, although we're not talking of analogue electronics here. Everything in this post is iin the digital domaine

@cindyment - It's not jitter on the output of the DAC I'm wondering about, it's on the input, along with electrical noise, which is/may be created by the ethernet links - switch/cables/PS.

USB 'isolators', not inexpensive IMO, as they vary, in rip off terms, from £50 to £250, and have been proven, with in depth measurments, to do absolutely nothing to anything passing through them. Legalised stealing is my opinion of them, as are 'special' mains input fuses.

There's been a lot of discussion in this thread, but little in a way of answering why people spend so so much on the equipment mentioned, when a cheap USB stick plugged into your device gives as good, or better SQ.

Forget your NAS (for music), forget your PC (for music), expensive Audiophle PC or not, forget your expensive switch and associated expensive LPS's to power each of those things, and not forgetting to forget your expensive ethernet cable. You can dispense with ALL that noise/jitter creating expensive hardware and just spend c£10 on a USB stick - job done. There, I've just saved you (and me) £1000>£10,000. No-one has said anything to convice me, or suggest otherwise.

I believe this thread is finished now.

Thanks for all your contributions and opinions.