Use of Denafrips Iris 12th DDC with computer

Thanks for the follow up and glad the Iris made an improvement.  The great thing is when you eventually get a streamer the Iris will still be a valuable asset that will continue to pay dividends.  Nice purchase. 

Go all in, treating as an important source component or keep as pure utilitarian tool.

@sns Big +1. 

If there were any dedicated unit that would give me the same visual enjoyment and convenience that I have now and improve the excellent sound I currently have, I would be interested.

@firstonetallguy Here’s some good evidence from an above post by @tds3371 who also uses a Gaia from his computer and got a significant improvement from simply adding a modest Node streamer.  If he got worthwhile improvements from a Node one can reasonably assume adding a better streamer from Innuos, Aurender, etc. would provide even greater improvements.

Long story short: I’m truly amazed at how good it all sounds - especially for the modest cost. As others have stated, a dedicated streamer (even a spartan, entry-level model like the Nano) is, IMHO, definitely worth considering. 

Your most effective upgrade by far would be a good separate streamer, but it’s hard to think a DDC wouldn’t provide at least some improvement over that mess of a signal coming out of your computer.  I put an Iris between my streamer and DAC and the improvement was significant in the same ways as described by @jastralfu above — background noise I didn’t know was there was stripped away and everything just popped more within an expanded 3D soundstage is the best way I can describe it.  I bought the Iris used so in case it didn’t work out I could just sell it, but it’s not going anywhere unless I spring for a Hermes in the future.  Hope this helps, and best of luck.