Help settle a streaming argument!

I ask for a friend cause he wants to get into streaming and I say buy a basic streamer cause he has a killer DAC. so I have not tested.

Everything matters in streaming and matters a lot, and the streamer is one of the most important links in the chain.  Underspend on a streamer at your peril.  You’re kidding yourself if you think a “basic” streamer performs anywhere near the level of  more accomplished models from the likes of Aurender, Innuos, Grimm, Lumin, Wolf, etc.  You’re deep in the minority here on this one.

Both the streamer and the DAC play major roles in the resultant sound. I have used, iPads PCs, inexpensive streamers, $5K, $10K, $15k, and $22K streamers and the difference is like night and day. The streamer matters. The last of those streamers is the one in my main system.

I think there are some differences in how they affect the sound. Cheap streamers are thin sounding, have high noise floor, and image poorly, I think really cheap DACs have all the problems of cheap streamers, but also strongly effect the tonal balance and some of the more musical aspects. This is a new theory of mine… I’m going to have to do some direct testing to verify it. But absolutely no question that the streamer strongly affects the sonic output as does the DAC.

My rule of thumb is for maximum sound quality invest equally in the streamer and DAC… although mine feel at $22K streamer $$17K DAC. 

Really depends on a couple of things. You _can_ make a streamer so bad that the DAC’s own jitter reduction system just can’t keep up, and is forced to pass the jitter on.

A half decent streamer with 10 seconds of buffer and a galvanically isolated USB asynchronous connection can be all you need.

One other issue to consider is the noise put back into the line by wall wart adapters, so getting a nice iFi supply is something I recommend.

Personally I like to keep my streamer and DAC separately, so I can choose the DAC and also to ensure the streamer keeps up to date with the latest software services and formats.

@fastfreight ​​@ghdprentice

+1 ….Big Time

u wanna fast litmus test ? Toddle down to your local bricks and mortar dealer and do a simple bakeoff .
Superior Build quality, overall design, and power supplies matter. The entirely predictable stepped up audio performance results will be confirmed … full stop.

At one time I was comparing three different streamers and three DACs.  I was rather surprised that I heard bigger differences in sound quality with the streamers than I did the DACs.