Streamed music sounds awful in my system and I don't know why ....

Poor PC gets blamed. I recently built a Windows 11 based player/streamer and play my music through that. There’s probably tons of background services running on OP’s machine that might be degrading his playback. Simple things like switching off leds on motherboard and not running any other process except music playback is what a PC should do. All the prebuilt music players like Aurender, Lumin etc only play music and that is how a PC should be “purpose” built. Fidelizer optimizes the services even further. Also don’t use WMP. Use a different software like Foobar2000, Audirvana, etc with AISO or WASAPI driver.
 

If you cannot do this with your existing PC, then get a nice streamer and be done. But folks need to stop blaming the PC. 

@lalitk ,

That is correct. But what I am saying is that Windows PC is not necessarily a cause for bad sound. Devices need to be dedicated and optimized. Granted that general public will not be able to do that and hence should probably go with ready made servers. My server build was an ear opener for me.

@sns,

Let’s  agree to disagree on Windows PC customized for audio. I don’t necessarily believe that one has to go to Linux or other OS to get great sound. At least with my dedicated audio server, I experienced an amazing upgrade that I never thought was possible. I would think that only DAC upgrade might make a difference. But I do get the point that companies like Aurender, Lumin, etc put heroic efforts in power supply and hardware design to minimize noise.

@sns Thank You for the suggestion. I am sure it would sound very nice. But I am happy with my current setup. I use Foobar2000 that is highly configured to stream everything (including Radio Paradise and Folk Alley) in DSD. Will keep this info in my back pocket for future.