What makes One Music Server Sound Better than Another?

When did this become a budget hifi forum?  You want value?  Buy mass market gear and it will get you about 50% there.  Seeking quantity over quality go for the $300 turntables and hit the used record stores.  Your raspberry NUC streamer and an $800 DAC with Amazon music should get you the same sound quality.  Enjoy.  Those seeking something more in sound understand that it will cost more.  Each step up in sound costs quite a bit more.  It's like any hobby- climbing to the top requires perseverance, stamina and a strong bank account.  

Many of the detractors here have little to no digital audio experience.  They talk about network switches as if they have tried them all in a top tier stereo system but in reality they have no first hand experience and have only read the opinions of others, then they pick and choose the opinions they like.  That is neither good science nor good engineering.  The IT crowd are the worse for opinions about audio.  Engineers can and do have strong opinions about their products but more often than not test results leave them baffled and they are forced to rethink their theories.  That leads to growth.

I've seen a majority of people here on these forums experience positive results with audio grade network switches.  That's why I finally gave it a try myself and also had positive experiences.  Sure, a few didn't experience positive results but to dismiss the experience of the majority is well, denying reality.

Totally agree that you can spend a lot less on the digital side and have a state of the art digital front end. 

Not in my experience.

Question:  Which do you spend more time sitting down and critically listening to- your digital or your analog playback?

Because, until I really went in deep with the digital side, I would play 1/2-1 CD to warm the system up before putting on a record.  As the digital side got better I could spend more time listening to it.  If you have a decent analog front end I would think that you could tell a difference in the rhythm and pace between the digital side and analog side.  I think that is one of the differences that gets me sitting spellbound now listening to digital playback.

+1 @tonywinga !  

@tonywinga 

Pretty sure you’re not talking about me, right?  

First, I have about $100k invested in 4 systems, over $80k of which is in my two reference level systems (including cables).  Second, I have 4 different DACs in those 4 systems, and have experience with several other DACs over the last 23 years.  Third, I don’t have a “Raspberry NUC streamer”, though I did assemble and deploy a Raspberry Pi streamer in three of my systems as a fun experiment; I’ve since given the Pi to my son in law, who is repurposing it for his home security system.  Fourth, I am very far removed from being part of any “IT crowd”; just ask my wife.  In retirement (from a career in finance and policy), I now provide IT support to my wife, who is an attorney and works alot from home.  It ain’t pretty!  

Finally, since when do we get to dismiss anyone’s experience and views, whether or not they’re in the minority in one thread on one forum? (And btw, it’s not even clear that I’m in the minority on this thread; voting loudly still just gives you one vote.)

I know you are not part of the IT crowd.  Just keep an open mind about digital.  It is a much different animal than analog.  In Analog, less is more but that is not always the case on the digital side. And “noise” in the digital realm is not the same as hiss in the analog realm.   While noise in both realms reduces resolution, it does much more damage to the music on the digital side.