I think two important things to consider are what have you invested so far in your current platform (time, not money) and how do you plan to use the streamer. Personally, I prefer physical media. Nobody can take it away from me and having gone on an audio hiatus, the ability to come back and pick up where you left off is invaluable. So for me, I rip CDs and convert 78’s, 45’s, and LPs to DSD. I have about 10k pieces of physical media - been collecting since I was 12. About 40% of my collection is converted. I rate all of my songs and have it scaled down to about 45 days of 4-5 star songs. When I’m feeling lazy or preoccupied, I go digital and hit random. This is home, work and car. That’s about 270 days of listening for 4 hours a day without repeats. If I want quality, I go back to the originals. I have invested a lot of time in JRiver as my program of choice and it carries my organization when they can’t be embedded. If this was my only transport, I would feel differently. With a dedicated PC, a personal collection vast enough for me to forget a song exists between plays, and a good DAC, I don’t long for more. Since convenience is the attribute that separates my digital from my physical media, the idea of fiddling with 1 and 0s is not appealing to me.
The same could be said by some about analog. I’m comfortable with a meter, a control screwdriver and a magnifying headlamp. Others may be comfortable with a program. Me, when I have a digital issue, I end up somewhere on the dark web downloading a troubleshooting program. Now I believe a streamer (and based on what I read in threads like this - lots of other parts I just don’t understand) could improve my sound. However, with years already invested in my current process, it’s not worth it for me. This is largely because of how I use it. I often hear things like - great streamer, but the interface is just OK. In my opinion, the interface IS the streamer. If that’s clunky, where’s the benefit over physical media. And if that doesn’t pick up your current catalog and preserve the work you have done so far, don’t bother.
What is the added value of a streamer over a networked dedicated Computer
Hi
I see lots of sales pitches for streamers as digital sources, and plenty on this site advocating them. I get that they're a purpose-built user interface but, apart from that convenience, including a visual display on the device, (i) do they really deliver better hi-fi sound as a source over a well set up computer dedicated to hi-fibreoriduction (ii) if so, why?
Here's some background to my question(s). I currently use a dedicated Mac Mini with SSD (headlessly) and Audirvana Plus software through a USB DAC. I tend to listen to digital files on external drives (wired connections). Some are high Definition eg Flac, some are aiff ripped from my extensive CD collection. Currently I only tend to use Spotify etc to test if I like music and invest in actual downloads of the music I like. In day to day use the Mac Mini/Audirvana Plus (virtual) player is controlled using its remote app on an iPad on the same Network. If I wanted I could add high quality online streaming from, eg, Tidal. Whilst that would expand the breadth of music I have immediate access to, it seems to me to add another potential source of interruption/corruption of data flow. The Audirvana software overrides/bypasses detrimental computer audio elements and processes keeping the data path simple and dedicated to hifi audio replay.
So what, sound quality-wise, would a standalone streamer device using NAS or other drive storage and/or online web connection bring to the party? It seems to me it's just a digital device containing effectively the components of a computer with a button (or remote) interface. I understand the old argument that it's dedicated and not doing other things simultaneously and that computers are traditionally electrically noisy environments but I'm currently sceptical that with a dedicated computer, not being used for other purposes, and running a virtual device like Audirvana Plus which effectively switches off internal functions which might compromise sound, this is a real problem. Also it seems that a "dedicated streamer" contains many elements which are effectively computing elements. Note that I have no industry connection or monetary interest from Audirvana or Apple.