Streamers and bit rot.

@erik_squires Good thoughts. I was thinking about writing a similar post about how streamer manufacturers are not in a good economic position to author apps. And related is the ability to easily manufacture obsolescence in software. The recent news of Sonos discontinuing support for its older devices comes to mind.

It seems to me that many Vinyl and CD guys are now buying their first streamers, and streaming itself is now booming. I also suspect that streamer sales will slow as the market saturates with streamers. And if sales slow, the streamer manufacturers will not be in a good place economically to continue to pay for the even the current pore app development. And yet, the streamer consumer wants a good app! We love our consumer grade software, with beautiful user experiences and user interfaces, but many (most?) streamer manufacturers seem to only be authoring business grade software at best. 

I feel like the one piece of consumer grade streaming software that isn't about to go anywhere is the Chromecast protocol. Every streamer manufacturer should be slapping CC in their streamers. (NAD and Cambridge have it.) This way, the streamer manufacturers won't have to create and maintain apps. Plus, all the streaming services build CC support right into their apps. I can just use the app that my favorite streaming provider already builds and maintains. Demanding a streamer app to bypass the streaming provider app I already pay for seems wasteful. 

While I write this I have in mind another post where the OP asked about a streamer recommendation to replace his Cambridge streamer because the OP wanted a better app. But the Cambridge has CC build in... Well, maybe he'll sell me his Cambridge for cheap. 

I've thought hard about the streamer I will use. Darko says that the Allo Digi One Signature (a Raspberry Pi with a reclocking HAT and two low noise power supplies for $500) performs at the level of $2000-$3000 streamers. That's great value for money. But I don't think my S.O. would like the streaming software options that run on the Pi. 

So, for now, I use a discontinued Chromecast Audio with iFi reclocker. Both the reclocker and power cable upgrade for the CCA dramatically improved my system. I'm happy with this setup for now as I don't really know how a more expensive streamer will compare. 

BluOS and Roon also interest me. I suspect that NAD and Bluesound are winning market share from streaming alternatives, and that this is happening partly because BluOS is so convenient and polished. 

So, for now, I use a discontinued Chromecast Audio with iFi reclocker. Both the reclocker and power cable upgrade for the CCA dramatically improved my system. I’m happy with this setup for now as I don’t really know how a more expensive streamer will compare.

My experience with reclockers aligned closely with ASR’s findings: Great DACs don’t need reclockers. I also found that, as you might expect, the quality of those tiny devices as digital sources was mediocre.



Best,

E

For small manufacturers I think Sonore is doing a great job so far. Their Sonic Orbiter OS is Linux-based and in constant development. They release minor updates online and major updates with the purchase of a new microSD card which sells for under $30. The microRendu was launched 4 years ago (I believe) and is still supported.

Their hardware development hasn’t slowed either. They continue to push the envelope in this space to many accolades.

My experience with reclockers aligned closely with ASR’s findings: Great DACs don’t need reclockers.

Good to know. I've heard some say that more expensive DACs will have jitter reducing (reclocking?) built in to their various inputs. Now that I have a reclocker, I know I'll be testing it with future streamers and DACs. 

Good to know. I’ve heard some say that more expensive DACs will have jitter reducing (reclocking?) built in to their various inputs.

Not really how it works. I mean, expensive is a relative term. Look at the Stereophile jitter measurements for Mytek Brooklyn (~$2K) and the dCS Bartok (~ $16k). Their jitter performance is equivalent.

Both have excellent jitter reduction, but they don’t necessarily rely on sample rate conversion, which some re-clockers (Wyred4Sound’s Remedy for instance) do.

Part of this is also time. As we’ve moved forward in time even inexpensive DACs now provide excellent jitter rejection. Not true of every DAC, of course, but for isntance the Topping DX3 is an under $1k DAC with excellent jitter rejection.