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


I rarely see any audiophile talking about streaming audio digital sources from a computer. I understand MacBook can accept native lossless formats form all the various platforms, and it can store unlimited music files in any format, so supposedly it’s the best source, and the digital file is the most purest before it’s fed to the dac. Anyone compared the sound quality of computer vs other audio streamer? 

randywong

I have not contacted Mike Moffet via Head-fi web site to ask why he does not use a clock, but I do not have any concerns about Schitt DACs supporting a clock.

@yyzsantabarbara

 

dCS:

"In a dCS system, the DAC can act as the system master clock, but listening tests have shown that there is no substitute for a dedicated high quality master clock. dCS pioneered the use of external clocks in digital audio systems and this clocking technology has been continually refined so that our latest multi-stage Phase-Locked-Loop (PLL) system sets world-beating standards for accuracy and control of troublesome jitter from the incoming audio stream.

MSB:
"Why are external clocks sub-optimal for digital audio?

A clock signal is a fast moving precision electrical signal and is extremely sensitive to added noise or distortion. Each time it’s buffered or transmitted, a portion of its precision is lost. Even if a small amount of noise couples into the clocks, jitter will increase dramatically. It might still be an accurate clock, but accuracy is of little performance benefit to digital audio. A clock sent over an ultra-high quality cable will still increase its jitter considerably. The best solution is to create the lowest jitter clock as close to the DAC as possible.

 

You could figure out who’s telling the truth and who’s trying to sell more goofboxes and wires...

M. Moffat + J. Stoddard know their stuff and happen to make honest things. No goofboxes and wires will be peddled by them.

 

 

For the record, i have a hermes + venus catching dust in one rig...waiting for a good believer's home. What tad and technics are able to achieve with 1 box (how about throwing a top notch sacd player in it too, if you like)....some others need 15 different boxes and wires to screw things up, it seems.

@yyzsantabarbara You put a bug in my ear with that fiber stuff. Turns out Supermicro makes fanless mini-PCs with dual built-in SFPs, and probably other brands do too.

One of those PCs and a SFP-equipped DAC would make a great backbone for an all-fiber digital system.

Inexpensive OM3 fiber can carry 10 gigabit Ethernet over 1 km (about 1,100 yards), which is handy if you have a large property, and short distance it can carry 100 gigabit, though the SFP may be limited to 25.

 

Can you post the link for the PC? I have a fanless PC for my office work, but it only has RJ45.