Help with streamer software

The OP mentioned, "I know I can stream to my iPad and bump that over to the streamer but the quality problems are well known."

Uh, would someone please tell me the short version of what those "quality problems" are?  Thanks. I'd like to know before going down a similar rabbit hole.

If we are talking about lossy Internet Radio, do those "quality problems" really matter that much?  I mean, the OP could get a cheap $500 streamer from NAD, Cambridge, Bluesound, or God-forbid, a $220 WiiM, and do IR all day long from Tunein, vTuner, or even custom URL streams like the one from Octave Records.

@vandy357 

I downloaded Jplay to test. Using it now on my Lumen and it is very good. Full featured and sounds great. The Airhead is due here on Wednesday. But if you have the N20 now I wouldn’t change unless you also have a PS A DAC, in which case it might be worth a try. The N20 is very nice.

@bipod72 

Maybe I should get the CXN V2 just to play IR. First I have to discover if the Airhead is indeed better with my DAC than my Lumin, then go from there.

Thanks all!

@markmuse I do have the PS Audio MK2 DAC, that is the only reason I am even considering the purchase.  I would be able to finally use the i2s connection with this thing, according to Paul that does wonders for the sound.  The only thing in my system that is not PS Audio is the streamer, speakers and cabling.  I know PS has a great return policy, but I just hate to send stuff back and would rather be reasonably sure the purchase will be worth it before I pull the trigger on something.  They have a pretty good sale going on right now, until the end of the week I think, so I have a few more days to think about it.

@vandy357 

Same as me, except my DAC is the only other PS A piece I have. And I'm with you on the return policy. I hate to do it, but will if necessary.

@markmuse 

I just don't know that I am going to get any better than what the N20 delivers, so that is my biggest reason for the pause.  I did try to A-B the difference in the sound by comparing the internal storage on the N20 to streaming Qobuz through it and I thought it was pretty much a wash.  About half of the songs I used for the comparison sounded better from the storage while the other half sounded better using Qobuz, and the difference to my ears was not enough to go out and spend more money on, unless I can get Qobuz to sound better.  Just so happens that you brought up the topic, so now I get to pick other's brains to see what they think.  Of course I have been asking the guys at PS lots of questions also.  I don't know, I am not sold yet but 400 bucks off right now has me thinking.