Streamer opinion.. Pease comment on validity.

Maybe a couple of real world a/b’s between
Streamers hooked to the same DAC?

Yeah I just did this. Compared a Node 2i to a Lumin U1 mini. As good as the node is, the Lumin is better. More transparent and natural to my ears. I know it's 4 times as much, but the improvement was worth it to me. I don't see how you could hear both of them and say there is no difference. Now whether you are willing to pay for that difference is another matter completely.

Oz

Having done this test (different streamers into the same DAC), the differences are pretty easy to hear.  My experiences suggest that while the tonal quality will be similar, the better streamers are more “open” spatially.  I have a Node 2 in a system going into an outboard DAC. While it’s a killer device for the price, it sounds “flat” relative to my Aurender N100 and Auralic Aries G2.  Tonally they’re pretty close.  Spatially no contest.  And, I took them to the dealer who sold me the Node 2 - he heard the same improvement. Only way for the OP to know is to try themselves.

I should also add my DAC handles jitter just fine.  It’s a better than average unit.  The differences I heard were not due to a less than well engineered DAC.  When testing at the dealer, we ran through a well regarded reference level DAC.  Same result.  YMMV.
Best,

Idol ramblings of a recent purchaser of his first streamer
.
Following the lead of an A’gon poster I purchased a Node 2i from Brite Audio who sells the Node 2i for $500, less 10% for a first time customer, so $450, all in including shipping. It did take about 3 weeks to receive it, drop shipped directly from Bluesound.

I received the unit in December and like the sound much better running it into a modded Musetex Meitner DAC. The Museatex Meitner presents the music with a very pleasing sound stage, tonality and depth. Taking my DAC out the sound does seem flatter. Without having actual experience, I wonder if comparing different streamers with the same DAC will not necessarily show which is the better sounding streamer, only the streamer that has the best synergy with that particular DAC.

But at last, what I want to say is that pleasure of the world of music that this (or any streamer with such a great OS) opens up overshadows any possible deficiency in sound quality. Its like having the music equivalent of the Library of Congress at your fingertips. I haven’t even needed to experiment around, I put on the 60’s and 70’s music station and haven’t felt the need to tune to another station. It’s like whoever selects the programming is reading my mind. I will note that where I live in Vermont there is limited FM programming available, even with my DXing tuner.

The 'audiophile' stuff is handled by the DAC. If the DAC can't clean up noise and jitter on the digital inputs, it's poorly engineered; look elsewhere."

The thing about DAC's is that they have limitations. I mean, even the best DAC on earth is going to have a problem if you have transmission delays lasting half a second. Some of this could be network related, some could be the OS and how "real time" the response to the USB request is, so I wouldn't put this all on the DAC per se.

I will say that modern DACs handle this much better, in the last 15 years or so, and that to me is the biggest reason to upgrade your DAC.

Streamers are unstable. Companies making them may come and go, the services they talk to (Tidal, Quboz, Spotify, etc.) may come and go and some one has to keep up. USB DACs require drivers, and the phone/tablet apps need to stay up to date.

My point to all of this is, a good streamer is worthwhile, but it's also not going to live very long. Your DAC and other electronics will be working long after the streamer has turned into a brick because of the latest iOS/Android upgrade.