In a home environment the " front end" component is your modem. It takes the analog signal and turns it into digital by MOdulate and DEModulate. In other words it’s basically a ADC incoming and DAC outgoing. So the signal sent to your router then streamer is only as good as that analog to digital converter in your $100 modem, either it works or doesn’t. No one said the streamer/dac is moot but the notion it’s the "front end" of the chain like a CD player or TT is not accurate. It’s a middle of a chain component. I never said they all sound the same I said in my opinion the most important role of a streamer is the ease of use through its interface and making sure the signal gets to the dac without degrading it. The only thing a streamer could do to interfere with the signal which would affect the sound is by adding noise or distortion so the quality matters but not to the extent that the dac does.
