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ARE SUPER EXPENSIVE STREAMERS REALLY WORTH IT

Folks I am confused why some streamers need to be so eye wateringly expensive. I appreciate the internal basics need to be covered such as a high quality, low noise power supply and a decent processor speed etc..  but that is not rocket science.

So my question is could a decent streamer outputting its data stream via I2S to a good quality DAC receiving the I2S stream be a more cost effective way of rivalling let’s say a streamer costing 5k upwards.

I have heard and digested the argument for expensive streamers quality being centred around the management of the data timing via a quality clock circuit but there are very reasonable in relative terms, DAC’s out there that have dual super high quality temp controlled clocks within, at least the equal or arguably even better than the say a 5k streamer with some sporting dual high end DAC chips etc.

So could utilizing a good quality streamer and a separate high-quality DAC connected via I2S indeed offer significant benefits and potentially reduce the need for a very expensive streamer.

I say this with the knowledge that I2S is designed to preserve and separate the Signals so avoiding the timing issues connected with multiplexing. I2S (Inter-IC Sound) separates the music signal from the timing signal, potentially eliminating jitter or at the very least greatly reducing the possibility for the pesky music killing jitter which we all could agree would lead to improving overall sound quality.

Wouldn’t this separation ensure that the timing information is more accurately preserved, even when compared to a high price streamer, leading as clean or cleaner and more precise audio data output. With I2S, the DAC can use its own high-quality clock/s to synchronize the data, which will reduce jitter and improve sound quality.

Could this possibly mean that even if the streamer has a less advanced clock, the DAC’s superior clock can take over, ensuring best  performance.

So bang for buck would it not be advantageous to investing in a high-quality DAC and using a good but not necessarily top-tier streamer to achieve excellent sound quality without the need for an extremely expensive streamer. Surely the DAC’s performance will play a crucial role in the final sound quality.

Play gentle with the pile on please....................

nubiann
newton_john's avatar
newton_john
51 posts
 

@carlsbad2 

I will explain as best I can.

Even between the countries of the United Kingdom, there are differences. Here in England, students generally have to study around nine GCSE subjects up the age of sixteen. One of these subjects must be science made of equal parts Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Some, but sadly far from all, schools offer the triple science in which the three sciences get a whole GCSE subject each.

After that up to the age of eighteen, students traditionally study three or occasionally four subjects in much greater depth at A Level. A student wanting to go on to study Physical Science or an Engineering subject at university might choose to follow say Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.

Entrance to University is typically based on performance at GCSE and A Levels. Here a typical Physics student would study the subject with some Mathematics as appropriate for three years to be awarded a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Physics. There is usually the opportunity to follow more specialised topics in the second and third years. As you may imagine, there are lots of possible variations such as Joint Honours in two subjects. 

After their first degree, I guess most students wanting be professional Physicists would likely do a three/four year PhD in their chosen field. The picture is complicated, but Master of Science degree could be, as it was in my case, a one year course of study in one specific area of Physics to a higher level. This may well form the first part of a PhD.

In my day (1970s), Physics and Chemistry students were not a diverse group. A high proportion were white middle-class males coming from privileged selective Grammar Schools or fee-paying Public (actually private) Schools. Although there has been a massive expansion in Secondary and Higher Education since that time, the number of Physical Science students hasn’t increased much. Furthermore, I think that they are still a fairly non-diverse group.  Consequently, there is a dire shortage of properly qualified Physics teachers in schools.

I picked a subject at masters level in Opto Electronics that was leaning towards industry as that was where I intended to go. For family reasons, I went on to work in a non-technical role in business. Despite that, I do regret not doing a PhD when I had the opportunity. That led me back to University a couple of times in later life to study Business Administration and Research Methods in Education. Although I still regard myself as fundamentally a Physicist in my view of the world, it is tempered by the more diverse outlook of social science where the qualitative is almost as important as the quantitive. Hence my opinions on sound quality which I consider is hard to quantify.

nitewulf
425 posts
 

No.

runwell
281 posts
 

The key point is the digital signal process, This could be done with a good streamer or DDC or DAC. 

It must be a device to take care of it in your music system.

Some one choose a very expensive streamer which include the function, but it is not the only way  to go. Way cheap mothed is to add DDC to let it to finish the job.

 

 

 

antigrunge2
1,444 posts
 

This thread started in the right place: clean power and optimal clocking are the most important ingredients of a good system.

Clocking unfortunately comes in various flavours: incoming signal, whether ethernet or fibre, streamer output to DDC or DAC, D/A conversion. In particular it matters whether the DAC slaves the streamer (USB) or reclicks the streamer output (I2S, AES/EBU SPDIF, Optical, BNC). In my experience outside topshelf offerings from e.g MSB, WADAX, etc, clocks in most components are not at the same level as good 10m master clocks because building a $3-10K clock into a streamer or DAC simply isn’t economically viable and additionally full synchronisation between various components can unlock additional benefits.

In terms of power supplies Farad, Paul Hynes and Sean Jacobs seem to have built a fine niche supplying high end dacs and streamers from different manufacturers albeit sometimes requiring major surgery on the component being upgraded.

All this goes to show that the lack of specific recommendatiins on this thread has multiple causes before you even start getting into cables, filters and active decrapifiers.

So unless you pay up for absolute top components, it’ll be trial and error before one arrives at a satisfactory SQ

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