2. digital
  3. 190027-170711

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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grislybutter
2,500 posts
 

@wokeuptobose I am really just here to learn. I know nothing, especially about streamers and DACs. So far what I learned here is that the streamer delivers a stream of data, like the mailman delivers my mail. I wouldn’t even know if he delivered it with a Bentley or a Fiat. It's about what lands in my mailbox?

tshark
15 posts
 

May for a question for ghdprentice as he seems to have had a good number of streamers.
 

Q. What price streamer is appropriate for my system?

McIntosh MA8900, Luxman SACD, NAIM Uniti Core CD ripper/streamer & Von Schweikert Ref Ed floor standing speakers, w high end interconnects & mains. 

I’m thinking I need to upgrade to separate DAC too.

I don’t mind spending $ and I am curious about what I might be missing based on all I’ve read about DAC & streamers. 
 

THX

 

Dallas TX

grislybutter
2,500 posts
 

@nonoise what does the diagram have to do with streamers?

nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,689 posts
 

@grislybutter It's not just streamers, but any digital signal that can be potentially degraded. It was from a review of a USB cord that pointed out the importance of proper shielding, keeping out RFI and EMI at all costs.

I thought it went along the lines of what blisshifi brought up.

All the best,
Nonoise

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