Sound quality differences in streamers

@mdalton 

I think we should invite steakster and teach him a thing or two about digital audio 😁

@devinplombier 

ok, but if you’re playing WFB Jr. I get to play Christopher Hitchens.  Deal?

Yes, bits are perfect but the timing of their arrival at the DAC isn't.  It's mostly about being in the right place at the right time as our ears are very sensitive to the timing.

if the ones and zeros go through a buffer that makes them the same size, shape, and jitter removal, then, it is reasonable to expect this corrected digital input to give the same sound as from a high-priced streamer to a premium DAC. 

Here is long thread with technical explanations for how and why noise affects sound quality in streaming https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/70440-digital-noise-discussion/

Digital noise is both self generated within components and rides along grounds to next component in chain, this why galvanic isolation effective, optical conversion or optical internet service also solves this noise traveling issue. Doesn't solve the self generated noise issue, this noise obscuring resolution/transparency which once lost can never be regained, galvanic isolation doesn't solve this problem.

As others have mentioned, clocks also critical, and this holds true for entire steaming data path, a quality clock within dac cannot repair timing issues upstream from it. Quality clocking has everything to do with presentation, generally analog sounds more natural to us because it present a continuous waveform, precision timing comes closer to presenting a similar waveform, result is a more analog like presentation with proper clocking/timing. Streamers differ greatly in clocking quality.

I misspoke in regard to windows motherboard, atx motherboard correct, these require multiple voltages.