What makes One Music Server Sound Better than Another?

mitch2

01-25-2024 4:30am

What makes One Music Server Sound Better than Another?

The point of this thread is to ask, how come I perceive the the DejaVu server as sounding better than the Antipdes DX?

what are the technical reasons one should sound better than the other?

Some people are comfortable with using pattern-over-process in their purchase-making choices. I suspect you will not get a response that details process. Always patterns, which require less diligence to describe than process - it’s easy and feels as real as could be. Seems pervasive, but perhaps less hazardous in hifi discussions than in politics, education, etc.? 

So to answer your thread headline question:

Opinion. 

(+bias?)

Your two boldface questions, @mitch2  : the first one is answered by psychology textbooks nearly a century old and/or ethology / consumer preference studies in peer-reviewed lit up to this day. Your second question will probably not be answered because, thus far, no evidential support for such a thing seems to exist.

Plenty of reasons given for servers to “sound different,” but if they’re all opinion, a good third boldface question might be Why doesn’t this standard change? Rhetorical question, that is. 😉

@mitch2 few reasons I can think of…start from the point if entry and power supplies. Better Ethernet isolation, better power supplies result in lower noise floor, better processors isolated better to minimize noise, better clock if you’re using coax or AES outputs, galvanic isolation and or reclocking before the USB out (de-crapofier).

When your streamer is also a Roon Core it has higher processing demands. Whether it uses buffering or caching matters as well.
And how much noise does the streamer display create by tolling the processor, etc.

you hear what you hear. No blind testing necessary. 

audphile1

3,424 posts

01-25-2024 at 01:55pm

@mitch2 few reasons I can think of…start from the point if entry and power supplies. Better Ethernet isolation, better power supplies result in lower noise floor, better processors isolated better to minimize noise, better clock if you’re using coax or AES outputs, galvanic isolation and or reclocking before the USB out (de-crapofier).

When your streamer is also a Roon Core it has higher processing demands. Whether it uses buffering or caching matters as well.
And how much noise does the streamer display create by tolling the processor, etc.

you hear what you hear. No blind testing necessary.

“Say what I just said, but with inverse wording.” 😆

Cheers, @audphile1

Inside the capacitor type effects the sound ,also bellison power regulators are very clean but add a bit of warmth the power supplies also can dictate sound quality 

there are many internal items especially too the quality and brand of Ethernet cables.

@benanders happy listening!