Streamer or DDC

Thank you fuzztone, I have Denafrips Pontus with I2S input.

If you google “vinshine streamer” they have 3 streamer with I2s outputs. I don’t know of too many other streamers with i2s outputs 

Thank you phastm3 I will check out those streamers.

I suspect a dedicated streamer will give you better sound than using a notebook, with or without a DDC (by which I assume you mean digital-digital converter). I don't know why -- people have ideas, but no one really knows -- but I've always heard better sound from a dedicated streamer.

Given a great source, I would not bet that I2S will be better than USB. I2S was an improvement over SPDIF in the early days of consumer DACs, but receivers in DACs have improved greatly since then, and USB arguably has improved the most. Also, USB has the advantage of being the interface in which the DAC controls the clock, rather than trying to follow the clock from the source.

So, you may not get improvement by switching interfaces, but I suspect you will get improvement by switching sources.

I was using a Roon ROCK connected to my Terminator DAC through a Bryston BDP2 streamer via AES3.
I bought a Denafrips Gaia DDC and connected my Roon server to the Gaia via USB and then used i2s to connect the Gaia to my DAC. This was a significant improvement over using the steamer. 

Since you’re  using a Denafrips DAC and have your computer close to the DAC, I think you’d be very happy with one of the Denafrips DDCs.