streaming and audiophile stereo

Bits is bits.  That's the beauty of digital.  Your most cost effective streamer is a dedicated laptop PC.  Spend a pile on some streamer and it won't sound a bit different.

Bits is bits.

@russbutton 

Bits is bits.

To which dedicated streamers have you compared to which laptops to arrive at your conclusion? To which dac(s)? Thanks in advance.

I'm using a Lindemann Limetree Bridge II streaming Qobuz into my Denafrips Pontus II DAC and on to my Ayon Scorpio EL34 tube amp.  Tekton Perfect Set 2-10 speakers.

The sound is absolutely sublime!

@ghasley I run an HP laptop I got off of Craigslist for $200. I swapped in a 1TB SSD, which cost me another $100. I run Ubuntu Linux on it with JRiver for Linux, which cost me about $30. I run a Peachtree DAC iT.

I had some friends over for a shootout a while ago against a Schitt Yiggy and a PS Audio DirectStream. Most who were there felt that the Peachtree was the most musical. I like the DirectStream a tad better, but not $6000 better (or even the $3000 you’d pay today for one).

Hi-end DACs are your very, very worst investment as the market believes that the technology is rapidly evolving, so anything a few years old can’t be adequate by "today’s standards." Today’s $5000 wonder DAC is tomorrows $1800 White Elephant.

Why do I go on about "bits is bits"? That’s because digital information is transferred from one device to another, and either it is correct or it is not. That’s what hand shaking information transfer protocols are all about. If you don’t trust computers to accurately transfer digital information, then realize that’s where your money is. Banks store everything electronically and you depend upon the accurate transfer of digital information from device to device, over thousands of miles of cable, none of which is certified to audiophile standards.

How many streamers come with a graphical interface on a 17" screen? And that’s just the laptop I use. I could use an Intel fanless NUC box with a monitor of whatever size I choose to get more screen real estate should I choose. Any computer can stream from any on-line source, as well as YouTube and "Internet Radio".

Beyond that, I backup my music data to two different computers I have on-site as well as a machine I have off-site, so I have four full copies of my music data. One on-site machine is my desktop box which is 11 years old, but being that it has 32 G of system memory, running Linux it still flies. My other local backup machine is a Raspberry Pi with a large drive hanging off of it. The off-site machine is also a Raspberry Pi with a large drive hanging off of it.

Does your dedicated streamer allow you to do a daily backup to multiple other sites, locally and remotely over the Internet?

Variability of posts on this thread point to the complexity of streaming, so many paths to quality sound. I agree, don't worry about MQA, plenty of high quality streams available without it.

Its been my experience streamer is most important component in streaming chain, this followed by dac, then network. I consider streamer and dac combo analogous to amp/speaker as far as integration concerned. You want streamer's most optimal out/rendering port to match with dac's optimal in port, ie, if usb is streamer optimal port, usb should be dac's optimal input. This info can be found in manufacture literature and reviews, generally looking for optimal clocking and noise reduction on both streamer and dac ports.

What constitutes a streamer nowadays can be very confusing. Basically, a streamer stores music player library, processes music player software and renders an output to dac. Some streamers add things like on board storage for local files, dacs, preamp. Streamers can also be used as servers only, in this case a second streamer is added, first streamer only stores music player library, process music player software, second streamer does the rendering. 

Determining best streamer for one's need is wholly subjective, for instance, if one doesn't have large collection of cds for ripping, local storage superfluous. same goes for dac and preamp capabilities.