Do Streamer only devices really impact sound quality?

https://www.psaudio.com/askpaulvideo/why-some-streamers-sound-better/

The ones and zeroes generally make it to your DAC intact. However, as noted in other posts here, streaming accuracy and the eventual sound is highly dependent on two other factors, timing (jitter) and electrical noise. Streamers make a huge difference.

@dvdgreco 

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My observation was that as I moved upstream, the spatial information significantly increased, making my Node 2i sound dimensionally "flat" in contrast. The two units had the same tonality, but the presentation was different.

Vn Video Editor For PC

SkyEmu

Based on my experience with a variety of streamers over perhaps ten years of streaming I've come to conclusion streamer can make as much or more difference than dac.

Streamer is really the heart of streaming setup, does the rendering and has large influence on timing. Having both optimized is the difference between digital sounding digital and analog sounding digital. Audition one of the top tier streamers like Aurender WE20SE, Taiko Extreme, etc against multitude of mid grade streamers in high resolving system, I guarantee you'll hear massive difference.

Example above is extreme example, but even in less optimized systems you'll hear worthwhile gains. As stated previously, multitude of posts testifying to value of streamers, we're not all delusional. Per usual, one can presume many things, only actual experience is educating.