Audiophile quality streamer/server-in-one without a DAC. Does this exist?

I just want to thank Mahler123, Neal, Jeff, Josh, Ryspyder and everyone else who responded with such helpful and patient advice to my questions. I will further research all of your suggestions. This makes much more sense to me now. I truly appreciate your time, thoughtfulness and generous collegialiity. 

With kind regards,

Mark Hubbard
Eureka, California

I am working in audio for almost 19 years of time. The knowledge in music and in how music sounds in real is a lot less than it was in the past.

When I speak to my clients and the things we hear from dealers and distributers is that digital audio is in many situations not the quality people hope to find or hear.

I sold my Meridian 800Daxv4 in 2012 (over 20.000 euro new) and I wanted to buy a networkplayer/streamer.

But....everything I auditioned had almost no diversity in sound. I a period of about 6 months I auditioned a lot. At the end there was not even one I wanted to buy. I thought, if this is the quality it offfers I prefer not to buy any streamer/networkplayer.

Now in 2017 it is not a lot better. Many shows we visit have demoes that all systems have no diversity in sound.

When the people who buy audio have no idea what diversity in sound is and what it does, they have no idea what is missing.

So What is missing?

The most important part to create emotion for all human beings is DIVERSITY. This is the layering in sound, what influences our emotion for the biggest part.

I wrote with people who develope and create dacs and streamers. They said; USB is not a great choice for audio. The facts proof that the level in diversity is very poor.

When people who work in audio have no idea what diversity is and does they can easily sell digital audio without diversity.

When you let people hear the difference between digital audio with a stunning level in diversity in sound and with almost no diversity in sound, I can garantee that no one will choose any digital source with a low level in diversity.

Music is all about emotion, most dacs/networkplayers are not able to reveal the emotion of the music. This is F. insane that it is even being sold. The emotion is only inside the music.

What audio needs is to show people how music works and sounds in real. And to show what diversity does to our emotion.

Bluesound is like Senseo coffee. But when you want the full emotion and taste you want and need an italian coffee. This will give you so much more flavor and intensity.

When I would sell Bluesound to my clients, it would be time to look for another job. I see it as my task to create and sell emotion. And give people a system what sounds like how music sounds in real.

And never sell any kind of digital audio without diversity. The facts proof that people will rather stop after a matter of time using their audio system.

People need quality and you need to give them emotion. Most digital systems are not able to reveal the emotion the music possesses.

What digital do you like bo ? Or all analog ?

We are a different company in audio. In the last 2,5 years I did a lot of research in many different aspects of audio.

In 2016 I started to focus on diversity in sound as well. Most digital sources have no emotion and lack of diversity in sound. This is a serious problem. It is not possible to reveal the emotion of the music when a source is not able to create diversity in sound.

In 2016 we visited an audio show. There were over 30 rooms with audio. All rooms proved that there was no diversity in sound. I spoke with many distributers and people who visited the show. Many said; all sysems had no emotion. There was not even one system what made real music.

It is very clear that there is a main reason why people react this way. Because they are so right. The thing is; nothing will be changed next time. They are not able to correct it. When you don’t understand music you never will understand audio either.

We always want to create the best quality for the money. The focus is on creating audio with a heart. So people can experience the emotion of the music.

Digital can be exceptional good these days. We modify streamers and powersupplies to create a more diverse sound. Everything we sell needs to outperform in sound and quality each other product in it's price level.

We are Lumin dealer and we modify Onkyo networkplayers. And we also modify SBooster powersupplies.

@bo1972 .. so, what you're telling us is we need YOUR brand of diversity?

Sad, but apparently none of us feel any emotion when listening with our digital garbage. I'll go throw all my gear in the trash now.