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Why audio streamers are so much more expensive than video streamers?

I am a newbie in Hi Fi, and just got into the process of setting up my stereo system. In budgeting the audio streamers, I found it's interesting/hard to really understand that the audio streamers are way much more expensive than video streamers. From technology perspective, video streamers offer 1080p/4k video, with extra decoding of dolby vision/HDR, with built in HDMI and USB port, and same time offers audio streaming capabilities. Not to mention some even have fancy function like voice control. If you look at the audio streamers, pretty much all we talk about is the MQA unfolding, and DSD has been around for many years. Amazon firestick is only $35 while the most affordable audio streamer starting from $400-$500 range (Node 2), and most of streamers will need extra DAC, which adds another several hundred bucks, just to give you the audio. Am I missing something here? Are audiophiles paying way too much to preserve our self esteem and distinguish ourselves from regular people that pay minimum to get regular entertainment through video streaming?
dragoncave
mlsstl
1,405 posts
 
Back to the question in the OP's subject line, as a hobby, audio has a long tradition of spending lots of money on fancy equipment in pursuit of the last bit of performance.  In my experience, the video world has never had the same rabid level of enthusiasm.  

Audio enthusiasm has many factors -- snobbery, exclusivity, appearance, brand loyalty, debates over (often theoretical) technical aspects, subjective sound quality, component matching/synergy, and so on. 

Those factors are just as true for digital streaming as they are for amps, speakers, turntables and so on. I'm not in the least surprised that that there are some very expensive streamers out there with plenty of enthusiastic followers.  

Me? I'm perfectly happy with my RPi 4 and its USB output to my DAC.

phcollie's avatar
phcollie
342 posts
 
Interesting question.  There is a fellow in Prague who has coupled the streamer with a well built DAC at a reasonable price point and he is so busy they are no longer taking orders.  The secretary wrote me a letter and said they may take orders again late 3rd quarter but I know some folks have been waiting since March for arrival. Big hole in the market for those of us running software that needs to see the DAC on the network. 
sp33ls
14 posts
 
I think most people would be more than satisfied with a Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi2AES as a streamer. I've had 0 issues with mine. It looks like the same group is working on launching a more consumer friendly version that makes setup even easier.
yyzsantabarbara
4,560 posts
 
On Wednesday I setup 3 Raspberry Pi’s and 2 Sonore OpticalRendu’s for a client. It was not close for my ears, the opticalRendu smoked it. The OpticalRendu is what I use at home. I have a $299 Ubiquiti Networks Network Switch and plug the fibre Optical directly into the Ubiquiti switch. I also set this up at the client who plans on getting a 2nd switch to have 4 fibre optical SPF slots.

I also setup a tricked out ROON Server for the client and could not tell if it was better than my super cheap and noisy DELL ROON Core computer. I mention this because I think fibre optical wire kills the noise that can get into a DAC. I need to do more testing on this last part at home.
chorus
976 posts
 
I often wondered why I never see a SQ shootout between different streamers. Why?? 

I spent $2k on mine but does three functions. Streams, Burns and stores. 

Anyone else have an answer?
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