Any audiophile use computer (MacBook) as your audio streaming source?

@soix Thank you for your post and your point is well taken. I'm against extra boxes on principle, but maybe further investigation is warranted here.

Adding a DDC can provide a better signal to a DAC, and even a DAC with a good clock benefits and sounds better by having to do less work to clean up the incoming signal.

I do use a DDC (Mutec MC3 + clock) and I do hear a small improvement, but the second part about why is purely a guess. You have no way to know why it sounds better.

What does "do less work to clean up the incoming signal" even mean? What work is being done?  The statement actually makes no sense.

What does "do less work to clean up the incoming signal" even mean? What work is being done?  The statement actually makes no sense.

@herman  When a DDC sends a signal to a DAC that has reduced jitter and noise from the USB signal the DAC has much less processing to do.  That’s the whole point of a DDC (along with providing more connection options) and what makes a DAC sound better.  What about that doesn’t make sense to you?   

Streamers are computers. Some brands, such as marque du jour Aurender, make a convincing effort to conceal that basic fact. And they’re right, because who wants a $14K piece of kit with a $69 motherboard at its heart? Others, like Bryston, don’t seem especially concerned.

 

Admittedly, most - if not all - off-the-shelf computers are unfit to stream digital music. They don’t have a place in a proper audiophile system.

 

But a purpose-built computer absolutely does. Usually this means a machine you build yourself of thoughtfully selected components, and properly set up and configured OS and software.

 

A computer lets you run any software you want, and that alone makes a decisive case for using them. You’re not stuck with software cobbled together by a small electronics-focused business that has zero expertise in software development. Someone recently posted about a wyred4sound unit whose driver’s supported-OS list topped out at Windows 8 if I remember correctly.

 

Or maybe you own tens of thousands of files of rare recordings that you carefully organized on your NAS, but the crappy software in your new dedicated streamer is unimpressed by your librarian skills and refuses to display or play a good number of them.

 

Speaking of NAS, I was glad to see the same Synology NAS I own in the virtual system of a member who is apparently rather revered in elevated audiophile circles. Yet a NAS is just a computer, right?

 

On the flip side a computer will output to USB, therefore a person will need a USB DAC with, preferably, a very good clock.

 

A lot of misconceptions and unchallenged groupthink are floating around computers in the context of high-end audio. If I had a say, I would encourage folks to keep an open mind and take the time to inform themselves on the subject and develop enough knowledge to at least discuss them intelligently. Beyond that, everyone is free to welcome in their systems whatever component they feel works best for them.

+1000, the same group think continues to prevail no matter how many different ways you try to explain it.

A audio optimized PC is actually quite easy to build....

a) Ya look up tomshardware for the different power supply (PSU) reviews/measurements and it is fairly easy to downselect one optimized for audio.

b) A high quality itx motherboard

c) Any Ryzen APU/integrated graphics chip

d) Drop them in a case...there are several htpc cases that are literally made with the form factor of a stereo component.

All of it for less than a 1000 bucks easily...(instead of dropping 10k for a goofy streamer). Load up the OS and sky’s the limit with free reign on any kind of software one could use, user friendliness, multitasking, etc. There is an enormous amt of nformation from the PC nerds out there about how to drop the noise to nothing (which I am sure is what the 20k streamer manufacturers read religiously as well)

Whaa? One could plug his hifi streamer into his big TV or projector, sit back with a wireless keyboard/mouse and watch Netflix too??? HBO Max too??? Watch music videos and concerts with hifi audio on a streamer??? Play games??? Send emails??? The streamer (pc) can do that??? Whaaa???

I need to start "manufacturing" high end streamers in my garage and sell them for 20k a piece to our beloved audiophiles!

 When a DDC sends a signal to a DAC that has reduced jitter and noise from the USB signal the DAC has much less processing to do.

.. "much less processing to do" is just like "do less work to clean up the incoming signal"

 The DAC is doing the exact same amount of processing whether the incoming signal has jitter or it doesn't. The DAC operates exactly the same either way. The DAC doesn't have a circuit that detects jitter or noise and then "does more work" when it detects it.

Again, I use a DDC so I'm not pushing back on the idea that they can improve the outcome, I'm just saying your explanations about how that happens make no sense. 

At the end of the day I realize my concerns don't really matter, how it sounds matters, but as someone with a background in electronics, it just bothers me when people offer explanations about how electronic circuits work when they really don't understand them. 

so I'll let it be