streaming and audiophile stereo

Bits is bits.  That's the beauty of digital.  Your most cost effective streamer is a dedicated laptop PC.  Spend a pile on some streamer and it won't sound a bit different.

Bits is bits.

@ghasley I run an HP laptop I got off of Craigslist for $200. I swapped in a 1TB SSD, which cost me another $100. I run Ubuntu Linux on it with JRiver for Linux, which cost me about $30. I run a Peachtree DAC iT.

I had some friends over for a shootout a while ago against a Schitt Yiggy and a PS Audio DirectStream. Most who were there felt that the Peachtree was the most musical. I like the DirectStream a tad better, but not $6000 better (or even the $3000 you’d pay today for one).

Hi-end DACs are your very, very worst investment as the market believes that the technology is rapidly evolving, so anything a few years old can’t be adequate by "today’s standards." Today’s $5000 wonder DAC is tomorrows $1800 White Elephant.

Why do I go on about "bits is bits"? That’s because digital information is transferred from one device to another, and either it is correct or it is not. That’s what hand shaking information transfer protocols are all about. If you don’t trust computers to accurately transfer digital information, then realize that’s where your money is. Banks store everything electronically and you depend upon the accurate transfer of digital information from device to device, over thousands of miles of cable, none of which is certified to audiophile standards.

How many streamers come with a graphical interface on a 17" screen? And that’s just the laptop I use. I could use an Intel fanless NUC box with a monitor of whatever size I choose to get more screen real estate should I choose. Any computer can stream from any on-line source, as well as YouTube and "Internet Radio".

Beyond that, I backup my music data to two different computers I have on-site as well as a machine I have off-site, so I have four full copies of my music data. One on-site machine is my desktop box which is 11 years old, but being that it has 32 G of system memory, running Linux it still flies. My other local backup machine is a Raspberry Pi with a large drive hanging off of it. The off-site machine is also a Raspberry Pi with a large drive hanging off of it.

Does your dedicated streamer allow you to do a daily backup to multiple other sites, locally and remotely over the Internet?

@tonywinga When I say "bits is bits,"  I mean that while the information is in the digital domain, it is the same regardless of the platform it is on.  So whether the digital data is on a laptop PC, Raspberry Pi or exotic streamer, it's still just digital data.

The secret sauce is always in the D/A conversion.  I have no doubt that there are benefits to newer technologies and there may be audible differences.  But I think that by now, it's all pretty good.  Certainly some pricey designs will be priced far higher than they should, but that's marketing and let the buyer beware.

One of the biggest problems for manufacturers is that they not only compete with each other (and China), they also compete with their own gear on the used market. PS Audio made a big deal out of the DirectStream DAC as the work was not done in firmware, as virtually all other DAC devices do, but was done in an EEPROM and that they would update the software from time to time.  This was supposed to make it future proof.  And of course they have superceded the DirectStream with something new.

I think there is far more to be concerned about in the recording label and who does the mastering.  You can only playback what someone else has mastered.  Because the very vast majority of music listening is done on earbuds, recording engineers are mastering the music for the best sound you can get on earbuds.  This is why you hear about people saying that digital recordings have less dynamic range than vinyl, which is a totally silly statement.  It's in the mastering.

I think it's great when people have the money to drop on expensive gear, but the most bang for your buck will always be in loudspeakers, so that's where I feel your most bucks should go.  My Peachtree DAC does a decent job.  I'm sure there are things out there that would perform better, but at what price?