Better music player alternative to Mac Air / laptop

Before proceeding with streaming route, I would like to explore the use of the streamer / file server for playing music out of the HDD / SSD.

You don’t need to spend anything to try out streaming. You can install the free Kodi app on your Mac - link. It has add-ons for popular streaming services like Qobuz and Tidal. It also turns your Mac into a UPnP server and renderer so your music library can be accessed by external streamers (assuming your music collection is on your Mac). You can control music playback via the web client or through an app called Yatse (if you have an Android phone). I’ve also streamed YouTube Music from my Android phone to Kodi using an app called BubbleUPnP. On my iOS devices, I use mconnect.

Yes, as mentioned, I was using the Mac Air with external DAC but wonder if the circuitry inside the Mac / laptop is "dirty" as claimed and switching to cleaner streamer/player will render better SQ. So, are you saying that switching to streamer as the player won’t render better SQ based on your experience? Please confirm.

I was using the old (2013) Mac Air that has the option for higher sampling rates but you need to change it every time. Also you need to switch it to highest rate in order to accommodate all the high-res. PCM files I had. So it means some of the lower sampling-rate audio music will be over-sampled. I heard the Asio plug-in in foobar 2000 could get around the issue but I do not have luck to get it working yet.

While I was done with replying your first msg, your 2nd msg pops up.  I will try that.  Sound exciting although I am not tech savy.

OP,

In general, you get what you pay for. Blue sound and the Cambridge you mention are budget streamers. I forgot if we know your associated equipment.. but you need to move up to a Aurender N150 if you want mid-tier performance. Or something better. 

Thanks, @ghdprentice. Thanks to this fellow’s review on Aurender N150 and the comparison with the Mac Air as the player, I was finally convinced thru my ears that noticeable part of spatial / SS information was indeed missing from using Mac Air as the music player. So, Aurender costs $3500 and can only be considered as a mid-tier performer, I am not sure if I have deep pockets for that kind of money to refine my system. My current system is worth only two-third of price for single component. I may choose to give up because I will end up with chasing my own tail with incremental upgrades.

So, are you saying that switching to streamer as the player won’t render better SQ based on your experience?

Correct. I’ve used a variety of PCs, Macs, Raspberry Pi’s over the years to play back audio and I’ve never noticed a difference. I’ve even compared a track ripped to FLAC and played back over a $39 Raspberry Pi to the same track played from the disc on my Oppo UDP-203 modded with a special board (Vanity203 HD) to reduce jitter on the SPDIF interface and it sounds exactly the same.

That’s the beauty of digital data.

Here are a few links if you want to learn more about digital audio and detecting real problems with digital playback.

Digital Show and Tell - Xiph.org

What does a bad USB (or other digital cable) sound like?

Let’s listen to some jitter effects

The 16 bit vs 8 bit blind listening test

I heard the Asio plug-in in foobar 2000 could get around the issue but I do not have luck to get it working yet.

You don’t need an ASIO device to get good sound. This particular output device is meant to reduce latency, important for mixing and mastering. These days, you can use WASAPI output for bit perfect playback. Just download the foobar component, install it, and select it in the Preferences menu.