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

 

128x128delmatae

Yes, audiophiles pursue the best possible sound they can possibly achieve given their income level (pretty much the definition of an audiophile), and relish it.  Enthusiasts pursue cost effective sound quality and relish that.

Lumin x1 streamer/dac is awesome.  I had a separate dac but I found integrating it with a streamer at least in this component was a great idea.  It also has an optical connection.  And a separate power supply which I think is really nice to have.

You can buy a separate streamer but then you gotta spend a lot of time deciding which dac and there are so many choices and so many interconnect issues it's an incredible pain in the ass.  So I would check out the Lumin x1 to avoid all the annoying issues related to this area. I am a big proponent of separates otherwise.  

Lumin now has the streamer section of the X1 in a new product called the U2 I owned the X1 before and the streamer section was great. 

LUMIN U2 (luminmusic.com)

A shame Auralic did not add fibre optical network input to this new streamer.

ARIES S1 - AURALIC