Mostly design preferences. Most preamps, amps, DAC, streamer if designed to have low distortion and noise will sound similar enough they would be very hard to differentiate in blind listening tests. The biggest differences will come from speakers and room interaction.
Why do components sound different?
I have always wondered why there is so much discussion about how a pre-amp, amp, DAC, streamer sound.
To me, they should not have any sound! They are merely passing the signal thru to the next device until they get to your ears from your headphones or speakers.
The perfect component would have a linear frequency response, no distortion ( no harmonics which are overtones of the original signal) and introduce no other frequencies.
Anything else is just hard to measure and can only be described in words like "warm", "soundstage", "harsh", "lifelike".
Thoughts?
To me, they should not have any sound! They are merely passing the signal thru to the next device until they get to your ears from your headphones or speakers.
The perfect component would have a linear frequency response, no distortion ( no harmonics which are overtones of the original signal) and introduce no other frequencies.
Anything else is just hard to measure and can only be described in words like "warm", "soundstage", "harsh", "lifelike".
Thoughts?