Do I Really Need a Dedicated Streamer?

Thank you for folks with interest and helpful advice

not:  @fuzztone Why you have to be so nasty?  You have no idea what my room is like and my set up.  please go away....You are part of the problem.  ignoring you from now on.... 

anyway...

@jl35 (and others).  I tried Quboz...you know, sound quality is good. But playlist and other aspects of music choice/varfiety/playlists are also important to me.   I did not want to do Spotify but frankly it works and works well. It overcomes l the 5% or so quality loss.   

@audphile1 (and others) I have a Chord Quest and a good McIntosh system in this room with Totem speakers

I'm not a tech guy, but the files served from Spotify (or Qubox or Tidal) on my iPad seems to show same bit rate and depth. (44/16 etc ) on my DAC.    So is a separate streamer just for really really good systems that can hear that final 1-3% of sublime music?  (I may not be that audiophile)

lossy Spotify

Spotify still streams lossy files, so I wouldn’t worry about your streaming technology until that changes, or you upgrade to Qobuz or Tidal.  

I find in the "streamer" discussion, the access management and the DAC question is muddled. For sound quality, the DAC is the chief factor. If you plan on keep using your Chord as the DAC, then the streamer is solely for access convenience. Maybe a given streamer has a better built-in DAC than a Chord, but then you could get the same result by using a similar quality stand-alone DAC, which you could also use for the DAC step in CD playing. I think there recently was a thread of DAC-free streamers.

One thing I am not clear in your set-up: What is your current software interface? Website, Spotify app, Audirvana/Roon? Some people claim to hear differences with software interfaces. With trial versions available for free, that is an easy way to check one factor out. I compared Audirvana and Roon and could not detect anything. I use a Mac mini with SSD going to a Holoaudio May L2 DAC but only for local FLAC files. I don't stream.

Streamers are networking computers optimized for audio.

It will stream the same digits as your tablet.  Most streamers will do it much better than your tablet.  In digital audio timing is crucial.  If the 1s and 0s arrive slightly out of sync (this is called jitter) than the sound can change quite significantly.  Most streamers will beat a tablet or a phone because the portable devices are jack of all trades and haven’t been optimized for sound 

If you want to free your iPad for other uses, you can build yourself a nice little streamer for $60-$70 all in. Get yourself a raspberry pie zero W2 computer board which costs about $15 and buy a case (you actually don’t need the case, it typically costs as much as the pi zero) and a wall wart power supply And then download Ropiee streaming software,which is free. You can stream to it via AirPlay and also it is a Roon end point. The electronics are very simple, it has just the basic computing power that you need for streaming. I have built a couple and find that they compare favorably with much more expensive streamers.
You may initially need to buy a few extra bits and bobs of adapter wires in order to download the software and transfer it to your pie zero, but that also gives you the option to explore other music streaming software. It is a cheap, fun little project that at the very least lets you use your iPad for more productive purposes.