Point of higher priced streamer?

Sangbro:  

May I suggest you go back and read your postings?  I, too, have a healthy sense of skepticism.  Further, I don’t enjoy throwing money around - I enjoy saving it.  But I also enjoy music immensely and so I feed a hobby which costs more than I’d like it to.

Your dialogue here suggests other than an open mind. While I can relay what I’ve read, and what I hear, I cannot fully explain the technical reasons for why a some units sounds better than others.  Djones51 clearly enjoys proselytizes here frequently about there being no difference. I get that he can’t hear anything.  Or, maybe he listens only to compressed rock music at loud volume.  Some of it’s great music but I can see how you’d not perceive a difference. 

But, if you are open minded as you say, how about you take the more logical approach and listen first and then try to understand the why?  And, if you don’t hear a difference, don’t buy.  But if you have a decent system at all, try a better unit. Put on some good jazz or reasonably well recorded acoustic music.  I’d be very surprised if you didn’t hear a very clear difference.  

Again - for me - a bigger difference than when I significantly upgraded DACs.  YMMV.

Do you think that companies such as aurender or innous or 432 Evo could succesfully sell and market an entire line of servers if there was no sonic improvement between models which are more expensive from one another?

Yes, It’s called expectation bias. The same phenomenon that largely drives the high end cable market. That and listeners neglecting to level-match when conducting comparisons.

Then there are those who simply buy the most expensive gear they can afford from the outset. It’s not like Tom Cruise is going to start off with a Chromecast and incrementally upgrade. If you’re the type that buys into Sci******gy, you’re very likely to buy into high-end streamers. 

Good grief.  Expectation/confirmation bias goes both ways.  All devices were level matched.  I went in a skeptic.

“Do you hear the difference? If so what would be the possible factor?
It sounds like you hear the difference, then could you explain?”

OP, please outline your complete audio system before any of us give away our valuable time in explaining why and how streamers differs in SQ.

sangbro OP13 posts12-21-2020 10:11amWhy do you think I’ve not tried that?

I compare some but don’t hear the noticeable difference.

Then why worry? You tried it for yourself, did not hear any difference, case closed, no "higher priced streamer" for you. Simple. Again.

Although, from your post nine days ago here (https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/basic-dac-streamer-questions)

First of all, please be generous about old fool’s first step to the digital source.

I’m planning to switch to the digital source, and I’m looking for a product like Matrix Element X.
(It’s like Lumin X1 - DAC / STREAMER / Have its own Pre-Amp)

Do you actually have a DAC? How can you possibly know what is all there is to know on "high priced streamers" in nine short days?