why expensive streamers

@8th-note My experiences of Digital are from a limited time period, I was late to the Party.

My experiences of Digital used in my Home System are measured, I have taken my Bespoke Built Valve DAC to quite a few homes and arranged audio events organised by HiFi Clubs or Forums.

I have the measure of the Digital Source (CDT > DAC) and know how it compares to other Sources, some very carefully selected for the end sound that is to be achieved.

My own Digital Source stands up very very well in all comparisons it has been used in. 

I have heard streamed music from devices costing up to £6K in systems I am not familiar with, and can say without reservation the Streamed Source was not convincing in any demo' given.

More recently I have received Demo's of a Linn Device used to supply streamed and FLAC music as a Source on a system I am very familiar with and can state it the most impressed I have been. Not CD Source or Vinyl Source impressive, but enough on offer from streamed content to suggest there is room for Streamed Content to be used in my home System or as the Sole Source for a Second System, where music is not necessarily to be listen to when seated in front of the Speakers.   

It is these most recent experiences that have encouraged my ear to be on the ground to learn a little more.

Your descriptions enabled myself to see the Source as a multifunction device that can serve more than one role only.

For those interested in an authoritative technical explanation of noise in digital audio, here's a link.

https://audioxpress.com/article/audio-electronics-is-digital-jitter-really-a-problem#:~:text=Noise%20from%20the%20power%20supply,it%20can%20still%20be%20measured.

@mashif - the article is about DA conversion. Jitter is not an issue in networks like Internet.

@nigeltheflash - but then adding DDC synchronized with DAC clock should be eliminating differences between streamers since it fixes USB issues. Converting packets to stream is not proprietary software, it the same Linux network stack everywhere. I am pretty sure everything is heavily buffered (tens of seconds of music), RAM is cheap this days.

@8th-note - CD won't necessarily be better. CD transports also have jitter and CD reading may be unreliable. In fact, I think FLAC stream is way more bit-perfect, than a Red Book CD data retrieval.

Better comparison would be playback of the same track off USB thumb drive - excludes network issues.