Audiophiles with disposable income can chase after the ultimate gear, seeking the last-mile's diminishing returns. We all know that a $500 streamer doesn't provide twice the sound quality (SQ) of a $250 device, nor does a $1000 streamer sound twice as good as a $500 one, or a $2000 streamer twice as good as a $1000 one, and so on. However, that 5%-10% improvement at each level justifies the craving for many enthusiasts. These incremental improvements are considered crucial for their systems, which are capable of revealing the subtle differences in those upgrades.
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