Why are so many people spending so much money to build “perfect” streaming system?

Wow this guy is off his meds. Slow week at ASR.

I stream through an Amazon Echo via voice control, or a $179 laptop into a $130 SMSL DAC

@jssmith understand and respect that you’re coming from a "bits are bits" perspective presumably from your software engineer background that you had mentioned. For the purpose of this thread, are the Echo, laptop and SMSL DAC your only experiences with streaming? Or have you experienced/owned other streamers?

@jssmith pronouncements are very similar to a former poster on this forum named "cindymint". Essentially listening to and judging what audio components actually  sound like is foolish, misleading and subjective rubbish. Measurements rule. Antithetical to my experiences, but oh well.

Charles

I have learned long ago not to reason with folks like @jssmith and even OP. Its quite apparent from their posts that they are not here to learn or explore the true potential of streaming. It’s the same old stale mindset, bits are bits. 

@jssmith

The sound quality of streamers only depends upon the analog conversion, which at this point is standardized and audibly perfected. And as a former software engineer, I understand that the rest of the hype is just marketing nonsense sold to the uninformed or those suffering from what psychologists call "belief perseverance." So save your money

I am a software engineer myself and having spent a good chunk of my career working at the operating system and hardware level, have a good understanding of the error correction built into computing systems to ensure all bits arrive intact. They generally do, but that is not the whole story. I also worked with a lot of electrical engineers along the way, debugging their hardware as it integrated with my software. A key trait for success in this space is learning to know what you don't know. So many times, after everyone saying, "That can't be happening", or, "That can't be the problem", we found solutions that surprised us and increased our understanding of the many factors that influence hardware and software at the lowest level. 

I am on my third streamer, each one has been a step up in resolution and soundstage. This one I built custom from available components (Pi, Allo, LPS), with a focus on isolation and shielding of the streamer board. The results are amazing in comparison to the Node 2i that I had. The two factors that are frequently ignored in the streamer space, beyond the 1's and 0's, are noise and jitter. These are real factors in hardware design and in the end audio quality. Especially jitter. It is undeniable that the clocking of the signal is critical to delivering good, focused sound. 

Of course, not everyone can hear these differences. Whether it is the lack of resolution of the their system or their ears just aren't tuned that way, it is easy to think there is no difference. Try the Pi/Allo DigiOne, it's a cheap test, and I think you would hear the difference. Trust me there is one.