why expensive streamers

I'm using an ASUS ROG gaming PC as my streamer running Windows 7. I stream from Qobuz. I also have over 4,000 CDs which is my source most of the time. I run USB from the ASUS to my Berkeley Audio Alpha USB which is hooked up to my Berkeley Alpha Reference II MQA DAC using a BNC cable. My CD transport is a Jay's Audio CD3 Mk III.

I have compared the streamed Qobuz file with its corresponding CD (being careful that they are the same version) for at least 20 titles. The streamed file sounds identical to CD in every case.

I simply would not expect the streamed file to sound better than the CD played through the same DAC. If it did then I would question the quality of my CD gear. If my PC is somehow adding noise or corrupting the file then I can't hear it. I don't understand how a multi-thousand dollar streamer is going to sound better than a CD played through a Jay's Audio CD3 Mk III.

BTW, I have ripped my CDs to uncompressed FLAC using dB Poweramp, and I have compared these files to the CD. They sound identical.

I'm baffled why more listeners don't do this simple test, assuming they have CDs to compare with. IMO this should be the most important criteria for a streamer. Does it sound as good as the corresponding CD? If the streamer sounds better than the actual CD then I would propose that something in their system is awry. It's extremely hard to understand how a WAV file can be chopped up into packets, sent through thousands of miles of wire and hundreds of switches, go through your $200 home router, then reassembled into a file that can be read by a DAC, and actually sound better than the WAV file read from a CD.

Having said all that, my next purchase is going to be an Eversolo DMP-8 streamer but I'm getting it mostly for convenience. The reviews indicate that it has a very good interface and it has the ability to have enough memory installed so that I can put my ripped CD collection in the streamer which will avoid having to get a NAS or server.

My advice is to use CD playback as a standard for comparison. This is the only way to genuinely compare the sound of streamers IMO.

@pindac Yes, I think you got my point. But the other point I want to make is that if you listen to a new component without using a control to compare it against, you are highly succeptable to expectation bias. It's interesting that so many people on this thread say one streamer sounds better than another but how do they compare to a standard control, like a CD?

My question to the goldenears is, If you hear a significant difference in two streamers, can you describe the differences compared to a CD? Have you compared the same song (using the same DAC) between a streamer and a CD? Did you run this test at least 10 times on different days over a period of at least a couple weeks?

There are dozens (probably hundreds) of blind tests that show that as soon as a listener doesn't know what component he is listening to, the differences in sound mysteriously dissappear. I am unaware of even one blind test that confirms that listeners can tell two streamers apart or two brands of cables for that matter.

My point is that if you are going to compare multi-thousand dollar streamers then you should use a CD as a control to judge their performance. I suspect that doing repeated listening tests, using a control, over several weeks, will greatly diminish the SQ differences between streamers.

@mikhailark I have ripped my CD collection to uncompressed FLAC using dB Poweramp. I have it on an external drive hooked to my ASUS PC - the same one I use for streaming. I have listened dozens of times with different songs to see if I can hear a difference between the CD played through a Jay's Audio CD3 MK III vs. a Qobuz stream of the same file vs. my ripped FLAC. The process I use is to make sure the volume is equalized between sources and then play an entire song from the two sources I'm comparing at the time. I even take notes of things I've noticed and their place in the track so that I can listen for that event in the other source. FWIW I'm running through a Berkeley Audio Alpha Reference II MQA DAC. The streamed files are run through an Alpha USB before the DAC.

So far, the sound of the CD, the streamed file, and the FLAC have sounded identical. One of my main points is that people are spending thousands of dollars on fancy streamers because a PC supposedly adds noise and distortion to the signal. I admit I haven't compared  a 5 figure streamer to my PC but if my PC sounds as good as a CD played through a state-of-the-art transport then I think that's probably about as good as it gets. I don't think I've ever read a review that says that a high end streamer sounds way better than a CD or a ripped FLAC.

If your point is that we should be using a ripped FLAC as the control for comparison (I suggest using zero compression) than that is fine. My point is that comparing streamers to one another by disconnecting one and hooking up another without any means to compare them against a control is inviting expectation bias to influence what we hear. Without any means of comparison to a standard, I submit that the more expensive streamer will always sound better - along with the ultra expensive internet switch and the thousand dollar USB cable.