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Does a streamer do anything to the data that Tidal provides?

I have been streaming Tidal to my HiFi for the past 4 years with a streamer and a DAC connected to my amplifier (Raumfeld streamer to Musical Fidelity DAC and also Musical Fidelity Amp). I also have an all-in-one system for my summer house (Naim Muso Qb). So, I know the basics and I am only interested in streaming from Tidal.

What I struggle to understand is, what the streamer does apart from transporting the digital signal and therefore why it could make sense to invest in an expensive streamer.

I understand what Digital to Analogue Conversion does and that it makes sense to ensure a good quality, but isn't the streamer just a transporter of data? Does the streamer do anything to the data that Tidal delivers apart from receiving them and sending them to the DAC? 

Thanks in advance, Michael 
mtraesbo
sevs
301 posts
 
@willemj I need your advice re. Chromecast, again!!! It is now connected thru mini-Toslink to an external DAC (Wadia 781i) and I cast Tidal using iPad. I noticed only today that when streaming I can change volume with iPad volume control. It seems that SQ is at its best when volume on iPad set at max, or is it my imagination?!? Wadia has its own digital volume control and they promise that if you stay above 75% then SQ is not getting affected. Could find nothing about this from Chrome.
jaaptina
25 posts
 
I was thinking the same way and for years I was happy with a Pioneer N-30 streamer and the nice Metrum Octave dac. Than I decided to give Aries Mini a try. It really made a big difference. In my system soundstage and seperation improved a lot. In fact the improvement was so profound I upgraded again to Sonore microRendu. In my system these upgrades did more than a change of amplifier and a change of dac. I'm convinced now for a good sounding streaming system a good source with quality power supply matters a lot. 
mikhaelkuz
56 posts
 
@jaaptina -agree with you totally, and was in the same "streaming is streaming" boat, and was also very surprised on a difference quality streamer makes.
I read a lot of explanation why - and found most of them unsatisfactory, but fact remains. IMHO (and I am not an expert) no matter how everyone claim to be jitter-immune, reclocking, restoring and bla-bla-bla -  somehow corrupted output signal from poorly made steamer simply cannot be restored to a proper quality, with all audible (clearly) issues follow. I cannot however back this up with calculations or empirical data.
willemj
1,036 posts
 
@sevs In effect this is a question about which of the two digital volume controls it would be best to use. To be honest I don't know. These days, with DAC's with a 32 bit internal bit depth, digital volume control should not be an issue. Intuitively, I wouold concur with the idea to keep the volume on the Ipad at (near) max, and also on the Chromecast (it also has a software volume control). But this presumes that the Wadia has enough bit depth to do the job (75% is a troublingly modest claim). I wonder if Shadorne can inform this discussion.
sevs
301 posts
 
@willemj thank you! For now I will keep volume at 100%, to be on the safe side. Strange that Chrome has no mention of this, and when asked at Chromecast chatroom they dismiss or ignore the question.
Sorry, I misquoted Wadia, the manual actually says 65%: "If you find that your typical volume level during critical listening is below 65 on the volume display, it will be advantageous to use a different [internal gain] setting" Since I keep volume at 100% and use NAC52 volume knob, I was not paying much attention to the exact number.
Wadia manual says that their "Glass optical, as implemented by Wadia" input gives the best results (then AES/EBU--Coax_BNC--coax_RCA--TOSLINK plastic-optical) Right now I am using $6.99 plastic mini-Toslink, should receive WireWorld glass mini-Toslink tomorrow.
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