why expensive streamers

@grislybutter What I meant was from the source (Spotify, Quoboz, Tidal, Apple, etc.) to the endpoint: you and your system. Those here who have/use local files on their own storage they stream from have commented on how much better it sounds compared to some online sources, going even further to say it sounds even better on their CDPs but it's getting really close to practically indistinguishable nowadays. 

All the best,
Nonoise

@mdalton I wasn't talking about losing or dropping packets and the tech used to ensure it all gets there. I was talking about noise creeping into the many places it can from sender to receiver and that it can corrupt what can be heard. The analogy of the CDP should have made that clear, having such short distances being all handled internally. Apologies if I wasn't clear on that.

On another note, please check for those errant flies before volunteering.

All the best,
Nonoise

If file transfer is perfect and done until it's right, reassembling the former exactly into the later, and when someone comes up with a teleporter based on this "exacting" tech, who will be the first to volunteer to go into the descrambler chamber knowing they'll come out "bit perfect" in the reassembler chamber just ten feet away?

Any volunteers?

No,I didn't think so. Like that fly in the movie, The Fly, noise is the culprit that gets into the mix, messing with the reassembling. It's what Antipodes cleaned up long ago, as best they could, by writing reams of code to combat it. Competitors could build the hardware side good enough to look as good as what Antipodes did but they just didn't sound as good (from what I remember from reviews in the early days). Antipodes is just one example.

Some listeners just didn't want to spend that extra to get it and that's around the time things got really heated in regards to what's good enough, that meeting the protocols was all that's needed. 

But as has been succinctly pointed out, that's all that's needed for bank transfers, general data, guidance systems, properly sized fonts, etc. Music is so complicated and fragile that simple noise can corrupt the intended results. I think it's wrong to relegate music to the same terms as the aforementioned, for it has deeper connections to us that general data just can't match.

There are levels of  gradations that show this. We can be deeply moved by a photo of a beautiful event or something as simple as some old calligraphy recreated exactingly from some subject we're familiar with. That definitely lies between a bank transfer from our Social Security account and the music we listen to. It's still nowhere near the level of seizing and moving us like music does, and we can tell when we're being deceived when it's on that deep a level of appreciation.

They've got it pretty well sorted with CDPs nowadays. People talk of flavors, see through ability, tone, timber, pacing, dark and light, etc. when comparing them. With streaming, it's a different kettle of fish, if anyone bothered to notice. What they talk about is emotion, soul, and what seems to be lacking in a more corporeal manner. 

I've always found that interesting. 

All the best,
Nonoise

@grislybutter How does that old saying go?
Something like, "parts is parts." 😄

Even the gods man has made are full of errors and faults. 
(that's snark, folks)

@grislybutter It's not just streamers, but any digital signal that can be potentially degraded. It was from a review of a USB cord that pointed out the importance of proper shielding, keeping out RFI and EMI at all costs.

I thought it went along the lines of what blisshifi brought up.

All the best,
Nonoise

I think blisshifi was referring to something like this,

showing how it's not just 1's and 0's. The digital interpretation/represetation is of an electrical (mechanical) signal, or something like that.

All the best,
Nonoise