Do I Need a Dedicated Streamer?

@o_holter

Why do people insist that streamers make a change?

My guess is that virtually all of these anecdotes come from sighted listening tests which are prone to psychological biases. I don’t doubt that these listeners perceive a difference, it’s just that the outcomes or their tests aren’t very reliable.

So given the lack of reliable subjective evidence, the only evidence we can use is objective measurements. I haven’t come across any data that conclusively shows that a modern bit-perfect source (e.g. streamer) makes an audible difference in terms of distortion, noise, frequency response or jitter with respect to the USB interface - link.

In any case, you can test this yourself by having a friend or significant other switch out something in your playback chain without you knowing. Then see how many times you’ve detected a change. If you get it right 9 out of 10 times, it’s most likely making an audible difference.

@yage  So given the lack of reliable subjective evidence, the only evidence we can use is objective measurements. I haven’t come across any data that conclusively shows that a modern bit-perfect source (e.g. streamer) makes an audible difference in terms of distortion, noise, frequency response or jitter with respect to the USB interface - link.

Possibly true in the case of the USB interface, as the DAC will handle the clocking and not the streamer. My experience has been strictly with the SPDIF interface, in which case streamer quality and jitter are very apparent.

yage

... So given the lack of reliable subjective evidence, the only evidence we can use is objective measurement ...

That's just your opinion. I'm not sure I agree with your premise and I certainly don't agree with your conclusion. So you might want to avoid the use of the word "we."

Thanks for all of the replies thus far. Based on some of the responses, I suppose that I could wire my mac mini using a usb cable to my Hegel and get streamer level quality without buying a dedicated device?

I assume if that makes a noticeable difference, that I would need a very high quality DAC and Streamer to one-up things from that point forward. 
 

I look at it this way. I could buy a can of Campbell’s Tomato soup and take it home, place it on my stovetop and cook it in the can. Why would I need a pot? Well the answer is "no" you do not. But the can the soup is packaged and transported in is not engineered or designed for cooking the soup, it is designed for packaging and transport. The pot is engineered for cooking, and as such, does a better job.

Audio streamers are designed for transporting audio. Your computer is designed for many things, multi purpose. But it was not designed for streaming audio. Audio streamers do a better job because that is what they were designed to do. It’s simple really....

Do you need a streamer? In the strictest sense.. NO. None of us really needs audio gear. Do you want a streamer for better sound? Only you can answer that question.