Anyone else feel like it’s the Wild Wild West?

I wanted to try streaming but not spend a lot of money before deciding to really invest in the top tier gear.  I had purchased a Marantz SA-10 SACD player with a unique DAC that only accepts either coax or optical from a streamer, but not USB.  So I thought why buy a DAC when I only need a streamer.  So I backed into the ifi Zen Stream because it was the cheapest streamer-only with a coax output that had good reviews, and I even snagged one for less on ebay from a dealer. I also invested a little in a decent Canare coax cable. I, too, had to send a service request when I couldn't get it hooked up, which was never answered, but it turned out it was my ineptness anyway.  I got it up and running wirelessly but not wired, which turned out to be incorrect ethernet terminations in my home.  I guess my prior experience streaming was from my Mac to KEF X300A powered speakers with their own dac that sounded pretty good used as nearfield desktop speakers.  After playing the ifi through my Marantz and Luxman integrated Class A and Yamaha NS-5000's and comparing it to my cd's, it sounded pretty good with the free stuff from Spotify.  After visiting forums, I invested in ifi's better Elite power supply and that made a big difference I could hear in my "compact reference system", making me realize it is one of the reasons ifi can make such an inexpensive streamer is that the included power supply is noisy.  The better power supply I purchased was basically the same price as I paid for the Zen Stream, but I'm glad I could upgrade it and it wasn't built into the streamer. 

Now I'm about to compare wireless to wired and experiment with a streaming service and continue comparing to my cd's.  I guess the whole point is streaming is experimentation.  If you've been in this hobby for 55 years since you were a teen, the tech today is amazing regardless of what the format or equipment is.  And the stuff that sounds best is always going to be the artists and songs that are your favorites and when recorded technically in a way that you immediately can hear as superior.

@jderson

I hear you. Some People like to over complicate things. It’s a hard habit to break. Streaming is not so hard. Only when one becomes obsessed with always trying to find something better.

So I guess in some cases it is made out to be like the wild Wild West. Conquering new frontiers is a thing. Even Star Trek was conceived as Wagon Train to the stars. Shatner is famous for his overacting. It’s all good . To each their own

The wild Wild West was truly wild. There was a lot to conquer and master by frontier folk of various kinds.  People should admire that spirit even if at times it was to the detriment of others I suppose.  Talking about native Americans and wildlife  there.

Nowadays, in these parts, we have a bunch of OCD types always looking for trouble. People call them “Karens” now, which is not at all fair to people actually named Karen. I know some very nice real Karen’s. I suppose the wild Wild West had them too. Allegedly…..

CD is better than streaming in my rig.    Streaming makes choosing music simple.  Laziness has me streaming most of the time.  Took me a few years to understand ,try and implement.  My kit: Router , cat 6 unshielded , Uptone etherregen switch, cat 6 unshielded, Aurender, AUDIOQUEST Diamond USB cable , AUDIOQUEST Jitterbug, MSB DAC .  Sounds decent.  CD sounds more holographic , natural and non fatiguing.  My vinyl rig gathering dust. 

@soix

this thread is turning into a gem, posts such as those by @fastfreight and other terrific contributions, very enjoyable reading

i would echo some key thoughts expressed as they really resonate with me, as i started streaming and vigorously climbed the learning curve since early 2020 when we were all locked in by the pandemic

-- streaming is really wonderful, sooo worth doing, for the wide, wide musical world it affords us in the comfort of our homes -- new artists, new music, new forms -- for those of us who spent countless days at the racks at tower records, gnashing our teeth about whether to buy those two additional records or cds we could not hear, not knowing if we would be wasting our money - streaming is a god send

-- interestingly, and separate from all of us going head over heels to get streamed music to sound as good as possible on our systems, it seems to me streaming is really the avenue of music lovers, leaving aside audiophilia and its ocd-ness, so to speak -- as much as i love my records and analog front end, i just laugh when those ’records or bust’ folks put down streaming, they sooo miss the point, man, it makes it really about the music, discovering great music, and not just the media...

-- as others have said, i also feel the wild-west moniker is rather overplaying it... it isn’t THAT hard to figure out... yes there is a good amount of change occurring, some of the tech is computer/network related... but i think the right attitude is to embrace it, take the time and effort to really understand it best we can, and then apply personal efforts and funds judiciously to make the most it -- yes it all matters, truly, just like with vinyl ... sooo many elements to consider, so many variables to manage, but for those who enjoy the challenge, the process of learning, improving, implementing is a reward in and of itself, and for those who don’t want the hassle, there are ample, be it expensive, one unit boxes that have much if not most of it figured out and well packaged...  you just pay your $$ for the convenience and avoidance of the hassle :)