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

My M1 Mac Mini streams for me, and also receives streams from other devices, and can output 24 bit 192 kHz over 8 channels simultaneously. My Denon receiver has dacs that can handle that signal. I've seen the measurements of the receiver and they're not state of the art by any means, but good enough that it doesn't surprise me that I don't hear any noticeable issues. I regularly have to tear myself away from the system, forcing myself to turn it off just to get necessities of life done, so it's already "too good" for my own good. On Sundays when I don't have any other responsibilities I often find my butt is getting sore from sitting all day listening to that thing. I suppose I have a more tolerant ear than the average audiophile, but interestingly I'm very aware of room and speaker issues with every system I've ever heard, the biggest most obvious issue for me being interaural crosstalk and its tonal effect on the phantom center. The fact that this obvious problem (to me) is so little discussed just goes to show that we don't all prioritize the same things when we're listening. How can you be bothered by jitter at -90 dB or more with that horrible crosstalk going on? OK, I'm exaggerating. It's a subtle but easy enough problem to hear, and one that I find annoying. We learn to mentally filter out what we can, and if we can't, we have to do something or buy something to fix it. 

@yyzsantabarbara Here is a PC streamer that, in addition to supporting SFP, checks every audiophile box. Barebones price is 3900 € but I quickly customized it to 9660 €. It's a useful template for state of the art PC streaming though. 

https://griggaudio.de/produkt/fis-audio-pc-konfigurator/

@devinplombier I actually have a PC from a company called SilentPC. I have a liquid cooled fanless PC that I use in my office. I cost about $6k but my client bought it for me. That machine is very solid with 6 monitors running off it. It also only supports RJ45 network connections.

I ran my ROON Core off this silent machine and compared it to my cheap $500 Dell that is under my guest bed. Both sounded the same using my Sonore OpticalRendu as the fibre moat before the USB connection to the DAC. I expected them to sound the same.

The idea of using SFP in the PC is interesting. I am not sure if it would make a difference in my situation. However, once my $500 Dell machine dies, I will look into getting another PC but this time with an SFP network connection.

Well, I use a Denafrips Iris Fed from my iFi Zen Stream (with iPowerX power supply) and the improvement is significant.

Well, that’s your individual anecdotal opinion, but I’m not sure how credible that statement really is. If I recall correctly, you perceived a SIGNIFICANT improvement when you added a low-noise power supply. Then, you perceived another SIGNIFICANT improvement when you added an entry-level DF DDC. What’s next?

For the iFi Zen Stream to require two significant upgrades to become a "good" streamer, it would have to be quite poor to begin with. And yet, you still consider it inferior to the Innuos Pulse Mini. Unfortunately, your overly exaggerated opinion seems far from reality. I suggest you seriously consider other, more credible reviews. Please don’t spread anecdotal opinions that are largely untrue.

As for the SU-6 and Red, they are considered state-of-the-art DDCs, backed by excellent jitter measurements published by several reputable sources. Before questioning their quality, it would be wise to do your homework. These two products even outperform many digital processors with much higher price tags, including the DF Gaia.

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/65577-ddc-jitternoise-testing/