As mentioned, lower noise, better clocks, better parts, etc. all can make a very significant difference in streaming and streamers. Sometimes in audio it’s better to think less and just use your ears — this is one of those times. Several online retailers offer trial periods these days so there’s very little reason not to try in your own system with your own ears.
why expensive streamers
@soix and others
I am unclear about the effect on sound of streamers (prior to getting to the dac). Audio (even hi-res) has so little information content relative to the mega and giga bit communication and processing speeds (bandwidth, BW) and cheap buffering supported by modern electronics that it seems that any relatively cheap piece of electronics would never lose an audio bit.
Here is why. Because of the huge amount of BW relative to the BW needs of audio, you can send the same audio chunk 100 times and use a bit checking algorithm (they call this "check sum") to make sure just one of these sets is correct. With this approach you would be assured that the correct bits would be transfered. This high accuracy rate would mean perfect audio bit transfer.
What am I missing? Why are people spending 1000's on streamers?
thx
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- 191 posts total
- 191 posts total