Point of higher priced streamer?


Hello,
Assuming I have separate DAC, and I just want to play songs from iPad by Airplay feature.
In this case, I need a streamer to receive music from my iPad -> DAC.

What’s the point of high price streamer? I’m bit surprised that some streamers are very high priced.
From my understanding, there should be no sound quality difference.
(Streaming reliability and build quality, I can see it but I do not see advantages in terms of sound quality.)

Am I missing something? If so, please share some wisdom.
128x128sangbro
Guys we gave a totally different set of experiences with servers and streaming

First our major test system is a a 150k reference system that can easily show differences

First we started with laptops and mac minis then an sotm computer with a linear supply

Tried auralic then heard higher end streamers went with innous zenith rthen upgraded to an innousstatement and each time the higher end servers made the system sound far better same dac same system there are audible differences in these devices

You could hear the diferences even sending the signal over the network to a roon endpoint in another room the server improved the sound even over streaming directlyfrom the endpoint to tidal directly

Dave and troy
Audio intellect nj
Streaming specialists

Dave Lalin. How are you doing buddy? Glad to see you posting again. It sounds like you beat Covid-19 and the stroke caused by it. 
@Thyname, again, you are not giving me any technical explanation. Just subjective measurements. Streamer does one thing, instruct DAC how to create the audio.
Regardless, Merry Christmas. Enjoy the music.

this is what I have:

Streamer: Hifiberry Digi+ Pro on Raspberry 3B+ running Volumio (currently)

DAC: Rotel RDD-1580

Amp: Mcintosh MC-302

Pre: Mcintosh C53

Speakers: B&W 805 Maserati Edition

NAS: WD mycloud mirror 8Tb



Hey @pc...numbers ... numbers. You literally posted right below a huge explanation of everything. May I humbly suggest you read it. Enjoy your Rotel “DAC”. I have a sweet spot on Rotel. It was my first decent system back in 2003-2004 with RB-1080/ RC-1070 / RCD-1072 combo. We have something in common presently too. My speakers are B&W 803 D3. Merry Christmas 
Reading this while listening to my Node 2i streaming internet music (Radio Swiss Jazz) to a recently acquired (Cyber Week) Wyred4Sound mPre made me realize that there is a DAC input in the mPre. So changed the hook up to digital out of the node to the digital in of of the mPre. Think sound is better. Speakers are Madisound BK16 and amps are  Amp Camp monos.