Point of higher priced streamer?

i have 2 streamers, a node & a marantz in the same system.
i prefer the marantz. one day i came home & my 15 y/o had the system sorta loud & was using the node, it sounded awesome.
he explained to me that the node wasn’t quite as efficient as the marantz, allowing him to turn up the amp & get more gain.
(he is a big guitar player & loves his guitar amps with tubes). he told me turning up the power on the amp, because the node wasn’t as efficient, allowed him the get more gain from the amp by turning up the power to the amp. and that the human ear lives gain, that’s why it sounded different. he’s 15. maybe, maybe not.
im really working on moving him from Tool to Stevie Ray Vaughan. we all have our battles.
 

Don’t waste your money. There are no differences in the digital packets. I built few pi3 B+ with hifiberry Digi based streamers. They are doing tremendous job streaming hi-res files from my NAS drive and internet.
Spend your money on the DAC, speakers, and room acoustics. 

I have a Node 2i as well as an expensive Moon 680D DAC with the internal MIND streamer.  I have done a direct compare.  As such, there is a very noticeable difference streaming from the higher end streamer vs streaming from the Bluesound player.

You need to compare streamer vs streamer using the same DAC. You will see no difference. 

@pc997  

You need to compare streamer vs streamer using the same DAC. You will see no difference.

I have done exactly this in my system.  A/B comparison streamed my Node2 and Lumin U1 to the same Lampizator DAC using same inputs.  Massive difference.  I can't explain why....perhaps better power supply, reduced line noise traveling from streamer to DAC?  I don't know...all I know is massive sonic difference. It has nothing to do with the 1's and 0's.