2. digital
  3. 190027-170711

why expensive streamers

@soix and others

I am unclear about the effect on sound of streamers (prior to getting to the dac). Audio (even hi-res) has so little information content relative to the mega and giga bit communication and processing speeds (bandwidth, BW) and cheap buffering supported by modern electronics that it seems that any relatively cheap piece of electronics would never lose an audio bit. 

Here is why. Because of the huge amount of BW relative to the BW needs of audio, you can send the same audio chunk 100 times and use a bit checking algorithm (they call this "check sum") to make sure just one of these sets is correct. With this approach you would be assured that the correct bits would be transfered. This high accuracy rate would mean perfect audio bit transfer. 

What am I missing? Why are people spending 1000's on streamers?

thx

 

delmatae

Showing 1 response by davetheoilguy

davetheoilguy
156 posts
 

I’m not sure the price matters so much as a separate steamer matters and seperates tend to be higher end than integrated.  But as to why a separate streamer:

 

1.  Tech constantly changes. So it’s a generally better long term proposition to get distinct components, so you can just replace the parts that get outdated.  Or break.

2.  As far as why a nice streamer sounds better than an integrated:  

a  isolation from the noise on the network

b  isolation from the noise of the streamer itself

c.  It’s a dedicated component that does one thing well, with less compromise than in an integrated component 

d.  A quality streamer will:  check data, isolate and organize, and present the data in the best, most digestible, form for the DAC, allowing the DAC to do what it is supposed to do without it having to use resources making corrections or removing junk.

 

FWIW I use a Lumin U1X, which is not a cheapo streamer but hardly a $20k.  You can buy them used for $3-5k all day long.  I think they are about $10k new.

 

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