Sound quality differences in streamers

Unfortunately, some believe good analog to be primarily about the pre, amp and speakers, in failing to understand it all begins with the needle and cartridge. Spending any less effort on that and nothing else downstream matters. As with digital, everything within our control begins with the source that picks up the recording.

In friendship - kevin

@kevn 

Pre, amps, and speakers deliver the sound to your ears regardless of which source you listen to. Short of giving a dealer $300000 to seed your system and using that as a baseline to improve upon, it is unclear how you propose to evaluate sources and other components without having a good system core - pre, amps, and speakers - settled.

I think you will agree that there would be no point playing a fine MC cartridge and phono stage through some gear you watch movies on. You’d have absolutely no idea what that cartridge sounds like.

If I missed something I apologize.

@devinplombier 

thank you for your kind response - yes I believe you did miss something, but there’s no need for apology - of course pres, amps and speakers are vital, but no less and no more than a power outlet is to what is delivered to one’s ears - I was merely stating that while these components are all important, the source component of a server or streamer is no less so, and in fact is as primary as anything and everything else in the signal chain. 
And, in much the same way you’d have no idea what a cartridge ‘sounds’ like without good equipment upstream, you’d have no idea what your pre, amp and speakers are capable of without a good cartridge and set up, or a good digital source.

I believe the reason some of us do not think consideration of digital sources are as equally vital to that of an analog cartridge is because of the ongoing indoctrination that digital merely concerns ones and zeros, and a little bit of jitter, while the building evidence is to the absolute contrary. It all boils down to whether one believes everything that is heard of music can be measured or not. I’ve provided links to articles on auditory science that tell us measurements don’t show us everything just yet, and also encouraged audiophiles to learn the skill of critical listening in order to gauge for themselves, because even after measurements are at the point to better describe how the human ear hears, we will still each have our differences in hearing and listening ability, meaning some of us will actually not need to spend beyond what our ears or listening ability are capable of. I don’t mean this in snarky insult, but in absolute and considered honesty. I have a friend who’s hearing is so bad or unlearned, he is unable to hear the difference between the decent line magnetic 845p tube amplifier and a particularly nasty solid state. Most would have a laugh at his expense, but he’s completely joyful with the relatively affordable single box naim uniti atom and his Klipsch heresy IVs, and he doesn’t tell me I’m stupid to spend so much on equipment that makes no difference.

In any case, i hope you leave yourself open to the possibility that the digital source of a server or a streamer is as vital and primary to a sound system, as a pre, an amp and speakers are. It will change what music means to you, the way it did for me. I am incredibly fortunate to have had access to so many with greater experience than me, to have gotten to where I have found myself - audiogon is one of those points of access.

In friendship - kevin

What a fantastic conversation this is, As an analog die-hard I appreciate the lack of histrionics and the presence of good natured disagreements. This is how it should be.

There is an alternative to the Switch X, and what I do. I provide a clean/audio only network segregated from my whole house network via modem>router with wifi disabled, on clean side this feeds NAS and server, on dirty or whole house side feeds another router with wifi enabled, this feeds whole house. All equipment on clean side powered via LPS. Switch X could be superior to this via isolation from the constant pinging a router gives and receives.

Quality of one's network also has audio quality repercussions, and to think that some don't believe servers, streamers, dacs don't make a difference! Just have to write that off to there are no known unknowns for some.

As for those with Roon, try a two computer or server to streamer setup. Server contains the Core, streamer contains the Endpoint. Roon specifically designed for this, keeping these functions discrete results in superior sound quality. Bottom line, streaming is a relatively fast moving technology, some people understand there are still many known unknowns, this the mother of invention.